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When we meet, Atlanta-based rapper JID is just weeks away from releasing his long-awaited third studio album History forever. He tells me at least three times in the course of our conversation about his frustration with the release of the project. “There was a lot of buzz this time,” he says, sitting in a coffee shop in South Atlanta. It’s a daunting change for someone who likes to make music in near solitude. “I tried to bring a community vibe and just see what would come of it, but I’ll never do that again,” he adds. “I a promise I will never do it again.”
It’s ironic considering how much of the rapper’s success thus far has been fueled by collaborations. In the nearly four years since the Dreamville signee was released Dicaprio 2 — a lengthy timeline that fans were quick to remind him of on social media — JID didn’t exactly slow down. Last year he was nominated for a Grammy for his film Doja Cat’s Plan it single “Options” (“You can tell she’s been waiting for her moment. Some artists just need that platform, then you know they’ve been there all along. I feel like it’s something that’s going to happen to me, God -willing.”) and secured his first top 10 and highest-charting single ever thanks to his verse on the Imagine Dragon song “Enemy” (“I feel like I’m a big part of why this Imagine Dragon record moved so far .. The dynamics in this song are crazy. I’m proud of that.”). In 2019, he appeared on the chart-topping, Grammy-nominated compilation Dreamville Revenge of the Dreamers IIIbefore releasing the socially conscious album League game the following year with the collective Spillage Village, which also boasts Earthgang and 6lack among its members.
For JID, recent accolades have been nice, but they’ve also been shared. “I take the blessings and all that, but I’m like, ‘what do we do next?'” I’m kind of selfish about it. I want my own name in front of these [accomplishments],” he says.
The 31-year-old East Atlanta resident, born Destin Root, says he’s always been someone who kept to himself despite growing up in a “big, crazy family.” The youngest of seven, JID moved around a lot, though always in East Atlanta. There were countless bologna sandwiches during his childhood, but rarely peaceful moments. He tried playing the drums as a child and was a self-proclaimed instrument natural, playing in church within two weeks of picking up his first pair of drumsticks. Both his parents can sing, he says, and his cousin is the composer Jonta Austin, who wrote songs like “We Belong Together” and Mariah Carey’s “Don’t Forget About Us.”
But JID says his “first love” was sports, not music. He played football throughout his childhood, including during his time at Stephenson High School and in college at Hampton University beforen injury eventually prevented him from continuing to play for the school football team and he was eventually expelled from the university, although he has always been tight-lipped about the details. In the album, he hints at the situation among the many vignettes of his life he reveals.
During his time at the Virginia-based HBCU, he began to take rap seriously. He met future collaborators and roommates Olu and WowGr8 of Earthgang and attended some of his first concerts, seeing Tyler the Creator and other artists as their tours stopped in Virginia Beach. These days, he says, being able to tour himself is “kind of magical. Sometimes I find peace up there. I don’t even have to talk to people, just be able to say all kinds of words and see what comes up with this shit.
JID doesn’t give many interviews and is noticeably annoyed about it, regularly twirling his shoulder-length brown locks in his hands and staring intently at the table between us as he talks. Most of what fans know about him has been pieced together over the years from his music. Although he sprinkled autobiographical details throughout most of his works, History forever is perhaps the most comprehensive look at who the 31-year-old is today.
Although the album is weeks away from release when we speak, JID’s manager, Barry Hefner, says the rapper has still been messaging his team trying to make changes. “It was three years of artistic torture,” Hefner says, laughing. “I think the album is going to do well, but it’s crazy because he’s still changing things on the album. It must be surrendered.”
The rapper’s longtime manager, Hefner says the recent mainstream success has certainly helped JID recognize the type of musician he wants to be. “I think JID just wants to deliver great art to the world. I don’t think he really understood what it took to be at the top level. As he grows up, he begins to realize some of this nonsense [he] he just doesn’t care.”
JID reflects this as we speak. “I don’t know if people are really messing with me or seeing what’s going on, but I feel like people are trying to use me,” he tells me. He did not name names, but added that he was referring to both his personal and professional life. “I don’t like snake shit. I don’t like the dark work of this shit. I will feel uncomfortable. Less than a week later, he released the music video for “Dance Now,” the second single from the upcoming album, which focuses on the lures and pitfalls of dancing with the devil.
As we wrap up our conversation, I ask the rapper what his definition of success would be for himself. “If I delete all my ideas, everything I need… It’s not a benchmark or money or anything like that,” he says.
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