J Billz

J Billz hails from Spartanburg, South Carolina. “It’s a small city, and it’s tough to make it out—especially if you ain’t playing football,” he says of the working class, racially diverse area. “We ain’t got no rappers down there that have made it,” admits the artist who plans to change that history. As a teen, Jayquail thought that sports would be his pathway to a better life for his single mother and siblings. As a standout free safety on his high school football team, J had the talent but struggled with the academics and behavior necessary to play. Around this time, his interest in music took priority. “I saw my homeboy was making music and was like, ‘Okay, I can do this too.’ I was telling people I could rap, and I guess I had some real supporters.” He recalls bringing tracks to school that he had recorded on GarageBand using his student Macbook. “I was showing other kids my songs, and they all thought the tracks were really hard.”

Ultimately, in 2017, J Billz faced a choice between music and football—which required summer school classes. He chose the microphone over the cleats and shoulder pads. After making his choice, J Billz locked in. As a rapper in an area not known for music, he recalls club bookings at the onset. “I had a little’ local buzz, and it didn’t take long,” he recalls. That same year, the budding artist secured his first regional hit with “Stixkz N Beamz,” alongside Slime Dollaz. “It was my first-ever video, and it got like 100,000 views in five months,” he remembers. Now approaching four times that, the visual was a DIY hit. Weeks later, he followed with “730,” produced by Fore’n and DaBaby hit-maker jetsonmade. That video nears half a million views.

However, just as J Billz’s career accelerated, his momentum braked. “What slowed me down is I kept going to jail over the stupidest stuff.” He says of the Spartanburg Gang Task Force, “They would make it real hard for me to make it.” A 2018 marijuana offense led to a cycle of probation violations that kept the young Black man trapped in a revolving door between court and jail. Describing an unfair system, J Billz says authorities went to extremes to make an example of the locally-famous rapper. He maintains his innocence beyond the initial weed offense but says 2019’s Pi’erre Bourne and Southside-produced “Yea Yea Yea” video was used as grounds to put him behind bars, as were his family housemates. In 2021, another probation violation sent him back for what he insists is the last time. Upon release, even the courts sided with J Billz. “The judge felt that they were picking on me.” No longer on probation, he declares, “I ain’t going back to jail. I’m grown up now; I really want this. I feel I’m way more focused than ever.”

Having first met online in 2018, J Billz is making up for lost time with fellow South Carolinian Pi’erre Bourne and Sosshouse. His march to the upcoming label debut Streets Hottest Youngin is officially underway. “I gave a lot of people hope. My city birthed me with that name, and I feel like that figure,” he shares. 2022’s “Everywhere We Go” set the table for “Megan The Stallion,” a beachy vibe complemented by a Miami visual, followed by the flex-heavy “Fresh Off The Plane.” These Pi’erre productions flaunt J Billz’s versatility and showcase his one-of-a-kind flow.