Jelly Roll has been having one hell of a year, and this newfound success has brought him plenty of new opportunities — including a “funny” request from a famous country singer.
In recent months, the Antioch, Tennessee rapper (real name Jason DeFord) has been enjoying huge crossover success as a country-rock singer, thanks to his most recent album, Ballads of the Broken, and its chart-topping hit single “Son of a Sinner.”
After breaking the record for longest reign on Billboard‘s Emerging Artist chart in February, Jelly Roll racked up even more accolades earlier this month when he took home three awards at the 2023 CMT Music Awards: Best Male Video, Best Breakthrough Male Video, and Digital-First Performance — all of which were for “Son of a Sinner.”
“Last night I walked into my first award show amazed that I was even allowed in the building and walked out of it the most winning artist of the night,” he wrote the following day in an emotional Instagram post. “God can take the impossible and make it look small.”
However, even with all the success in rock and country, the multi-genre phenomenon has assured fans that he will never stop making Hip Hop records.
In February, he took to Twitter to give fans an idea of what they can expect in the coming year as far as his next few releases go — and one of them is a rap album. “Country album next, rock album after that, rap album end of year, and a surprise collab project,” he tweeted. “Since I didn’t drop any music in 2022 im going to let it fly this year baby.”
Weeks after the tweet, Jelly Roll announced that his new country album, Whitsitt Chapel, will be arriving on June 2.
Speaking to HipHopDX, the multi-genre phenomenon elaborated a little on what fans can expect from his forthcoming rap album, while also revealing that he has a rap collaboration on the way that will surprise fans — although maybe not as much as it surprised him.
“Me and Stoner [Thomas Toner] are working together now,” Jelly Roll told DX of his next rap album. “He’s the guy that produced Addiction Kills, and did No Filter 2 with me and [Lil] Wyte. Me and Stoner are back working together pretty heavy.”
Asked how long the project has been in the works, Jelly said he and Toner have been working on the album together “for a while,” and, as his tweet stated, it will be out by the end of the year. “I’m hoping fall 2023,” he said.
If rap fans can’t wait that long, Jelly Roll said he’ll be dropping bars on a number of tracks throughout the year as a guest artist. “I’ve got some rap features coming out in the middle of all of it,” he told DX.
One of the aforementioned rap features will be with a pair of big time “country guys,” which took Jelly Roll by surprise when he was initially approached to do it. While he doesn’t want to ruin the surprise by revealing the artists in question, the Tennessee star admitted the collaboration was not what he expected.
“I got called by an A-list country guy and was like, ‘Hey man, I’m producing a record on such and such,’ who is another big country guy,” Jelly Roll recalled. “And he said: ‘We got a record we want to get you on.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, this is great. I’m a music pro now. This is awesome, I’m getting to sing with some famous country singers.’ They send me the record and it’s like a trap beat with a verse on it.
“I called back and go, ‘Y’all want me to do the second verse?’ They were like, ‘Yeah.’ I was like, ‘Is that such and such rapping on the first verse?’ He was like, ‘Yeah.’ I was like, ‘Dope. I’m in.’ And I went and rapped on it.”
For Jelly Roll, there was a hint of irony in the request. “I spent my whole life rapping and never got invited to Music Row,” he said, referring to the historic hub of Nashville’s country music industry. “I [now] have a No. 1 country song and they come from Music Row finally and I think it’s because of my big country singing voice, but it’s to come rap on a country song.”
The song, which he thinks will be out sometime soon, didn’t even take that long for him to knock out, much to the surprise of his high-profile collaborators. “I was in and out of there in like 12 minutes,” he said. “And they were like, ‘God, we weren’t sure how long it would take you to get it together.’ I was like, ‘You wasn’t asking me to sing, muthafucka, you asked me to rap. I coulda did that in my sleep.'”
He continued: “I was like, ‘I don’t even know why I came, I coulda just sent that over. If I’d come in here to sing, it might have taken me two hours to figure it out.’ But the amount of hours I’ve spent rapping compared to the hours I’ve spent singing, it’s still about eight to two. It was funny.”
While fans await the arrival of Jelly Roll’s new music, they can pick up tickets to see the Tennessee titan on tour. Beginning this summer, he’ll be hitting the road with Three 6 Mafia, Yelawolf, Struggle Jennings and a number of other artists as part of his Backroad Baptism Tour.
The huge 44-city joint tour will kick off on July 28, 2023 in Southaven, Mississippi, and will make stops in Virginia Beach, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Dallas and more before wrapping things up on October 14 in Tampa, Florida. See the full list of dates below.
JULY 2023
28 — Southaven, MS — BankPlus Amphitheater
29 — Alpharetta, GA — Ameris Bank Amphitheater
30 — Orange Beach, AL — The Wharf Amphitheater
AUGUST 2023
1 — Huntsville, AL — Orion Amphitheater
3 — Darien Center, NY — Darien Lake Amphitheater
4 — Mansfield, MA — Xfinity Center
5 — Bangor, ME — Maine Savings Amphitheater
8 — Gilford, NH — Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion
9 — Bridgeport, CT — Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater
11 — Bristow, VA — Jiffy Lube Live
12 — Virginia Beach, VA — Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater at Virginia Beach
15 — Burgettstown, PA — The Pavilion at Star Lake
17 — Clarkston, MI — Pine Knob Music Theater
18 — Milwaukee, WI — American Family Insurance Amphitheater
19 — St. Louis, MO — Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
22 — Evansville, IN — Ford Center
24 — Rogers, AR — Walmart AMP
25 — Omaha, NE — CHI Health Center
26 — Kansas City, MO — T-Mobile Center
29 — Lubbock, TX — United Supermarket Arena
30 — Albuquerque, NM — Isleta Amphitheater
SEPTEMBER 2023
1 — Las Vegas, NV — MGM Grand Garden Arena
2 — Salt Lake City, UT — USANA Amphitheatre
3 — Greenwood Village, CO — Fiddler’s Green
5 —Rapid City, SD — Summit Arena at The Monument
6 — Bozeman, MT — Brick Breeden Fieldhouse
12 — Bend, OR — Hayden Homes Amphitheater
14 — Concord, CA — Concord Pavilion
15 — Bakersfield, CA — Mechanics Bank Arena
19 — Oklahoma City, OK — Paycom Center
21 — Austin, TX — Germania Insurance Amphitheater
22 — Houston, TX — The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
23 — Dallas, TX — Dos Equis Pavilion
26 — Tupelo, MS — Cadence Bank Arena
28 — Cincinnati, OH — Riverbend Music Center
29 — Indianapolis, IN — Ruoff Music Center
30 — Cuyahoga Falls, OH — Blossom Music Center
OCTOBER 2023
3 — Charleston, WV — Charleston Coliseum
5 — Wilmington, NC — Live Oak Bank Pavilion
6 — Greensboro, NC — Greensboro Coliseum
10 — Lexington, KY — Rupp Arena
12 Greenville, SC — Bon Secours Wellness Arena
13 — Jacksonville, FL — VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena
14 — Tampa, FL — MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
For more information and to purchase any remaining tickets, visit Jelly Roll’s official website.