Early Life
JayHood fell in love with poetry at the age of 10 and started rapping at the age of 12. He saw it as an ideal profession in 2017 when he was doing his last year in matric and started putting all his energy on improving his writing and rhymes. The rapper writes his songs based on what happened in his life. Most of his lyrics reference the life he lived with his mother and 2 older brothers in Pretoria, describing it as a “struggling” life. It is without doubt that Jay’s mother struggled to provide for the family being a single parent and his father not being supportive in any way in his teen years, JayHood focused more on his music and helping his mother provide for the family.
He draws some of his inspirations from the likes of J.Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Nas, Tupac and 50 Cent, JayHood worked on developing his basic understanding of rhyming and wordplay, as well as beginning to learn how to interpolate storytelling within his lyrics. By the age of 14, JayHood had various notebooks filled with song ideas, however, was unable to produce or record any of his songs because he couldn’t afford to pay for beats or studio time. He then saved up money and bought himself basic studio equipment at the age of 15 which he started recording and releasing his music on SoundCloud. JayHood started posting video’s of himself freestyling on Instagram and Twitter in 2017 and had video’s that has views up to 200 thousand, on Twitter and thousands of reactions from fans all over the world earning him the title “Twitter Sensation”. Discovered by Nasty C and Blaklez on Twitter, they released a song together titled, The Tale (ft Blaklez), which scored JayHood a lot of respect as well as new fans.
Credits
With over 20 thousand Followers on Twitter and 14 thousand followers on Instagram, JAYHood is seen to be one of the fastest growing artists in South Africa. His come up has been recognized and saluted by most industry giants who have said he is going to be one of the biggest artists in Africa. The rising star has never seemed to deliver short on his music. Fans love his passion and his ability to connect with them via the music he makes. “To me it’s not about the charts, it’s about the hearts.” said the rapper.
His first music video came out in 2018 and hit over 45 thousand views on Twitter going on to hit over 20 thousand views on YouTube. His second music video went further and got play listed on Channel O and as MTV Base and got him an American review on YouTube.
JAYHood is one of the first selected artists to be featured on the MTV Base Show titled “New Wave” in 2018 which also featured the likes of Flame and The Big Hash; He then followed up his “hype” and got a call to be one of the Mc’s on the 2019 BET cyphers.
JAYHood is featured as one of the nine artist to make cover for the hypefeshmen19 with over 17 thousand votes. Alongside artists; 25K, Wordz, Ecco and Crown Yung.
He has also been featured twice on Verse Of The Month hosted by Stogie T and Slikouronlife.
JAYHood has performed alongside BIG South African acts like Cassper Nyovest, AKA , Dj Maphorisa, Nasty C, Blaklez and Boity. And has also been an opening act for another internet sensation A-Reece.
With only two studio project released independently, JAYHood is without a doubt THE NEXT BIG THING.