Touchdown: JID emerges as MVP of Atlanta rap on new album

With his fourth studio album, “God Does Like Ugly,” out Aug. 8, JID underscores another reality: His only competition is himself. More important, his competitive fervor is deeply inspired by his penchant for collaboration and an unyielding love for his hometown.

JID is great partly because the city that raised him breeds greatness. Partly because he believes in the greatness of others. And mostly because he believes his own greatness.

“I love this s---. Like, I love making music. It’s nothing else I’d really do.”

First down: Destin vs. JID

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Surprisingly, in person, the 34-year-old is one of few words.

The hefty armor he wields with lyrics belies the charming energy of the JID who’s soft-spoken and undeniably humble. The first Monday in July found JID at the legendary Walter’s Clothing store in downtown Atlanta doing a Nike photo shoot for the then-upcoming MLB All-Star Week. Earlier that morning, he dropped “32 (Freestyle)” on YouTube, featuring his high school football highlight reel. The day before, he returned home from Paris Fashion Week. Four days later, he would release “GDLU (Preluxe),” an EP teasing his upcoming album.

JID takes the busy all in stride.

“You just got to put the work in,” he said, as if he’s giving himself a personal pep talk. “Hard work beats talent, and talent don’t work hard. Just work. Don’t worry about nothing else. Put your head down. That’s the whole album, foreal.”

For the rapper, those words have become his personal motto.

Born Destin Route in East Atlanta, JID is the youngest of seven children. His quiet personality partly stems from being about five years younger than the second-youngest sibling. His household had “a lot of stuff going on,” he said.

“Kids everywhere,” JID said about his upbringing. “All of my sisters had babies out of wedlock. One of my brothers was in jail. It was a blended family. We all lived under one roof at one time period. So it was madness. But I’ve always kind of been reserved by just watching everybody.”

JID’s stage name (pronounced “jid” or “J-I-D”) is a childhood nickname given to him by his grandma because of his “jittery” mood.

As a child, he briefly played drums at church (he attended several, including New Birth Missionary Baptist). But sports was his first love. He was a football cornerback at Stephenson High School in Stone Mountain. JID’s skills were so good he landed a full-ride athletic scholarship to Hampton University in Virginia. However, he was kicked out for reasons he doesn’t wish to disclose.

In a 2017 interview with New York’s Hot 97, though, he shared, “I was being a rock star. It was about books and drugs and stuff. Just life.”

JID shifted his focus to music, with support from his college roommates and future collaborators, Atlanta rap duo Earthgang. He signed to J. Cole’s Dreamville imprint in 2017 and released his debut album “The Never Story” that same year.

Halftime show

A few months before the release of his 2018 sophomore album “DiCaprio 2,” JID was named on XXL magazine’s highly coveted Freshman list of rising rappers to watch.

In 2022, he released his deeply personal third album (and his highest-charting LP to date), “The Forever Story,” an autobiographical project tightly laced to Atlanta history by JID’s poetic inferno.

He thought “The Forever Story” would push him into the stratosphere of superstardom. Online, he joked that the album’s failure to deliver the Grammys and other accolades he wanted sent him into a dark place “for about 20 minutes.” JID clarified that he remains unfazed by it, but his laughter sounds slightly forced because there’s a subtle sense of care even in constantly saying you don’t.

Credit: AJC

Credit: AJC

“I just never had that moment of, ‘Oh we see you,’” he admits.

Then in 2023, more than a year after the album’s release, the track “Surround Sound” (featuring fellow Zone 6-bred artists 21 Savage and Baby Tate) went viral on TikTok. Users taped their phones to ceilings to record themselves dancing along to JID’s opening verse.

And Kacey Musgraves, on her 2024 album “Deeper Well,” sampled “Kody Blu 31″ — a “Forever Story” deep cut about grief and resilience in which JID’s singing voice shines while adopting a tone similar to a Negro spiritual.

Mainstream attention aside, JID always received the love in Atlanta. In the city, he is regarded as a top lyricist — the rightful torchbearer for the lineage of dizzying rap patterns and sterling flows. Like André 3000 before him. (Speaking of the rap legend, JID said Outkast entering the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is the “best thing in the world. I hope they hit me up for a tribute. I know every single one of their words.”)

Swavay, an Atlanta rapper from Kirkwood and Cobb County, said JID occupies a “big space” in the city’s hip-hop scene. He toured with JID on his 2023 joint tour with hip-hop soul bard Smino. Swavay described the experience as watching “a perfectionist go to work every single day.”

Today, the pair are close friends who talk nearly every day. Swavay said he constantly reminds JID of how much he means to the present and future of Atlanta’s rap landscape.

“I tell him, like, bro, I don’t even care about how much pressure this puts on you. I’m letting you know that you are in this position, and you’re here for a reason, so you gotta rise up to it”

Enter “God Does Like Ugly” — a vengeance-fueled, brash declaration of JID’s rap prowess that has no qualms about perception and reception.

It’s game time. And JID is ready to eat.

Touchdown: JID vs. everybody

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

The album title is yet another name he got from his late grandma, who put a twist on the saying, “God doesn’t like ugly.” JID said the title doesn’t have any deep meaning to him, but the impetus to create it emerged from the chip-on-his-shoulder he faced after “The Forever Story.”

Some of the music was made as early as 2018, which precedes his previous album. Across 15 tracks, JID goes full throttle with a pristine potency capable of decimating any of his peers. On “God Does Like Ugly,” the rapper is clearly in a league of his own.

“One man’s trash is another’s treasure,” he said.

“K-Word,” a track featuring Atlanta crunk legend Pastor Troy, is a dark and twisted ode to the essence of karma. For most of the song, JID employs a gravelly tone that nearly sounds unrecognizable. It’s part terrorizing and warm, like the vindication you’d get after hearing about the fate of someone who severely wronged you.

On “G’z” his run-on lines of retribution and revenge is JID’s storytelling at its best. He oscillates between different scenes (like returning from an event in downtown Atlanta only to see his car broken into) while contemplating the meaning of “gangster” and its application to young Black men.

Standout track “Glory,” backed by a choral beat and tambourines, sounds like a sermon JID would preach to a congregation filled with his haters.

Odds against me?/ B----, I’m against the odds / trying to get even / see the evil in my eyes / Vengeance is the Lord’s, so Imma leave it up to God / But if he don’t move forward, then Imma get me mine,” JID raps in the second verse.

The song ends with a snippet of an actual sermon by the Rev. John C. Welch of Sixth Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Pittsburgh. Welch is the father of JID’s go-to producer Christo.

“We already kind of pay attention to little nuances within a song,” said Christo, who executive produced “God Does Like Ugly.” “But then, how do we go even deeper? ... The job for me was still to find something that would fit within the context. Not just insert holy quote or holy audio.”

Christo said his approach to the album, compared to previous offerings, was being more attentive to the details and making songs feel like their own moments. It’s a practice that aligns well with JID’s “obsessive” work ethic, Christo added.

“He will work day and night — any time of day — trying to piece things together. He writes so much, and he’s really incessant on saying something profound."

For JID’s creative process, having adequate space to himself is imperative. He typically records and writes music on a three-day regimen, creating a hook and a verse per day. Sometimes, he’ll find words to match a beat. Sometimes, he sings it. Sometimes, he hums the melody.

Anything to “find that magic,” he said. “I do this when I don’t feel like doing it.”

JID is always on the hunt for the best in music, making a point to listen to new releases every Friday because, “I gotta see what’s going on with my co-workers.”

That dedication translates into a prodigious output.

“This (album) is how I’m seeing the world. It’s my perspective. And maybe y’all grab something from it. Maybe you don’t. But this is literally just my baby, and it’s like a part one.”

So there’s going to be a part two?

“Yeah, it’s gonna be ‘God Doesn’t Like Ugly,’” he said. “I’m doing a lot of music. I’m just gonna put it all out or else my hard drive is just wasted.”

As for the collab album with Metro Boomin that was teased a few years ago: “It’ll be that one (the part two), if it all works out,” he said. “I got a lot of music done. It’s just about timing and aligning with artists.”

Credit: Vicky Ro

Credit: Vicky Ro

In overtime

Other featured artists on “God Does Like Ugly” are Clipse, Don Toliver, Mereba, Westside Gunn, Jessie Reyez, Ty Dolla $ign and Vince Staples.

But the album shines brightest when he’s paired with Atlanta artists. Ciara and Earthgang are on “Sk8,” a track destined for grooves at Cascade skating rink. The growls of rising Atlanta rapper Baby Kia encapsulate “On McAfee,” a track made in 2019. Lead single “WRK” includes vocals from the College Park-raised Marco Plus.

“I’m a groupie for my city,” JID said.

Breakout star Anycia, from Atlanta’s southside, knows that very well. She’s featured on “Sun,” a song on “God Does Like Ugly” that will drop on Monday. Last year, the pair teased the track at Dreamville Festival in North Carolina. Anycia’s effortless, cocky bars seamlessly mesh with JID’s artistic cachet throughout the song.

But Anycia shared she was initially nervous to collaborate with JID because he’s a “lyrical miracle.” She warmly recalled how comfortable JID made her feel in the studio.

“I rap about how to stomp men in the face, smoking, being cute, things like that,” she said. “He raps about real things, so I was like, what are we gonna do? ... He didn’t coach me through it. He just told me to do me, and that’s what I did.”

“God Does Like Ugly” concludes with “For Keeps,” which is perhaps the most introspective track. On a dreamy track that sounds like something you’d listen to on your headphones while going for a walk on a sunny day, JID reflects on his past, present and future — embracing gratitude for all eras of his career. The end of the song features a surprise.

“Daddy got the best bars in the world?,” JID asks

“Yes,” a voice, seemingly a toddler’s, exclaims.

JID confirms he has a child — his first — although that’s all he’ll divulge. He wants to keep that part of his life private.

He’s still adjusting to life as a dad, as fatherhood is teaching him patience. But with every new challenge, JID is prepared to tackle it with proficiency, like the perfectionist he is.

And, with “God Does Like Ugly,” he makes a winning score.

“(’God Does Like Ugly’) is like a go ball,” he said. “In football, the go ball is when the quarterback drops wider on the outside and throws it as deep as he can and sees what happens. Hail Mary type sh--. But it’s not like all is lost if you drop it. It’s just, I’m about to go and make a play. This is me making a play.”