How was Joey Badass discovered?
Joey Badass is only 30 years old, but he’s already been in the public eye for 13 years. The Brooklyn rapper burst onto the hip-hop scene in 2012 with ‘Survival Tactics’ alongside fellow Pro Era member Capital Steez. This preceded his impressive debut mixtape, 1999, which saw fans praise his throwback rap style.
Born on January 20th as Jo-Vaughn Virginie Scott, Joey was born in the Eash Flatbush area of Brooklyn in New York City before being raised in Bed-Stuy. He attended Edward R. Murrow High School with an interest in acting, but rapping became his main focus around the latter stages of his education.
Joey started out rhyming under the name “JayOhVee” but changed it to Joey Badass due to the media’s focus on rappers with more “cynical” names, claiming it was “what sounded cool at the time, what fit my mood.”
Now, three albums into his career, Joey released his debut B4.DA.$$ in 2015, All-Amerikkkan Badass in 2017 and 2000 in 2022. In addition, he also dropped the mixtape Summer Knights in 2013, just over a year after releasing his debut mixtape.
In addition to music, Joey has a thriving acting career, starring in Mr. Robot, Power Book III: Raising Kanan, Wu-Tang: An American Saga, Grown-ish, and other television series. He also starred in the 2020 short film Two Distant Strangers, which won the award for Best Live Action Short Film at the 93rd Academy Awards.
So, how did Joey Badass get discovered?
While ‘Survival Tactics‘ was his major break on a popularity level, Joey was discovered a couple of years prior as a result of his hunger to get noticed. In 2010, his goal was to get posted on WorldStarHipHop but he didn’t have the buzz to make it onto the platform yet. So instead, he posted a video of himself freestyling on YouTube under the name, ’15-year-old Freestyles for WorldStarHipHop.’
“It’s crazy because one day I just kind of had the vision. Like I was coming home from school and it just dawned on me like, ‘Yo, I’m nice. That’s one. Number two, all I gotta do is show the world that I’m nice,’” he said on Two Ways About It. “It’s one thing to do it with just putting the songs out on YouTube and hoping people discover your shit, but I’m like, ‘Nah, I need a real freestyle moment.’”
From there, the video caught the attention of Jonny Shipes, the president of Cinematic Music Group, who went on to be his manager. One morning when he was walking to school, he got a message from Shipes, saying, “I just saw your video on WorldStarHipHop.” The funny thing is, the video never actually ended up on WSHH.
“I was like, ‘Wow, look at God. The shit worked,'” he said. “I’m laughing internally because I’m like, he ain’t even see it on WorldStar! He just thought he did because of the psychology that I put on the video.” Thanks to a quick decision and quietly tricking the system, Joey’s career changed forever.