Kentucky rapper Jack Harlow has been making music on the underground for over a decade. Desperately fighting to break into the music industry, Harlow most definitely has a passion for music. However, he didn’t always love hip-hop and (in a recent interview) attributed his love of the genre to his mother.
During his appearance on the New York City radio show The Breakfast Club, Harlow opened up about his family and spoke on the role that they have played in making him the man he is today. When asked about his mother, the artist revealed that she was the one who introduced him to hip-hop in the first place.
Elaborating, he said, “She introduced me to rap. She was a really big rap fan growing up. She was at Public Enemy concerts and all that s*** in the ’90s. So I dug into her CD collection in the late 2000s, and one of my earliest memories is her buying Late Registration on physical and playing it in the car and telling me, ‘Yo, you can’t say a lot of these words.'”
He continued to detail just how much hip-hop music his mother owned as he disclosed, “She had the whole Outkast discography. She put me on to A Tribe Called Quest! My mom was seasoned.” Admitting he wouldn’t be where he is without his mother, Harlow thanked her and declared, “She loves hip-hop, so I owe her my introduction.”
Harlow’s mum and dad have become small-town celebrities in Louisville. According to Harlow, his parents own a sign shop together, and locals regularly pop in to ask about him. In 2017, Harlow sat down with his hometown’s local publication to give and interview. Speaking with Louisville magazine, Harlow explained that his mum regularly played Eminem when he was in the womb. According to Harlow, this gave him a pre-disposed appreciation for Slim Shady.
As one of the most prominent white rappers in hip-hop currently, Harlow has an undying love for Eminem, and the love is mutual as Mathers was more than happy to get on the remix for Harlow’s 2021 track ‘Killer’. Although Harlow never met Eminem face-to-face, he did receive a phone call from his idol.
Detailing how the call went, Harlow told The Breakfast Club, “We didn’t get to meet, but we had a phone call that meant the world to me. He gave me a lot of props that any artist would love to get. Sometimes, the best gem is just somebody you admire, letting you know who you think you are. He let me know, ‘You’re that. You’re dope.’ I’ve waited a decade to hear that. So it was special.” In the Breakfast Club video below, you can listen to more detail about Harlow and his mother’s love for hip-hop.
