Credit: Netflix

JID has been making music for a while now, but he’s been steadily climbing up the Hip Hop ladder in terms of popularity and the quality of his output.

The rapper — real name Destin Choice Route — was born in Atlanta in 1990 and acquired his stage name from his grandmother, who nicknamed him JID due to his “jittery” behaviour. Inspired by everyone from Sly and the Family Stone and Earth, Wind & Fire to JAY-Z, Nas and Mobb Deep, he released his debut mixtape Cakewalk in 2010.

JID came up in the industry alongside school friends EARTHGANG and funded his music career by delivering pizza and working in call centres. He released a number of solo mixtapes before hitting the road with Ab-Soul on his These Days Tour in 2014 and dropping music with his Spillage Village collective.

Life changed for JID in 2019 when it was announced he had signed a deal with J Cole’s Dreamville label. Even from the outset, Cole believed he had what it takes to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. “The first thing is how gifted he was with putting his words together,” Cole said about him. “The thing that solidified it was when I saw his worth ethic and his hunger. A lot of people want it, but they not willing to put in the work. He’s not one of those people. His potential is G.O.A.T. status.”

Since signing to Dreamville, JID has released three studio albums, including The Never Story in 2017, DiCaprio 2 in 2018 and The Forever Story in 2022. Each release has seen him climb higher up the Billboard 200 chart, with his last effort reaching as high as number 12. It included an elite list of collaborators such as Yasiin Bey and Lil Wayne, as well as a TikTok hit in ‘Surround Sound’ featuring 21 Savage and Baby Tate that sparked the “Ceiling Challenge.”

He’s also appeared across a couple of Dreamville compilations, Revenge of the Dreamers III and D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape, proving his skills alongside the likes of J. Cole, Bas, Cozz, Lute and the rest of the imprint.

Outside of his own music, JID has featured on various major tours, including J. Cole’s 4 Your Eyez Only Tour, Logic’s Confessions of a Dangerous Mind Tour and 21 Savage’s American Dream Tour. He was also set to join Mac Miller on The Swimming Tour prior to the Pittsburgh rapper’s sudden death in 2018.

JID has received three Grammy nominations to date, getting recognition in the Best Rap Performance category for ‘Down Bad’ and Best Rap Album for Revenge of the Dreamers III. In addition, he was part of Doja Cat’s Planet Her album having teamed up on ‘Options’, making him eligible for an Album of the Year nomination.

In 2021, he earned the biggest song of his career yet, collaborating with Imagine Dragons on the hit ‘Enemy’. Peaking at number five on the Hot 100, the record served as the lead single for Netflix’s Arcane soundtrack and also appeared on Dragons’ Mercury – Acts 1 & 2 album.

JID secured arguably the most notable guest spot of his career in July by featuring on Eminem’s ‘Fuel’, which appeared on his The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) album. JID is well aware of the expectations people have for him, and he can feel his career gradually moving upwards. “Everything’s just been going up,” he told People. “Like I said, just stepping stones. So I just want to make sure everything I do is bigger than the last time I’ve done it, and everything follows suit with that little method or whatever. Just more opportunities and just more visibility and more eyes on the music.”

He continued, “And that’s just really what I wanted to see me in that regard, as opposed to just being social media viral. I’d rather you open up. “I actually want to see him in this festival concert,” or “I want to play this song every day because it gives me a different outlook.”

JID also performed at Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk’s blockbuster fight in Saudi Arabia earlier this year, putting together a medley inside the 30,000 capacity Kingdom Arena. Thanks to social media, the Atlanta rapper can’t escape the artists people often compare him to, for reasons both good and bad. He’s noticed that more than ever following the release of The Forever Story. “I see people comparing me to people I should never be compared to,” he said. “And not in a positive way, like comparing me to DMX or André 3000. That’s why Twitter is the wild, wild west because you could just say anything and it could be a topic of conversation.

“But yeah, I see a lot of conversations around the project and people saying that it put me in a different position with it. I still got goals to go forward. This project, it’s helping open up the door for the rest of the stuff I’m going to be doing.”

The only way is up for JID. His upcoming solo album, Forever & a Day, and collaborative album with Metro Boomin, JIDTRO, should solidify that.