Besides commonplace childhood artworks like coloring books and action figure theatrics, the seeds of JJNAY’s creative output didn’t begin sprouting until he was around 14 years old—a time in which he first started writing and rapping.

Before reaching mid-teen-hood, listening to music wasn’t an activity you’d ever find JJ seeking out. Though he did take a liking as a child to a few tracks by 90’s Europop group Eiffel 65, his love for music (and creating his own music) only began to flourish in his freshmen year of high school. Becoming enthralled with 2000’s Houston rapper Chamillionaire after hearing the southern artist’s song “Hate In Ya Eyes” on the Madden ’06 soundtrack, JJ then began penning his own rhymes.

Operating under the self-ascribed mantra of “TRUTH RAP”—a term coined to represent clean lyrics with thought-provoking messages—the young artist started recording his raps using Audacity (a free audio application) and a dusty old headset mic on a half-running Windows computer in the corner of his room. JJ grabbed random beats from the internet and starting emulating popular rappers of the time such as Eminem, Soulja Boy, and Lil Wayne before settling on a more original voice of his own.

JJNAY released 3 projects in CD form from 2009-2011, all of which he burned himself and sold at school, work, and to family and friends. During the latter of the 3 mixtapes, he became a finalist in one of platinum-selling rapper Mims’ open verse competitions, leading to JJ scoring his first official appearance on iTunes. Later that year, he was interviewed and performed on local-access start-up show ReformedTV.

It was around this time when JJ’s talent with words began shining in other ways besides just writing raps, whether it was poetry slam entries or 3 page film analyses (pieces which received high praise from his teachers).

After graduating high school in 2011, the aspiring artist knew that the typical 4-year college path was not for him. Besides the fact that he already had a decent-paying job at his childhood martial arts studio and wasn’t into drinking or partying, JJ’s creative ambitions wouldn’t allow him to pursue anything other than his artistry.

Instead, he enrolled in a 1 year Comprehensive Audio Engineering Program at Omega Studios in Rockville, Maryland. Although it eventually became clear that the course was designed more for aspiring engineers and live-sound technicians than it was for actual artists, JJ’s time in the program laid the groundwork for all of his future music endeavors and jumpstarted the creation of his own home studio setup upon graduation in 2012. It was also during this time that he became completely obsessed with all things hip hop: he followed all the blogs and new sites, listened to all the interviews, and absorbed a new rapper or album 5 days a week for an entire year during his hour-long drive to night class. From gossip to album release dates, from Immortal Technique to Chief Keef, JJ soaked up an enormous amount of hip hop.

Armed with upgraded recording gear and a foundational knowledge of how to operate Pro Tools, JJ crafted his fourth project and released “TRANS4M” in 2013—an album serving as a representation of the growth he was undergoing. The project not only stands the test of time in still remaining available on the artist’s Soundcloud page today, but it also included his first 2 self-produced beats and his first 4 music videos (also directed and edited by himself).

It’s on the cover of TRANS4M where we see the earliest known instance of JJNAY’s signature green hoodie, a result of the artist fully embracing the color green as a recurring theme of his visual works. Though originally born from nothing but a simple liking of the color green and a nostalgia for a childhood sweatshirt, JJ’s explanation for sticking with the color involves a greater meaning:

“The human eye sees more shades of green than any other color. And so, that kind of wide-ranging variation is a perfect metaphor to communicate the eclecticism of my creative visions.”

But this transformative time bore more. It was the beginning of JJ’s great journey of self-discovery. Not only did his appreciation for other forms of art begin to bloom, but so did the caliber of his thoughts. Just as he had once surrendered himself to unrelenting immersion into the world of hip hop, he now moved to embracing a vast range of philosophical, intellectual, and artistic concepts—all while unknowingly shaping himself more than ever before. Just as his journey of rapping went from mimicking famous artists to finding his own voice physically, JJ was now on a path to finding his own voice mentally as he entered young adulthood.

Beginning to habitually articulate his thoughts in word form not only tremendously improved his writing abilities, but in a self-induced feedback loop kind of way, it further elevated his thoughts themselves—insofar as building mental clarity within his own life, probing deeper to question established thought, and learning to be open minded about all things of and beyond this world.

While he didn’t release any new music in the few years that followed, JJ began honing his beat-making skills and toyed with several different directions for his next album.

In 2015, he produced a 6-track EP for his cousin Thomas Michael, a project which included 2 verses by JJ that led to his first live performance at a club in Washington, DC.

In 2016, a quarter-life-crisis was catalyzed by work frustrations and existential thoughts pertaining to the purpose of the young artist’s life. While happy and grateful for the many blessings he’d seen, the creative callings for something greater resurfaced within him. Abandoning all previous musical ideas, he crafted 6 fresh singles to be released in 2017.

The first of them, “Reawakening”, symbolized this rebirth in manifesting his creative visions—with themes of expression , realization, and enlightenment carrying over through the rest of the 6 singles including “Ultraflow”, “Hang Time”, “Keep It Movin”, “Energy Inside”, and the Bruce-Lee inspired “Formless Like Water”. Each track was recorded and produced by JJ, along with the 6 accompanying artworks, 3 music videos, and 3 music visuals. The songs were all mixed and mastered by Pete Novak, a former instructor at Omega Studios and a Grammy award-winning engineer who’s worked with the likes of Dr. Dre, Will Smith, Janet Jackson, Outkast and more.

Coupled with the several month-long release period of the singles were JJ’s first 2 performance art videos “BEGIN PATH” and “TIME CAPSULE”, both further expressing the eager artist’s reawakened desire to steer the trajectory of his life in a new, more profound direction. The first piece notably includes a few-second clip of JJ standing completely nude on a vacant grassy hill, an image representing his “god form” and “truest self”. The second piece involves a mock-interrogation of a blindfolded JJ being questioned about some of the many things he’d accomplished in an alternate life, ranging from designing his own toy line to being a spokesperson for severing the chains of religious doctrine.

The blindfold itself became another one of JJ’s recurring imagery themes, and has been described as

“symbolizing a greater state of mind, one that’s not fooled by the illusions of the physical world. It symbolizes a focus on looking inward rather than outward, as the eyes can be easily deceived. It symbolizes the ability to smell the breath of a wolf disguised in sheep’s clothing, the ability to feel the energy of everything around you, to be without attachment, without ego, without fear, to be mindful, to be balanced, to have a connection with the abstract. Also, I just think it looks pretty cool.”

JJ performed at a few places around Maryland in the first half of 2018 and funded a nation-wide college radio campaign with Trilogy Music Group for his 6 new releases—of which officially marked the beginning of his professional music projects in terms of both quality and availability on all major streaming platforms.

In the second half of 2018, however, a different revelation took hold: maybe a career in music was not something JJ truly sought after all. Not only were there several aspects of the hip hop world and music industry at large that directly clashed with JJ’s personal characteristics and values (the club scene, mingling and networking, promoting on social media, etc.), but JJ’s continued growth as a human being led him to a place of no longer caring about being recognized or praised. He’d reached an autotelic-like place of creating art purely for his own amusement.

By 2019, JJ’s music palette began to expand tremendously, and while he’d never lose touch with hip hop, his focus on it significantly dwindled compared to the earlier days. Heavy metal, 70’s disco, electronic dance, old school reggae, bubble gum pop, classical orchestra, experimental—name a genre and there’s likely at least a few songs from it in JJ’s recurring playlists. Speaking on his musical evolution, JJ says

“It’s interesting because my parents were never avid music listeners when I was growing up. And besides half-way playing the trumpet for a year or two in middle school, I never had a musical bone in my body until I sought it out. I think I first started rapping simply because it was a hip thing to do and I was introduced to it during the impressionable years of teen-hood. And then I think it was easy for me to stick with rapping longterm largely because of my passion for writing, because obviously rap is the most word-heavy genre of music. But now, it’s hard to imagine living without music in my life.”

2020 forever changed a lot things for a lot of people around the world, and JJNAY stands no different. The covid pandemic directly led to losing the only job he’d ever had in his entire life (since 14 years old, ironically, the same age he first started rapping). Over the next few months, he experienced the greatest freedom and creative joy he’d ever known. And in the few months after that, he experienced his first true brush with emptiness and emotional instability catalyzed by the dastardly forces of boredom and ruminating thoughts. The eternal question loomed: what now?

Emerging from the ashes of this brief self-generated low point, JJ took the necessary steps to escape the rabbit hole and made life changes like never before. From cold showers and winter-morning runs to cutting off 30 inches of hair, from experiencing his first night of intoxication to learning chess, from hundreds of pages of writing and searching deeper inside himself to unexpectedly meeting the woman he’d eventually choose to spend the rest of his life with—the growth was major.

JJNAY resurfaced in 2022, but this time it was different. His motivations weren’t being weighed down by the need for fame or fortune, they were being uplifted by the purity of “Why not?”.  Having grown so much, the insecurity of a budding artist was no longer there. And while the battle with perfectionism is likely a never-ending war for any true artist, he’d learned to let go a little more and have greater consistency with his creative offerings, to be more forgiving of his creative flaws, and to be more vulnerable to the discomfort that comes with creative growth. If he was going to make any sort of living from his art—writings, music, or otherwise—it was going to be his way.

JJ released 2 singles with his cousin Thomas Michael in fall 2022, tracks which collectively comprise their debut EP “Realignment”—a collection not only produced by JJ, but for the first time, mixed and mastered by him as well (a noteworthy development, as creative control is a must for the man).

Heading into 2024, the 30 year old artist aims to release several tracks from his vault of recorded music, as well as his 10-years-in-the-making album “ONLY LEGENDS LIVE FOREVER”. Music videos, visuals, and performance art pieces will also likely accompany the new releases.

But now most notably, JJNAY has unlocked a brand new form—his creativity ready to be unleashed in full force as He Who Thinks, creator of Thinker Portal.