“I grew up in North Carolina,” Los Angeles rap artist Jimmi IV starts his story. “You know, that’s the south. It’s a little rough and you can tell a lot about that in what we’re going through now.”
Jimmi’s roots are the foundation for his music career. He’s taken the fundamentals of his trials and transformed it into a poetic soliloquy that he hopes will resonate with anyone.
“It’s about what we had to go through,” he continues. “It’s about getting out of there and getting to where we at now.”
Jimmi was introduced to rap music through his cousins. Around the age of thirteen, they had come over his house and all gathered in the living room to play a number of tracks. Upon hearing the uniqueness of the sound and the rawness of the lyrics, Jimmi became fascinated by the music and, as he puts it, “it really got the ball rolling.”
From there, he began diving into a collection of some of the popular artists coming out at that time. Jay-Z and Nas were two of his earliest inspiration.
“Those were the ones paving the way for what we were doing,” Jimmi explains. “Building the type of movement we wanted to make for ourselves.”
After spending years listening to these legends, Jimmi came out of high school realizing he wanted to get serious with his music.
“I started to figure out that that was the path I wanted to take. I don’t really know. There was something that drew me to it. I could just tell my story through it. I don’t really talk a lot, but when I got a pen and a pad I feel like I can always get down what I really wanna say.”
That drive Jimmi felt to make a voice for himself pushed him to where he is today. Located in Los Angeles, California, he’s currently signed to Valentine Records.
“When we were back home, we were working three jobs,” Jimmi discusses. “We had one at 5 o’clock in the morning and then another that went into a graveyard shift. And that was getting nerve racking. It was like, ‘Damn, I can’t be doing this the rest of my life.'”
When a job opportunity appeared in Orange County, Jimmi hopped on it. As he put it, “there was nothing happening out in North Carolina. We were standstill.”
Upon coming to California, Jimmi’s older brother linked him with a music engineer. This guy runs the independent record label Jimmi is now signed to.
“I built a relationship with him – you know, every day just locked in the studio and we built a strong bond together. It’s a blessing.”
Jimmi’s ultimate goal is to get across to people the message that anything is possible if you’re open to it. “If you lock in, you stay focused, and you keep going, anything is possible. I really wanna get that message out to the people back home.”
Jimmi’s about to release an EP in the coming month and hopes to be booking more shows throughout 2020 and in 2021.
If you want to check out more about Jimmi IV and keep up-to-date with his music, we invite you to follow the links below:
