Joey Bada$$ got discovered via a YouTube freestyle back when he was still in high school, but he had to push the truth a little to get it on people’s radar.
The Brooklyn native sat down with Method Man for SpringHill’s new series Two Ways About It, where “two legendary talents with strikingly similar backgrounds” get paired for “entertaining conversation and hilarious activity.” While discussing how he got his start, Joey revealed that he lied a little in the title of his freestyle in an effort to get more eyes on it.
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“I used social media – YouTube being the platform at the time – as my in,” he began. “It’s crazy because one day I just kind of had the vision. Like I was coming home from school and it just dawned on me like, ‘Yo, I’m nice. That’s one. Number two, all I gotta do is show the world that I’m nice.’ It’s one thing to do it with just putting the songs out on YouTube and hoping people discover your shit, but I’m like nah I need a real freestyle moment.”
He continued: “My vision was I’ma send it to Worldstar [Hip Hop] and they gon’ put it up. They ain’t never posted, at that time. So I’m like alright, you know what? I’ma just put it on YouTube, but what I’m gonna do is, I’ma do a little marketing ploy on the title. So I uploaded it and the title that I put was, ’15-year-old Freestyles for Worldstar Hip Hop.’ And my first manager, he discovered it and one morning I was going to school, I got a direct message and he said, ‘I just saw your video on Worldstar Hip Hop.'”
“I was like wow, look at God. The shit worked. I’m laughing internally because I’m like, he ain’t even see it on Worldstar! He just thought he did because of the psychology that I put on the video.”
Nowadays, Joey Bada$$ is dominating not only music but acting too – and even recently branched out to philanthropy as well.
Earlier this month, the Oscar winner announced that he’s launched a new mentorship program called Impact MENtorship, which aims to provide free mentorships for Black men in the United States and Puerto Rico.
According to the organization’s official website, the program is open to all Black men ages 18 and older. The mentees receive both career guidance and personal guidance.
So far, Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics, fashion designer Tremaine Emory, and 19 Keys have all been announced as mentors in the program.
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Musically, back in April, Joey Bada$$ dropped the official video for his newest single, “Fallin.”
