Meet JELEEL!, the Breakout Star With Unparalleled Energy
To listen to JELEEL! is to bear witness to an explosion firsthand. It is not one brought about by a series of chemical reactions but spurred forth by the infectious energy of the Rhode Island-bred future star whose trademark melodic rap is backed by the full, volatile force of indie rock, trap, drill, afrobeats, and more.
If you've heard of JELEEL! before this, then you're either a day one who has been rocking with the Los Angeles transplant since he kicked off with a series of online releases in 2017 or are a part of the new legion of fans he's amassed over the course of a recent bout of viral singles. As is often the case with viral breakout stars, there will be those who attribute the artist's rapid ascent to a mere fluke or passing algorithmic-spurred happenstance but doing so would be to belittle the clear work JELEEL! has been putting in since he first hit the pavement.
Take one look back into JELEEL!'s back catalog and you'll see the experimental roadmap the Rhode Island native has taken to get to this point. From the infectious dancehall of 2019's "Hasta la Vida!" to the surprisingly tender R&B of 2020's "Midnight!," the past four years have seen the artist incorporate every genre under the sun before landing a sound that not only speaks to him but is racking up streams in the millions.
"DIVE IN!" marks JELEEL!'s most popular single to date, racking up over 35 million streams on Spotify, another casual 11 million on YouTube, and over 150 thousand videos on TikTok. The latter of which largely attributed to the song and artist's meteoric rise, with the song originally being released in May of last year but not picking up major traction until going viral on the video-sharing platform in spring of this year. And after one listen to the rapturous single, it's not difficult to see why the song managed to cut through all the noise.
In the just shy of two-minute track, JELEEL! surges forward with an earth-shattering bravado. His unmistakable vocal delivery perfectly syncs up with the electrifying, in-your-face production, resulting in an intoxicating bout of pure, unfiltered energy. Then there's the WellKnownStudios-directed video, which amplifies all that ten-fold as our absolutely built protagonist backflips and moves throughout an abandoned warehouse.
With the release of his latest single "RAIN ON YOU!" maintaining the same exhilarating fervor of his breakout hit and murmurs of a forthcoming album, titled REAL RAW, floating around, it seems like this is only the beginning for JELEEL! Our best piece of advice? Do not sleep.