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Photo: Ian Anthony

Garnering over a millions monthly listeners on Spotify, mynameisntjmack bears it all in his music while maintaining anonymity through a curtain of dreads. Overcoming addiction while making it out of Virginia, strife informs the creative’s musical hunger, and that’s exactly why he’s set to have the biggest year of his career thus far.

Gearing up to hit the road alongside fellow Virginian Tommy Richman, mynameisntjmack is ready to formally introduce himself. OnesToWatch got a chance to sit down with the “american spirit” rapper and talk about the complexities of vulnerability, going back home, and his unlikely love for UFC.

OnesToWatch: How much are you looking forward to going on the road?

mynameisntjmack: I’m excited. This is the first experience that I've ever had like it, going on tour. It couldn't be more of a blessing to be able to do it with somebody who is family like Tom. We did a mini run through of what the show and the set's gonna be like when we were in Chicago. It was interesting because I usually get real nervous before shows, but being there with them and his team and Paco made it so much easier. I'm still nervous for the road, but I think it's gonna be a lot easier having them.

What makes you nervous about it? Is it the actual live show or is it having no solid ground of home for a bit?

I mean, I've traveled a lot just for the music when I was younger. I was driving back and forth from Charlottesville to Yorktown, Virginia to record music or drive in from Yorktown up to Arlington to meet Tommy. A lot of hours, a lot of time spent on the road, like weeks spent away from home. So now it's a little bit more extended. The thing that makes me the most nervous is putting on a good show and knowing that if I'm off and wake up hungover or tired, it can all start to stack up and be too much. I'm worried about how that affects the show and my attitude going into it.

You gotta be on your healthy shit, you gotta keep the energy up. I think that the show is inevitably gonna be good because you guys together have such a palpable chemistry. I'd love to know more about you and Tommy Richman’s origin story.

We met just on some real casual UFC stuff. We're fans of the ultimate fighting championship. When we first met, it was because the first person to reach out to interview me was like, “I know some people that I met in New York that are real talented. They're from Virginia too. You should make music with them.” And then I followed Tommy and for a while, I saw Tommy posting about the UFC. So just on some, like, dude shit, I was like, “What do you know about the UFC?” And he's like, “What do you know about the UFC, bro?” It’s pretty much been history since then. The first time we hung out wasn't even to make music. It was really to just watch a UFC fight night.

Give me your UFC hot take, how do you feel about Topuria?

Ilia Topuria is fine in my book. There are worse people we could be mad at. I'm not a big fan of Bilal Mohammed, the welterweight champion. He just won the belt, and I'm all for mixed martial arts, but it just feels like now there are a lot of people that specifically point wrestle and don't go for finishes. So there are a lot of champs right now who have successfully point-wrestled their way to a belt.

It's crazy to think that you and Tommy's connection stems from a mutual love of UFC and ended up being something so lucrative sonically. One thing about your music is that it seems to be very deeply personal, you’re not really hiding much behind a character. How does it feel to know that soon everyone's gonna hear what you've been pouring into your upcoming work?

When people ask about being vulnerable in the music, I would say it's less of a challenge than being face-to-face vulnerable. I had to drop out of school to go to rehab and, like, tell my parents who thought that they had an A student at the University of Virginia that their son was addicted to cocaine and crashing out off all different types of narcotics. They had no clue that any of that was going on. There's no more vulnerable that I could be to anybody in my life than the people who wanna see me succeed the most and tell them that I failed. So when it comes to making music, being vulnerable and telling my story, that's kinda secondhand nature at this point. I'm just yapping. 

You really have fought your way to where you are now, you fought for your art. You mentioned recently on Instagram about needing to couch hop and build yourself to a point where your music could fund your life. Do you feel like that struggle has shaped your relationship with music in a different kind of way?

I think so, because I tell people all the time for better or for worse, it's something that I need because it keeps me out of a lot of other things, and it keeps me on the straight and narrow in terms of mentally. A lot of my personal development over the past two years has come through the music. It's hard when you figure out how to be adult, and that's also tied to, like, an EP release. You know what I mean? It's hard to figure out how to get a life routine when that's also coinciding with, like, a domestic and international tour. I hold the music in very high regard because it's forced me to speed up my personal development to be able to pay respect and honor my commitments, especially because there are so many people who are counting on me and who poured themselves into the music too. So it's like, what do I look like if I can't wake up and be at the passport office to get a passport at 8 A.M.? Because now I have to be an adult. Nobody can do this for me. And I gotta take care of myself because I gotta be able to show up, be present for the music. 

That's amazing. I'd love to know who sparked your love for music, who were you listening to in the back seat of your parents' car growing up?

Honestly, it was a lot of gospel music that my parents listened to that I wasn't necessarily a fan of that sparked my curiosity going outside of that. Because my parents were not ultimately strict in religion, but they weren't necessarily huge fans of music outwardly like that. But my mom would play Michael Jackson’s HIStory: Past, Present and Future album. That was pretty much the only thing outside of some praise music that I heard, or the Black Eyed Peas. My mom really liked Fergie when I was younger. And then my dad is funny because he definitely enjoys music, but he's not a very communicative person. So every once in a while, I'll just get a, “You know, I saw the Nine Inch Nails in Spain once.” And I'm like, “What? Okay. Thanks for telling me that.”

That’s the craziest sentence ever. It's funny because I feel like the last few artists that I've spoken to have shared the same sentiment of growing up in homes where gospel and faith based music was the center, and then it was the first non-secular album their parents played that actually sparked so much for them. The last person I asked said it was The 20/20 Experience by Justin Timberlake.

So now I need to know who this is because I got beef. What's that joint, “What Goes Around Comes Around?”

That’s on the album before I think. They can't cancel Justin Timberlake for me. Like I get it, but I respect him so much musically.

I mean, they should've canceled him over the Janet Jackson thing and the way he treated women in the mid-2000s. What do they look like trying to cancel him now because he, what, popped a perk and tried to drive? 

Yeah, he’s gotten away with enough already, just let it go. I think that Michael Jackson album makes so much sense because your sound is very nonlinear. You seem to be such a mosaic of different sounds and experiences. With that, I'd love to know, as you track further down your career do you have a different relationship with your perspective your Virginia upbringing? 

For sure. That's a large emphasis on the next project. It’s been two years since I've left. A lot of my relationship with Virginia, speaking about self-improvement and that being tied to music and the choice to leave. I continuously go back, and do some weird shit like ground myself. I'll stand barefoot outside the second I get back out there and look up at the sky. Like, “Okay. I was there. I'm here now.” It's a lot of effort that got me here and keeps me here, and there's a reason why I'm here. Going back is super important because it helps keep me grounded.

Virginia is so important in my mind and in my personal development. I've failed so much there that being able to go back and continuously work to improve to establish something there later is a goal of mine. 

Home becomes medicinal once you're no longer confined by it.

Oh, yeah. I mean, distance makes the heart grow fonder. I'll never forget sitting as an 18-year-old in my parents' house after getting back from that first year of college. Just being like, “We're not beefing every time I walk downstairs. I wonder what that is?” And it's like, yeah. You've been gone for eight months. There's quite simply nothing for y'all to argue about. 

Speaking to that, because you seem to be someone very devoted to self-development, what lesson do you feel like life is teaching you right now? 

I think that consistency is crucial. For me, I'm a very avoidant person. I hope the dreads over the face gave that one away. I kinda like to escape from things. I think that life has taught me that you gotta face things immediately. The amount of things that I'm facing now that I'm like, “Dog, if you had just taken 10 minutes to seriously mentally address that, you could have saved yourself so much mental strife.” And that's both in personal interactions, music, business interactions. I'm staring at my laundry that has yet to be folded. And I think that just being consistent in allowing yourself the ability to keep doing the thing is super important. You know? I'll have weeks where I just fucking don't do anything, and then I'll look up and be like “You know, if I had maybe cleaned once during that time span, it wouldn't be as bad.” 

I don't think that’s a lesson you ever stop learning. You're definitely applying it to your work because you really do seem to be showing up fully and completely. How are you enjoying this sort of calm before the tour storm?

The calm before the storm is just people being like, “Don't you know there's a storm coming?” It feels like there's so much preparation. Making sure we have things ready to hit the ground running. And it's hard. We wanna be ready day of when the project drops to have video and stuff rolling. But then we need to prepare now because I can't just shoot a full music video in Englewood, Colorado. We just got back from Bodie State Historic Park. We filmed this music video that's about to drop about a month ago there. And then I was just up in El Dorado Hills. We were shooting more around where my videographer's family's at. And then we have another music video tomorrow. And then I'll go home to Virginia for a little bit and come back. And then we're just shooting video from January until I leave in February and then rehearsing. I think the gang is gonna go take on Provo, Utah soon. We're all gonna go out there and film some more stuff and then go back to New York. Nobody told me that when you start to do it at a higher level and you're no longer that rapper in your high school that it's a genuine ass commitment. 

It seems like the calm before the storm is a storm in itself. You mentioned the dreads in front of the face, do you feel like that protects you from the inevitable attention that you're only gonna garner more of? Does it make you kinda feel like you're still in control in some way? 

For sure. It protects me from a lot, just emotionally and helps me avoid a lot of unnecessary interactions because people don't just approach me. But sometimes I wanna be approached. I think I'm a pretty nice guy. It doesn't protect me from an ass-whooping from my mom. She hates my hair on my face. Oh my god. She hits me with the saddest mom voice like, “Why do you wear your hair in front of your face?” It's like, “Damn, mama. Let me get this rap shit off. Come on.”

Maintaining anonymity in an art form that's so front-facing is genius. Keep following your intuition. And lastly, because this is for ones to watch, who do you wanna shout out? Who are you listening to right now? 

Oh, I love this question. There's a lot of Virginia artists that I personally really respect. The homie donnie killjoy. Virginia is so different geographically and demographically in different areas. It's beautiful because where I'm from, music is made that is different from 30 minutes away. You have Tommy and Shaboozey making different genres, but they're both from the same place in Woodbridge. donnie is also from Woodbridge and he makes a gothic punk revival. And then there's Kwajo, he's really unique. Same with Saekyi. I know he has a project coming out soon. Kwame Adu. Alex Banin, she’s phenomenal. I highly recommend just going to her Spotify and pressing play. Absolute gas. I saw her at a show last night. That's the next Amy Winehouse. Samara Cyn and Sol ChYld, two great women in hip-hop who are doing things in a unique and refreshing way. Igwe Aca? He's fire. There's a homie named 8rayden, he sings incredible R&B, and I know he's working on a project that he's about to put out as well. My favorite thing to do when I'm outside with friends is get drunk just randomly yell “D’Angelo's from Richmond.” They don't know.