Hey… It’s been a while.
Today marks a full year since I’ve last released a song. So to celebrate, I want to give thanks by reflecting on my journey as an artist and how I got this far. Hopefully, my story will allow you guys to learn more about me, or inspire those of you with own your music career.
Getting 250,000 streams across multiple streaming platforms was no easy feat. But Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was I. If you look at YouTube, my story starts 4 years ago January 8th, 2020 with Rip Turtle. But the real ones know the name "Jaykyss" emerged much earlier in 2019. Not as an alternative hip-hop artist, but as a meme rapper on SoundCloud.
I was around fourteen at the time when I started making music. Some of my biggest influences at the time were bands like Panic at the Disco, and Fallout Boy, and artists like Tory Lanez and Xxxtentacion.
If you listened to the songs I made back then. It sounds nothing like those artists, or even what I sound like now. A lot of those songs weren't even real "songs". They were mostly jokes songs and diss tracks I made for my friends in high school. Every track back then was recorded in my closet with nothing but a $30 blue Snowball mic using GarageBand on my school computer.
Those were the days…
It wasn't even about the quality of the songs back then, it was just about having a good time with my friends.
Until I dropped Rip Turtle…
That was my breakout single if you will. (No, it wasn't actually about a turtle.) It was a love song I made and I dedicated the title to my pet turtle that passed away around the time I recorded the song.
Still to this day, I don't know why it blew up. Maybe it was the harmonies or the JuiceWrld feature. I just remember one day waking up to a couple of hundred views and thinking "Wow, this is more people than in my school".
I'd still recommend SoundCloud to any new Artist starting today. Its algorithm at the time was on par with TikTok regarding getting new music out there in the public eye. It was that algorithm that gave me the confidence boost to take Rip Turtle to the major DSPs (Apple Music, Spotify, etc) and start taking music more seriously.
Rip Turtle is still my biggest song on YouTube to this day. But that wasn't all because of me, it was also due to the help of artists' promotion channels. There are tons of them across YouTube. Promoting Sounds, Bangers Only, DJ RIKI, and so much more.
But there was one in particular called "Sad Vibes Forever".
I've been listening to the music on this channel for a while and knew Rip Turtle would be the right fit for it. But before I sent a submission to this channel I knew that I had to build up a rapport with its audience. So I set my sights on collaborating with the top artists on its channel first for my next song.
The top artists on the channel at the time were Criatension & Ninelives. Collectively gaining over 1 million views for the Sad Vibes Forever Yt Channel.
After contacting their management and successfully securing a feature from both of them, we were able to record my next single called "I'm Fine".
It was this song that gave a bit of mainstream success. Not only because it was the first song the first I made that wasn't built around jokes, but also because the song was a co-sign from successful artists taken seriously in the industry I was just entering.
I'm Fine was the only single I've ever released with a feature. Looking back I owe so much to this song and Rip Turtle for the push it gave me to release more music independently. It also exposed my music to a much wider audience. If It weren't for these songs then there'd be no way I'd have the confidence to experiment with different genres that allowed me to make songs like Moon, 2U, and Yeezus.
That's why in honor of it being one year since I last dropped. I'm having an exclusive release of my new song "Notice Me" back to where it all started.
For a limited time, this song's going to be exclusively on Soundcloud and not promoted on any other platforms so the only ones notified are my day ones from the Rip Turtle days.
I hope you guys enjoy this single as it signifies a new path that I'm on as a musician pursuing quality over quantity. I wanted to give you guys early access for sticking with me the longest.
Thank you so much and here's to a year full of Jaykyss.
- Jaykyss