Joyner Lucas


Gary Maurice "Joyner" Lucas Jr. is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, poet, and actor from Worcester, Massachusetts.
Lucas received widespread exposure and critical acclaim after the release of his single "Ross Capicchioni" in 2015. In June 2017, he released his fourth mixtape, 508-507-2209, which was his first on a major label. On November 28, 2017, Lucas released his single "I'm Not Racist", which went viral very quickly and helped him gain further attention and praise. The video was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Music Video at the 61st Grammy Awards. Lucas was formerly signed to Atlantic Records, until he announced his departure from the label in December 2018.
Since 2016, Lucas has also become known for remixing popular hip hop songs like "Gucci Gang" by Lil Pump, " " by 21 Savage, "DNA" by Kendrick Lamar and many more. In October 2018, he announced his debut studio album ADHD, which was released on March 27, 2020. He began rapping at the age of 10, and attended South High Community School in Worcester.

Early life

Gary Maurice Lucas, Jr. was born on August 17, 1988, in Worcester, Massachusetts to a black father and a white mother, as mentioned in his song "Half Nigga". He began rapping at the age of 10, and attended South High Community School in Worcester.

Career

Joyner Lucas first started recording under the name G-Storm. In 2007, he changed his stage name to Future Joyner and started working with his uncle, Cyrus tha Great, and formed a group called "Film Skool Rejekts". They released their mixtape, Workprint: The Greatest Mixtape of All Time in the same year. Lucas went on to release his first mixtape under the name Future Joyner titled Listen 2 Me in 2011. After rapper Future came to prominence, Lucas dropped the "Future" from his name and continued as Joyner Lucas. He then released another album titled LFO's in October 2013.
Lucas went on to release his next mixtape Along Came Joyner on April 5, 2015. This mixtape contained his critically acclaimed "Ross Capicchioni". Following the success of the song, Lucas was featured in the 2015 BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher, he was originally included in the Internet Only cypher, until the producers heard him rap and included him in the live cyphers.
Lucas signed to Atlantic Records on September 21, 2016. Lucas went on to release a project titled 508-507-2209 on June 16, 2017, with Atlantic Records. The mixtape charted at #7 on the Heatseekers Albums chart on Billboard and contained the singles "I'm Sorry", "Ultrasound", "Just Like You" and "Winter Blues". Ever since 2016, Lucas has also become known for remixing popular hip hop songs.
On November 28, 2017, Lucas released his single "I'm Not Racist", onto his YouTube account which quickly went viral and gained critical acclaim. The controversial song is about race and society, and race relations from the perspective of a white man and a black man. The video was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Music Video at the 61st Grammy Awards, but lost to Childish Gambino's "This Is America". Lucas and Chris Brown announced their collaboration project, titled Angels & Demons on February 25, 2018 with the single "Stranger Things" releasing the following day. On April 1, 2018, Lucas released his single "Frozen", a song focused on different forms of reckless driving. The next single from the Angels and Demons collaborative mixtape "I Don't Die" was released on May 2.
On July 31, 2018, Lucas announced he was forced to cancel shows of his "I'm kinda a Big Deal" tour in Australia and Europe due to hoarseness and laryngitis. Lucas was featured on "Lucky You" from Eminem's tenth album, Kamikaze. The song debuted at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking Lucas' first top 10 entry on the chart. On October 12, 2018, Lucas announced that he would be releasing his debut studio album entitled ADHD. He also announced a single from the album that would be released the following Wednesday. The song, entitled "I Love", was released as the lead single from ADHD, which was released on March 27, 2020. It was preceded by nine singles from October 2018 to March 2020, the time before release.

Artistry

Lucas has cited several artists as influences in his music, but he cites Eminem as his biggest musical influence. He also revealed he was influenced by Will Smith in his song "Will", which he would release a remix of featuring Will Smith himself on May 15, 2020. He cites Jay-Z as one of his influences too.

Personal life

Joyner Lucas shares a son named Joyner Messiah Lucas with Carmen Julissa Ayala, whom he had an off and on romantic relationship with. Lucas tells the story of his son's conception in his song "Forever" on his mixtape 508-507-2209. Joyner Messiah Lucas is loved and adored by his father and referenced in many of his songs. He has also made cameos in his father's music videos. Most recently he played Will Smith's son Jaden Smith in the video of "Will".
Lucas has revealed that the title of his album ADHD comes from the fact that he was diagnosed with ADHD as a child. He explained that people surrounding him, including his own parents, made him feel like he was not normal and treated him differently as a result. Eventually, he would act out and get sent to an alternative school after expulsion.

Feuds

Logic

According to Lucas, when he was on Tech N9ne's tour bus, he heard some records from Tech's album The Storm. Lucas expressed interest on collaborating with Logic on the song "Sriracha" and felt that he could add to the display of fast-flow rapping, and Tech acquiesced. Logic was originally slated to be the only feature on "Sriracha", but when he spent over six months to deliver his verse, Lucas hopped on the track to offer his own. Joyner stated that when they got the record back, he could tell that Logic was not "too happy" about him being on the track once he heard it. On his remix of Future's "Mask Off", Joyner, unhappy by the work Logic turned in after taking nearly half a year to edit his verse, directly addressed the disappointing display. Both he and Tech N9ne were upset with Logic for not emulating the style of quick flow on the song.
After Logic's hit song "1-800-273-8255" peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, Joyner Lucas immediately took offense and argued that the track was named in order to bring direct competition to his project, 508-507-2209. In a later interview, he called Logic "corny" and in another incident, he said that he thinks that Logic "can rap" but feels like "he tries to prove that he's black too much for me." With both Logic's single and Lucas' mixtape dealing with the issue of mental health representation and resource allocation, Lucas was careful to not slam the track too hard.
When Logic dropped his song "Yuck" from his mixtape Bobby Tarantino II in March 2018, the veiled diss inside the song was quickly spotted by Lucas and his fans, despite Logic saying that there was no diss in the song. Seemingly nonplussed by the insult, Lucas dared Logic to call him out directly on Twitter. That same month, Joyner took aim at Logic's song "44 More" and his album Everybody on his remix of BlocBoy JB's "Look Alive".
In 2019, the two rappers ended their feud, which was revealed when Logic made a guest appearance on Joyner Lucas' song "ISIS", the third single from ADHD. Lucas kept the name of the collaborator a secret until he released the song.

Hopsin

In September 2018, when a fan asked Los Angeles rapper Hopsin on Twitter who would win in a rap battle between him and Joyner Lucas, Hopsin replied, "That's a dumb question that I'm sure you already know the answer to." Not long after, Lucas commented, "Hold up. @Hopsin wtf is that supposed to mean???" In his response, Hopsin stated that he would "beak his soul" and also dissed Logic in the comment. This dispute would prove to be short-lived, when in less than two days Hopsin shared a screenshot of a FaceTime call with Lucas, indicating that they finally made peace, but still wanted people to consider who would beat the other in a rap battle. While the majority favored Hopsin, Lucas was adamant without arguing.

Tory Lanez

Joyner Lucas' feud with Canadian recording artist Tory Lanez began over matters similar to his beef with Hopsin. On November 19, 2018, Lanez claimed that he was a better rapper than Joyner Lucas on an Instagram Live session. Incredulous, Lucas immediately responded by inviting Lanez to a battle rapping challenge and telling him to let the public decide who is better. The next day, Lanez dropped a freestyle over Eminem's "Lucky You", of which Lucas made a guest appearance on. In less than 24 hours, Joyner responded with his freestyle over "Litty" by Meek Mill featuring Tory Lanez, also targeting rapper Trippie Redd, who joined Tory's Instagram Live and slandered Joyner's name as well. Shortly after, Lanez retaliated with his own freestyle of "Litty", titled "Litty Again", taking shots at Joyner's collaboration with Eminem. Lucas' answer song was a freestyle of Kodak Black's "Zeze". On the track, he mentions Tory's being accused of plagiarism in 2016, when listeners noticed that the ending of Lanez's song "4am Flex" was similar to Kendrick Lamar's "The Art of Peer Pressure". Joyner also accuses him of copying rapper Don Q's flow on his 2017 Funkmaster Flex freestyle. On November 23, Tory posted on Instagram a video of him declaring victory in the feud and celebrating. Displeased, Lucas reposted the video with his own comment, with a reference to Lanez as a singer.
The end of this rivalry was made public on August 8, 2019, when Joyner Lucas and Tory Lanez collaborated on their remix of "Suge" by DaBaby.

Awards and nominations

Grammy Awards

The Grammy Awards are held annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Joyner has two Grammy nominations all together.

Discography

Studio albums

Mixtapes

Collaborative mixtapes

Singles

As lead artist

Notes

As featured artist

Other charted songs

Remixes