Artist Spotlight: Jelly Roll
American artist Jason Deford, who goes by the stage name Jelly Roll, launched his music career as a hip-hop artist by selling mixtapes out of his car in 2003. His music began to gain popularity, and in 2010 a collaborative project "Pop Another Pill" with fellow rapper Lil Wyte went viral on Youtube. The song reached nearly 6.5 million views. In the wake of this song's success, Jelly Roll, Lil Wyte, and another rap artist BPZ formed rap group SNO and subsequently released an album titled "Year Round" in 2011. Jelly Roll also released independent albums and LPs almost every year following. His 2013 mixtape, originally named "Whiskey, Weed, and Waffle House," gained national attention after Waffle House issued him a cease and desist banning him from using their name and image on the mixtape and mixtape cover art. The name changed to "Whiskey, Weed, and Women."
In 2020, his music took a turn. He released the single "Save Me," a ballad that featured him playing the guitar and singing. The album, "Ballads of the Broken" came out the following year. From that album, "Dead Man Walking" went #1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, and "Son of a Sinner" reached #8 on Billboard's Hot Rock and Alternative Songs chart. Over the last few years he has been a constant presence in country, rock, and alternative music charts. More recently he broke the record for longest time spent at the #1 spot in Billboards Emerging Artists chart, holding the spot for 25 weeks until February 2023.
Although he originally broke into the music industry as a rap artist in the early 2000s, Jelly Roll's name has gotten an extra boost 15 years later as a country and rock singer.