Jelly Roll made headlines recently when he sent out a post on X (formerly Twitter) saying he was going to “expose the music industry.”
Back in October, the rapper-turned-country artist sent this message out, and it ended up getting viewed over 9.7 million times:
Learned a lot about how slimy the music business is this week, don’t worry yall know I’m going to expose it soon. This whole thing is smoke and mirrors yall. All that shit Russ be talking about is REAL!
— Jelly Roll (@JellyRoll615) October 18, 2024
And now, he’s clearing up what he meant by that.
During a sit down interview with ESPN’s Pat McAfee Show, Jelly Roll spoke about the social media storm he brought upon himself sending that out. He first made sure to clarify that he personally felt attacked with some of things people were saying (and assuming) about his post.
Jelly Roll said that McAfee and his show could probably relate to the criticism:
“Y’all understand more than anybody. When y’all went to ESPN, all of the sudden, y’all went from this big, cool, cult thing to a lot of people that didn’t know you knew you and had an opinion about you and didn’t know you. Y’all handled it better than me. I hate to be this honest Pat, but it hurt my feelings. I was just like, ‘Y’all don’t even know me.’”
Following that, the “I Am Not Okay” singer specifically brought up the tweet/post that he had sent out that had caused the stir and caused him to face unnecessary backlash. Jelly Roll admitted that he probably could have used some different words when describing the situation:
“The first tweet I said, ‘I’ve seen some slimy stuff in the music business this week, don’t worry I’ll expose it later. My people know that whenever I sit down, I’ll talk about it. I’m honest. In hindsight, the word ‘exposed’ was maybe a little dramatic. But the word ‘slimy’ wasn’t. And the way people responded in the comments was like I said ‘satanic.’”
Jelly Roll – a man of faith – was taken back by the accusation, making sure to clarify that he alluding to anything that had anything to do with the illuminati or anything of that nature. He shut down those comments, and then decided to take a break from social media altogether.
You always persevere @JellyRoll615 #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/YRyCtoh6QD
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) November 7, 2024
Jelly Roll continued on in the interview asking for his fans and any other individuals out there to extend him a little bit of a break. The country singer’s tumultuous past has notably been covered, but even with the shortcomings in his early life, he was surprised that people would jump to those kinds of conclusions:
“I’m asking for a little grace from everybody to realize that, I know we know my story now, but it’s still a big transition for me. I’ve spent most of my life in a place where if you spit in the sink, you would get stabbed. You go from that to where people accuse you of being a satan worshipper on Twitter for no reason?”
Once he got that off his chest, the Nashville native got into what exactly he meant when he said he had witnessed the “slimy” music business. It all revolved around the release of his most recent album, Beautifully Broken, which featured hits like “Liar” and “Get By” and quickly claimed Number One Album status.
Though that wasn’t without its fair share of hurdles, as he explained:
“I won’t say the artist’s name because I know a lot of artists are disconnected from what’s happening in the music business. I’m a little more hands on with what’s happening behind the scenes. So I’m kind of keeping up with stuff. My manager sits me down and says, ‘Look man, I didn’t ever want you to get into a situation where you were aware of what happens when you start getting in conversations for number one albums. Because it’s just real dirty business.’
And there was an artist that looked like his double daily projected, they weren’t even going to be within 50 or 60 thousand albums of me and Rod Wave. Then Thursday night before the Friday count-ins, 40 thousand album sales (show up) on a third-party aggregated site that fast.”
There’s the “slimy” thing Jelly Roll was alluding to.
In order to gain the right to the “Number One Album,” it looked as though an unnamed artist tried to game the system with fake sales. Jelly Roll was taken back by that, though he wasn’t all that surprised:
“You are looking at that and it’s just slimy. I used a great term. That’s slimy. Now Luminate, who is charge of counting record sales, rejected these sales, which is how I ended up with the number one album. So that’s the truth, and here’s the real truth while we’re doing ‘Inside Baseball.’
As far as I’m concerned, I want to congratulate Rod Wave on having the number one album. Because he was streamed more than me and the other two artists almost combined in consumption that first week. But we sold more records, because we still have a traditional fanbase that will go to Walmart and Target (to buy physical copies).”
Jelly Roll congratulating fellow artist Rod Wave for actually having a number one album when it comes to streams is just another great example of the class act that the country music star is. But thankfully, those fabricated album sales didn’t count, and Jelly Roll was able to claim Beautifully Broken as the number one album upon its release.
“A lot of artists are disconnected from what’s happening in the music business..
I’m a little more hands on with what’s happening behind the scenes & I’m always trying to keep up with stuff..
I thought my audience deserved a number one album and we’re proud of it” ~… https://t.co/8e6ZAWLlAM pic.twitter.com/xltcP2Q180
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) November 7, 2024
This post was originally published on here
