Baby Jayy accidentally spilled his glass of ice water on the table and floor one recent night at Carlos’ Poco Loco in Toledo’s UpTown district.
He was animatedly explaining that he has played piano since age 9, and the drums even longer.
Wearing a Stranger Things pullover hoodie and blue beads in his hair, he smiled self-consciously as he deployed a wad of napkins to absorb the puddles.
Just how old is Baby Jayy? He started to laugh after joking that he was “500” years old.
“I don’t really tell people my age, then they judge me,” he said, adding he’s not 18 yet, but has a birthday in December. “I feel like they judge me thinking I’m young. I feel like I’m way older than what I am.”
VIDEO: Baby Jayy
Who is Baby Jayy?
Six months ago Baby Jayy, whose real name is Jeremiah Beal, hadn’t ever released a rap song. In fact, that’s around the same time he started rapping and released his first song “Rockstar” online, which has nearly 50,000 views on YouTube and 27,000 streams on his SoundCloud account.
Three days later, at the end of June, he released his second song “Out the Rain” online, along with a music video exclusively through World Star Hip Hop, a content video blog. The video has reached more than 1 million views on YouTube, and many more through reposts from others.
“It’s crazy,” the teenager said. “It was just different from everyone. The sound and the vibe to that song is different than anything that was out at that time. I knew it was going to get a little bit of attention.”
WATCH: Baby Jayy, ‘Out the Rain’
The music video features Jayy singing and rapping at a park with his friends in the background. He has his shirt off and wears a metal chain around his neck with a lock, which Jayy said he wears because “I feel like I was chained to society, but I’m cut loose.”
In the hook, Jayy sings “I made it out of the rain/I swear we are not the same/half a million in my bank/’member I ain’t have a thing/I got this [explicit] on my own.”
When asked what he was thinking about when he was writing lyrics to “Out the Rain” he said he moved and lived with his father in Chicago during the summer of 2017 and was surrounded by an unhealthy atmosphere among his peers. He said he moved back to Toledo this summer.
“I made it out the rain, stuff I’ve been through back in Chicago ... that gang violence,” he said. “That’s why I came to Toledo. I woke up singing that melody. I was asleep one day and woke up ‘nah nah nah nah’ and I put the words together.”
Search the video on YouTube and you’ll find numerous reaction videos of people laughing at his high-pitched singing in the beginning, but quickly changing their opinion after hearing Jayy’s impressive rap verse.
In the verse, he raps “My lifestyle I’m still gettin’ used to/I got this [explicit] too soon/I remember eatin’ Ramen noodles.”
He recorded his first three songs “Rockstar,” “Out The Rain,” and “Party Rocker” at Firefly Studios in Toledo with recording studio owner Brett Dennison from mid April through early June this year.
WATCH: Baby Jayy, “Party Rocker”
Dennison said in April he noticed an artist by the name of Baby Jayy had booked studio time for the first time and he showed up 45 minutes early, something he said never happens with artists renting time at Firefly.
He said Jayy showed ambition in the studio and had a grasp for what listeners are searching; the youth wasn’t afraid to take musical risks.
“There’s just something about that kid that gives you the feeling that you’re with an entertainer,” Dennison said. “He’s got a vibe about him and an ambitious nature. I walked out of the room and I smiled and thought to myself ‘this kid looks like a star,’ and I don’t get that feeling ever.”
Dennison said he could see Jayy trying to take advantage of the recording process while in the studio to learn as much as possible in a short amount of time. He said Jayy developed as an artist over the couple of months he was recording, yielding an output that might take a year for other artists.
“Just like a guitarist will search for the exact right timing of their guitar solo and the exact rhythm and note, Jayy is very specific on how those rap sections hit and where the rap accents are,” he said. “He takes care in some of those things and I think most of that is so that it maintains good quality style.”
Jayy said he has performed only one show since he started rapping, which took place in Dallas in front of 300 people shortly before the school year started. His set included just three songs because that’s all he had released online at the time, including “Out The Rain.”
Sabrina Russell, Jayy’s mother, said Jayy attended fourth through eighth grade at Rosary Cathedral and Phoenix Academy for ninth through 11th grades. She said he is taking online classes and plans to graduate in the spring.
She said Jayy has always been attentive to music, dating back to when he played the keyboard, drums, and occasional guitar at their church at Shelter in a Storm Ministries.
“He was always able to help us direct the choir and lead the music,” she said.
Russell said her son’s passion for rapping over the summer took her by surprise.
“I said ‘you’re musically gifted, you ‘ought to be singing’, but I didn’t know he was rapping out there in the yard or rapping in the neighborhood at the basketball court,” she said. “Basketball was his first love and he was always on the court playing, but his friends tell me now he was out there rapping all the time.”
When “Out the Rain” went viral over the summer, she realized her son’s music was getting a lot of attention online.
“One day I came home from church on a Sunday and that’s when everything started blowing up on YouTube,” she said. “It's like what he did just playing around turned into something big. It was exciting even though it wasn’t my type of music. I was just as excited because he was doing something.”
Along with the many views and streams, there have been negative comments from people.
Some compare his high-pitched singing to Elmo, Mickey Mouse, and the gingerbread man from Shrek.
Baby Jayy smiled and admitted he’s read those comments.
“I used to go through those comments,” he said. “From Toledo they got dis songs about me, from people I don’t even know. People make videos disrespecting my name. I don’t let the hate get to me.”
Others have compared Baby Jayy to artists such as Trippie Redd and Lil Yachty, but Jayy said he disagrees. He also mentioned that Trippie Redd shouted him out on his Instagram page, and said the two recently hung out for about an hour in New York.
“I don’t think I sound like them. I think they get the Lil Yachty because of the braids, but I don’t feel like I’m influenced by them,” he said. “I got my own lane, my own way. I feel like I do what other rappers can’t do. Versatile, melody straight rap. I talk about real stuff, real life style, real life stuff that goes on. Not just jewelry or money.”
He said he’s still an independent artist and owns all of his music, but has had offers from record labels and plans to sign to one within the next year. He’s also caught the attention of L.A. Reid, a record executive who has written and produced for artists such as Mariah Carey, Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Rihanna, and Future and recently founded Hitco Entertainment.
Jayy said Reid took him out to dinner in New York this fall.
“He heard my music and he wanted to just meet me,” Jayy said. “It was crazy; I didn’t know who he was though. We talked about a lot. He told me he ain’t heard nobody who sounded like me in a long time.”
In “Out the Rain,” he raps, “I talk to God every day that I see/yeah/and ask him to watch over me/yeah” and said he keeps his faith in God strong, also mentioning that his grandmother is a Toledo pastor.
“Everything I rap about I’ve either been through it or it's true,” Jayy said.
Russell, Jayy’s mother, said her son started rapping in the privacy of his bedroom and now has big things planned for 2019.
“It makes me feel so excited and I know he deserves everything he’s doing and working hard to achieve,” she said. “He’s never been a trouble child for me. He’s always been an entertainer.”
In his song “Hard Way,” he raps “I’m from Toledo/that’s on me though/don’t get shot like free throws.”
“Toledo made me, I feel like, how I am at the end of the day,” he said. “It’s my city and I love it. Toledo definitely has some hard spots; I wouldn’t say it’s safe [more than Chicago]. It’s just not like how it was in Chicago. People ain’t dyin’ every day. There’s more love here.”
Although to date Jayy has released fewer than 10 songs online, he plans to release his debut EP True Story through Spotify and SoundCloud on Dec. 26. The release will include 10 new songs, a few of which he described as taking an R&B route. The EP will also be an independent release.
Having used most of the napkins on the table to dry the water, Baby Jayy smiled at his clumsiness.
While he finished and leaned forward to continue speaking, one couldn’t help but notice that not a single drop had gotten on his clothes.
First Published December 23, 2018, 1:15 p.m.
