The Origin

Born and raised in Cincinnati, OH, Jay Gilliam started making music around the age of 15. It all started with him and his dad listening to hip-hop in the basement together, almost daily. They would listen to anything from Ice Cube, Jay Z, 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, Scarface, 2Pac, Lil Wayne, Geto Boys, Biggie, and so much more. He started freestyling, just to try it, and fell in love with it. The first instrumental he remembers rapping over was Chris Brown’s “Poppin'”, and never looked back. 

His first solo project, titled “Speck of Greatness” was released in 2012 and he has released four albums since 2019 alone, including two of them being labeled as Billboard Album of the Week for Independent artists by Billboard, one being “More than Enough” in 2022 and "What Matters Most" in 2023.