Image via Jordan Coleman
In February, New York City Mayor Eric Adams held a controversial press conference where he suggested a social media ban on drill music. Adams explained that his son Jordan Coleman sent him drill music videos, and what he saw was so “alarming” that he thought social media sites should remove the subgenre from their platforms.
The Mayor’s comments went national, sparking debates far beyond the New York Metropolitan area. But what’s less known is that Adams’ son Jordan is a rapper who goes by the name Jayoo. He’s released two albums (with another on the way) and he currently works at Roc Nation in the film department. The names of his projects are space-themed, but he raps from an everyman perspective reminiscent of J. Cole or early Drake, writing songs about trying to make it, as well as a fair share of boasts about his romantic conquests.
Coleman tells Complex that he sent Pop Smoke videos to his father after Adams had met with the late rapper’s family and wanted to know more about him. He says he texted Mayor Adams shortly after the press conference and told him: “Dad, you cannot speak for me. I have drill rappers on our label as clients, and I like drill music. You cannot ban a genre. And I’m not sure why you said what you said, but I disagree.” Coleman says Adams responded, “I understand what you’re saying, and you’re allowed to disagree. We come from different times.” Though Coleman spoke highly of Adams during our hour-long conversation, it seems they have fundamental differences in opinion on drill music.
The subgenre, created in Chicago, has become a convenient scapegoat for politicians all over the country looking to vilify rap as the reason for their city’s violent crime. In New York, drill artist’s aggressive lyrical depictions closely reflect a pandemic-influenced uptick in the city’s violent crime rate, but it’s not the cause of the violence. Poverty is, and it’s on state and city leaders like Adams to address those root causes of criminality.
While Coleman says he thinks it “makes sense” that Adams isn’t for “people who are committing crimes and then going and bragging about it on songs,” he doesn’t agree with banning drill music. He hopes that more meetings like February’s City Hall discussion between Adams and New York rap artists like Fivio Foreign, B-Lovee, and Maino will help “bridge the gap between the police and artists.”
Coleman vies to be a liaison between City Hall and the New York hip-hop scene as his rap career ascends, but at this point, he has no plans to get formally involved in his father’s administration, because he’s prioritizing his music and film endeavors. The 26-year-old has an extensive entertainment background. He started as a child model for the New York Daily News, where his mother worked as a reporter, before trying his hand at acting, with auditions for the 2008 film A Raisin In The Sun and the role of Drew on Everybody Hates Chris. Eventually he found success voicing Tyrone The Moose on The Backyardigans, which he says helped open doors for his Say It Loud film, which features stars like Kobe Bryant, Jadakiss, and Swizz Beatz talking about college.
“I decided to make a documentary about the importance of education for kids of color and it incorporated their favorite celebrities,” Coleman recalls. “[The celebrities] were speaking as if they went to college, or wished that they stayed in school.” In 2016, Coleman held a Ted Talk on “Steps To Success,” in conjunction with his alma mater American University. These days, Coleman works at Roc Nation as a creative coordinator for the film department, where he helps develop movie projects, while also pursuing his rap career.
We spoke with Coleman about his perspective of Mayor Adams’ stance on drill rap. Many people in the city are wondering what the future holds for New York rap during the Adams administration, and he has a better vantage point than most. The interview, edited and condensed for clarity, is below.
How long have you been rapping?
I’ve been rapping for some time. When I first started, it was for my movies. My first movie had a little theme song to it, and I shot a music video for it. Then in my second movie, I created the theme song, and I wrote both of those. So I’ve been rapping for a while, but I didn’t really take it seriously, because growing up, my mom was like, “You’re not a rapper, you’re a filmmaker. You’re different.” So I was able to see that there was a difference between the two.
Growing up, I always had an urge to rap. Then once I got to college, I saw that my friends had a microphone in their dorm room, so that was my chance to actually fully practice rapping, then I got my voice down pat. I had to get the syllables and the bars. So I had to go through a combine and study the game to figure out how I was going to sound, and how I was going to present myself. Then once I got out of college, I dibbled and dabbled a bit, but I didn’t really take it as seriously as I wanted to. I think I took writing more seriously than rapping. 2020 is when I fully was like, “All right, I need to create a game plan to start rapping on an official level.”
These last two years, I’ve really been making a game plan as far as being a go-getter and making sure that I could figure out how I could be an independent artist, still have my nine-to-five job, and still be a filmmaker and connect everything together. I’ve been doing a lot of beat diving and finding different producers online. I’m in the process of working on my next project, which should be coming out in August.
I’m excited because I feel comfortable enough to put out music. I have a lot to say and I’m finding the proper beats for it, so the message is being conveyed the way that I would like. With me having a film background, I want the music to have a cinematic feel to it.
How does your family feel about your rap endeavors?
Well, my dad is interesting. My dad never really knocked it, because he heard me rap in-person. He was just like, “How do you remember all that? How do you know what you’re going to say next?” I was just telling him how it was like reading a script or acting out a scene in a movie. It just comes as a natural thing for some people. When you know what you’re trying to say, you can see it vividly.
With my mom, she actually has dementia, so her whole perspective on arts and music has changed. When she hears my music now, she’s proud, more or less, because she knows that she hears music on the radio and this is something that could be played on the radio or other people want to listen to it. She’ll dance around the house and hit a jig, and it makes me feel good because I followed my own dreams and ended up making both my parents proud at the same time. It was a testament to staying true to myself and finding out what was the proper way of going about the whole situation, because I knew it was possible for me to be able to be a filmmaker and to be able to work within the rap world.
Did you grow up with a lot of rap in the house?
Definitely. My mom was the reporter on the Biggie and Tupac case. She covered both of them. I was in her stomach when she went out to LA for the Biggie story. And she loved Jay-Z. That was my first concert that I went to. She was just big on hip-hop in New York, because that’s where it was popping during the time. We also had Parliament Funkadelic, James Brown, Michael Jackson, Anita Baker, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Yolanda Adams, Alicia Keys. My grandfather really liked jazz, so when me and him used to go on rides, we would listen to it on the way. I’ve always been able to connect hip-hop music with other genres as well.
Did you have the same relationship through hip-hop with your father?
Me and my dad’s hip-hop relationship is different. He still likes more old school rap. I mean, I like Big Daddy Kane and everybody else from Brooklyn—he grew up in Brooklyn—but mine is a bit more expansive because I thoroughly listened to hip-hop. I think my dad listens to what he wants to listen to, but I listen to stuff to study the game of hip-hop, so I’ll find myself all over listening to different genres.
I can’t imagine my dad listened to Dom Kennedy, Larry June, or Kodak or something like that. But maybe I can get him to listen to some Outkast here and there, but he gotta know the song or something. Me and my dad, we didn’t live together growing up, so his whole perspective and my perspective are different on things when it comes to music.
Were there moments where you tried to put him onto something and he was like, “I don’t want to hear that—turn that off?”
Yeah. My music. [Laughs.] No, I’m kidding. I wouldn’t say he would be like, “Turn that off.” But you could see that he would just check out of the conversation. Like if I’m playing someone’s song, he would just focus on his phone or ask questions and not really listen to it. It would just be one of those situations where it didn’t resonate with him as much as it resonated with me.
Lots of people in our age range have experiences like that, but it’s a different dynamic when your dad is the mayor. How often do you find yourself trying to clarify or explain things to him, especially when it comes to music?
All the time. The thing that I love is that he’s very curious, so he’ll ask questions and try to see if it makes sense to him logically, or if he likes the way things are going. But I’m definitely telling him about things, whether it’s clothing, lyrics and style, or just how they’re rapping, like the whole mumble rap scene. He has to understand that it’s a style people choose. There’s abstract art where people will throw paint on a canvas and then call it abstract. And then there’s mumble rap, and there’s other subgenres within hip-hop.
His version of hip-hop was a little bit different from what my version of hip-hop is today. I think Jay-Z had an interesting line, when he’s like, “Old folks, you need to stop acting like Tupac didn’t have the nose ring.” Because people have different styles within hip-hop, and it’s meant to be expressive. Just because they’re not expressive the way that you want them to be, doesn’t mean that it’s not expressive overall.
“Coming out saying that the drill scene is going to be banned is outrageous, because you can’t ban a genre of music—any kind of genre of music.”
Earlier this year, Mayor Adams held a press conference, and he mentioned that his son sent him some drill music videos, and he had an adverse reaction to that. What was the conversation that necessitated that, and how did that go?
It got taken out of context. This was around the time when he was asking about the whole Pop Smoke situation. My dad sat down with Pop Smoke’s parents when he was killed. And he was asking to get more information on who Pop Smoke was and what kind of music he made. So I showed him a couple music videos and songs, just in the nature of showing him what his element was like. Like, 50 Cent had this whole gangster rap and everybody else did, so it was no different for New York. That was the style in which New York embraced. So coming out saying that the drill scene is going to be banned is outrageous, because you can’t ban a genre of music—any kind of genre of music.
So I think once he said that and caught backlash for it, my dad really sat down and realized that some people really connect to this music. So you can’t take it away, just because you might not like it, or because there’s controversy behind it. Now, what he doesn’t like—and this makes total sense to me—are these people who are committing crimes and then going and bragging about it on songs, then being promoted on social media. Because as mayor of any city, you want your city to be safe, and you want people to have a good time in your city. You want people to come there, not to kill people, but to spend money and to enjoy themselves and create memories. So I think his focus was on the social media companies to not promote the bragging of killing one another, but it’s a tricky situation because that’s what that culture consists of.
I think the sit-down conversation [with other drill artists in February] was in the right direction. I feel like he started the movement in the right direction, but he needs to create a nice bridge between the artists who create that kind of music, so he can have a full understanding and be able to have a connection with the music. He needs to go about it in a proper way, where the artists respect what he’s saying and the civilians respect it as well. That’s a tough challenge, but that’s why he’s the mayor of New York City, because he’s built for those tough challenges.
So you specifically sent him Pop Smoke songs?
Yeah. He met with the family, and he was telling me the family was really nice and he had a great conversation with them. So he was asking, like, “What kind of music does he make?” Because I think this was his first introduction to the whole drill scene. And I said, “It’s hard to explain, but here are some of his songs.”
He was just showing his condolences, in the sense of a New York rapper being killed. So he wanted to show love and connect with them. Then he found out what kind of music it was and he felt bad that Pop Smoke was in a world that was so violent. I think as a parent he felt that part. He was like, “Yo, I know my son makes music and I hope he doesn’t have to live in a violent world like this.”
Were you at the meeting that he had with drill rappers?
No, I wasn’t. I was actually at work. I was at Roc and we had a late night that night, so I couldn’t get over to it. But I wanted to be there for sure, because I was interested to hear what people had to say. I was interested in what they’d say about my dad for one. And two, what they had to say about the subgenre of drill music.
Did he say he felt like it was a good conversation?
His energy was high after the conversation. He felt like it set a nice precedent moving forward for them being able to talk about it. I think the bill being passed about how they can no longer use lyrics to get people incriminated is going to be important. In the same light, we need to make sure that people are still not going out committing crimes and then bragging about it on records.
That’s a tough conversation because, like you referenced, drill culture is a consequence of systemic inequality, which spurs poverty, which spurs crime.
Right.
How do you feel about the notion that by coming down on these rappers, it’s censoring the music, and that censoring art doesn’t do any good for anybody?
We’re living in sensitive times right now, where censorship creates a backlash. And I think that it doesn’t create transparency. Right now, we need transparency. It’s something that could be spoken about in the mainstream or it should just be an underground genre. There’s plenty of genres, like heavy metal or different genres within the rock world, where it’s pretty demonic. Or it’s seen as if it’s really aggressive and they’re talking about killing and bleeding and all this other stuff, but it’s not the main genre on the billboards.
You hinted that he realized a ban on drill rap wasn’t the best solution after he had the conversation with rappers. Why do you think he had that realization?
I texted him and I was like, “Dad, you cannot speak for me. I have drill rappers on our label as clients, and I like drill music. You cannot ban a genre. And I’m not sure why you said what you said, but I disagree.” And he was like, “I understand what you’re saying, and you’re allowed to disagree. We come from different times.” And that’s what put everything in perspective for me, when he said that we come from different times. So he was just like, “Hey, I said what I said, and I’m going to own up to it. What I’m saying and what I’m doing might be two different things. But what I’m doing is the proper thing.”
He might feel some type of way, but once he sees the circumstances of the situation, he’ll make the proper decisions. And I think that goes unnoticed, because people don’t realize that he’s just a regular person. Sometimes he might say something and I’m not understanding the significance of it, but his actions will make sure that it’s amended. So I think there’s something to be understood by asking: Why is it popular? How is it popular? Who’s making it popular? And once you have that, you have to understand their motive and where their stories are coming from. It’s a trickle-down effect after that.
I think Fivio Foreign is very talented. I was listening to his last album. His storytelling is very vivid, and I would like to see more projects like this, because I know New York is capable of doing things of this nature. I could walk down the street and see someone rapping into a portable speaker with some roller skates on, a New York jersey on, they’ll be killing it. New York definitely has the talent. We just have to come together as a whole and make sure we’re representing our community to the fullest.
Some people have suggested that Mayor Adams doing things like going to a party with French Montana is a ploy to take away the stigma of his “tough-on-crime” policies. How do you feel about the notion that he’s using rap to distract from some of his policies that negatively impact Black communities?
First, shouts to French Montana, my brother, for sure. And second, he can’t please everybody with everything. The moment he understood that is when he officially became mayor. I know that he wants the best for the city, so there’s probably some things he’s doing that people don’t necessarily like, but it’s better for the overall. And I think that if people truly have a problem with it, then there needs to be a way in which they can voice their opinion instead of just yelling, or screaming, or thinking that it’s a distraction. My dad is a regular human being just like everyone else. Sometimes he does make mistakes and sometimes he does need someone to tell him that something isn’t correct.
But I will say that I don’t think he’s using the rap scene as a distraction. I think he generally likes being outside. Like I said, he’s a human being. He likes to party. He’s from New York. He’s a Brooklyn guy. Who wouldn’t want to go party? Especially if you’re the mayor of New York City, who wouldn’t want to go party in their city? I think he does it safely. I think he does it in a way in which people can connect. I mean, I feel like most people would love to see their mayor outside having a drink or just chatting it up and chilling in the club as if it’s all one big community. Because that’s all New York really is: one big community.
When he’s hanging out with these people, it’s not as if it’s a show. Like, French Montana really likes hanging out with my dad because he’s just a solid dude. And when you really get to talk to him, you see past the tie and the shiny shoes. You just see a guy who’s out here handling business and likes to have a drink on weekends.
Does he have those kinds of relationships with a lot of rappers?
Yeah, definitely. I mean it is New York City. New York City has a great relationship with rappers, so the mayor definitely should. We were with Nas the other day, and the way that he was able to connect with him as a New Yorker was powerful. It’s almost like you take off your cape or your superpowers and you just become a regular person with another legend. Seeing that unfold makes it all worth it. Or when he’s talking to Jay-Z about prison reform and they’re able to connect [and] you see two moguls collide, it is just powerful stuff to be a part of and to have visions for.
When I was in middle school, Barack Obama was the only Black guy you saw doing cool shit in the political world. You see him playing basketball, you see him with Pusha T, with J Cole and Hov going by the Oval Office. People of color need to see more situations like that. They need to see, like, “Yo, I don’t need to fit into your standards. I could be a cool politician, as long as I’m doing the things that I’m supposed to do and I’m staying appropriate. I could go out and have fun and keep my swagger.” Because that’s really what helped my dad become the mayor. He was able to have a swagger that propelled him past people who felt nervous in the limelight.
You said the city has a good relationship with rappers, but unfortunately that’s not always been the case. The NYPD has had an acrimonious relationship with rappers. Artists have been targeted and haven’t been able to perform at shows. I talked to Sheff G and he said they’re not letting him ply his trade. Do you feel like those connections he’s building with rappers will influence him to step in when it comes to the city limiting artist opportunities?
Absolutely. This was year one of my dad being mayor and he hasn’t even had a full year yet. It’s been, what? Seven months. So I think he’s definitely going to keep building a strong relationship with these artists. As I emerge in the New York rap scene, I’m going to be able to help as well, creating the relationships and being able to bridge the gap between the police and artists.
I’m excited for my dad to have more sit-down situations, not necessarily in the club, but going out to brunch and sitting down and talking. Or sitting down in a conference room with artists from different genres and cities like Chicago or Miami or Los Angeles, to discuss the overall rap scene, people’s perspectives of New York rap, and how can we connect it between the police officers and our artists?
That’s one of the biggest things. If we were able to sit police officers and hip-hop artists down in the same room, and we were able to really have an honest discussion about this and no one’s getting in trouble from this, I think we would find so much about why there’s a disconnect. But because everyone’s living their own life, people have their own motivations. People are stuck in their own rituals, routines, and situations. There’s no allowance for transparency between the two forces.
I come from a police officer family. My grandfather was a police officer and my dad was a police officer, and now is the mayor. I understand both sides of the perspective. So I would like to see a relationship form between artists and law enforcement, so that we can have less police brutality, and we can have more secure places so people can rock out at shows and they can perform more. The security’s tight enough and we don’t have to worry about not coming home at the end of the night.
Most people want rappers to be considered as artists and a part of the community, instead of just a black eye or black sheep of the city, where people feel compelled to cancel their shows or try to censor them.
Absolutely. But then that goes into it… I’m going to go and say this: Artists are going to be challenged at that point, because right now the artist has it easy. They can just be the black sheep and they can rap about being a black sheep and be able to pull that emotion out. But once the community is fully behind you, once you’re not facing any obstacle, what are you going to be rapping about? Moving forward, if we really want our communities to be better, hip-hop artists are going to have to figure out: What are they going to be rapping about next?
The music just reflects society. I would hope that people can listen to drill music, and even if it feels dangerous or violent to them, they don’t have to fear it. Instead, they can use it as a catalyst to think about how they can help create a better world where rappers aren’t talking about these conditions. But it seems like a lot of times it goes the other way.
For sure. It definitely does. But I’m even looking at it like this: In these action movies and these adventure movies, you see people get their heads blown off and you see them doing all these crazy shootings, explosions and all this stuff. But they were able to be seen as fake or not real. So I think once the shootings and the killings actually go down in real life, there’ll be a bit more leniency towards the lyrics and the style, with all these shootings, people purchasing guns, people being killed within schools, churches, and on the streets. I think it’s going to be harder for people to be able to rap about explicit lyrics—about killings and about violence.
Do you have any aspirations to help Mayor Adams’ administration make connections with the rap scene in a more formal manner?
I don’t really have any aspirations for it. But if I get the opportunity, like if it becomes my purpose to connect artists with law enforcement, it would be a very steep challenge, but I wouldn’t back down from it. It would have to be a passion of mine and I would have to be able to talk to the proper people, and the proper people would have to fully understand and listen to where I’m coming from. So, yeah, I wouldn’t be opposed to doing something like that, but I would still like to make music and make these movies.
I saw a recent clip where Joe Budden was essentially saying, “Drill rap is about to be over. Adams is not playing with y’all. That is about to be over.” From your perspective, is Mayor Adams not pursuing that ban now? Was that something that Adams said and realized it was a mistake and fell back from that idea?
I don’t know. Maybe Joe Budden has talked to him recently and I haven’t heard about the conversation, but I’m not really sure where my dad fully stands with the whole drill scene. Like I said, me and my dad don’t live together and we live separate lives. So whenever we do talk, we catch up on everything that we missed from before. But the whole drill scene isn’t something that we talk about on a daily basis.
I mean, I hope he doesn’t ban it. I don’t think that’s a smart move at all. I think that there needs to be more conversations around it in the public eye. I think that these drill artists need to hold a podcast or my dad needs to hold a podcast with drill artists, or just hip-hop artists in general, and figure out what should be next.
Before any action is made, I think people need to have more conversations. There needs to be a few different discussions before you ban anything, and before you allow anything to keep moving forward in any direction. So my advice for him is to create another town hall meeting, pick some of the same people, but also switch it up and get some news people in there. Let’s get some different perspectives and let’s understand what drill rappers are looking like in our country as a whole, and not just New York City, so we can understand the overall culture and see where we can move forward instead of just marginalizing this to New York City. There’s drill rap everywhere, and the people are shooting and killing each other everywhere. So let’s not just have New York City be the prime target of this situation.
In addition to rapping, you also work at Roc Nation. What position do you have?
As of right now, I’m a creative coordinator for the film department at Roc Nation. It’s pretty cool because I’m really creative for the film department. We go out and find different projects that we can work on, with our clients or for our original content. So I’m reading over scripts and meeting different people. I’m really just brainstorming creative ideas to bring to the table for my boss to approve, or for us to develop a little bit more.
People are sending us pitches for different projects and we’re able to navigate through it and find what really touches the Roc Nation culture. I feel honored to be a creative for Roc Nation films because I always looked up to Jay-Z and I always wanted to work in this industry. Now is my opportunity to use all the skills that I’ve gathered throughout my film career and combine them with the tools that I’m gaining now. It’s definitely a good trade-off. I love being creative while I’m young and still able to tap into the culture. I’m excited to help shift it in the proper direction.
How did you get that position?
There was something on Indeed talking about Roc Nation films and I applied for it. I was waiting to hear back for some time. And then obviously my dad being the mayor of New York City, he meets a lot of interesting people. He was saying that he had dinner with Brett Yormark of Roc Nation. He was the COO at the time, and I asked if I could join him along for dinner.
The funny thing with that story is: We get to dinner and I’ve got my laptop, my notepad, and my hat, ready to go, like, “Sir, it’s an honor...” And he’s just looking at me like, “Yo Jordan, put your laptop down, eat some dinner first. Let me get to know who you are as a person before...” So I just eased up my anxiousness, and I was able to show off what I’m really good at, which is networking, connecting with people, and communicating overall messages. Then I had to send in some writing samples to show that I was competent in being a writer for Roc Nation and being a creative. They saw what I could do and they were pleased.
Earlier, you said your mother suggested that you should try to do something positive for the community in your future endeavors. Is that a priority in the work you do scouting out films for Roc Nation?
It plays a huge role. We’re working on a film with Roc Nation on Parchman prison, which is a prison in Mississippi that started off as a plantation until they changed it into a prison and the living conditions are just terrible. People were dying from lack of security, lack of medicine, lack of sanitation. That kind of story strikes me because I’m always trying to better the whole Black situation in America.
I’m honored to be a part of that. Jay has done an interview, Yo Gotti is executive producing, and I was able to run into Michael Eric Dyson at this event that we had with Roc Nation, the United Justice Coalition. That was my second or third time running into him. I was able to backtrack and have a full-circle moment with him, explaining how his work has motivated me to continue to do good work for people of color and in that culture. Seeing him again, working on things like the Parchman prison project, and seeing how prison reform is something really important that we need to focus on, I’m able to express myself in a way that comes off powerful [from] an entertainment point of view.
As far as scouting projects, we tend to look for projects that have a New York story or a unique story. We look for projects that are based on music, and that are based around intellectual property so that we can build a story around it. Ultimately, it doesn’t just have to be a person of color story, but it has to be something where it connects with that culture. So we try to be as diverse as possible with our selections and try to make it so that everyone is pleased with at least one thing that we’re coming up with.
You’re an indie artist currently, but are there any plans or aspirations to fuse that together with the work you’re doing at Roc Nation?
Absolutely. Long-term goal, I would love to be under the Roc Nation label, as far as being able to work for them and make music. I feel comfortable enough at Roc Nation where I can create content from the film world and still have great ideas for the music world. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be on the label with Jay-Z? But at the same time, they definitely have EQ, which is called equity distribution, and it’s for independent artists to help distribute. They created a platform with that. I’ve been working closely with them as far as helping them create commercials and things of that nature. But that might be the next step for myself to go down that path.
As of right now, I’m just building up some content so that my profile will get a nice push. I’ve got some good content out. I’m working on music videos and I’m really going to build and make a movement. If Roc Nation is interested in participating in my musical movement, they’re more than welcome to. They always get first dibs when it comes to that. But if not, then I’m just going to be rocking by myself in the sense and continue the independent route.
Do you have a name for your album yet?
I don’t have a name for it just yet. Most of my stuff relates to outer space, whether it’s Planet Jensen or a space theme. So I might be tapping into a brand new galaxy… That might be the name of it, actually. Brand New Galaxy. We’re going to go with that one right there. Brand New Galaxy.
Is there anything else you want to say?
I think we touched on a lot of good stuff. I want to say that I’m interested in finding film creatives who want to help put together music videos, and some producers that are looking to get some projects out because it’s definitely been a struggle going to work, being creative, and finding other creatives as well. So if there are people that want to reach out, [do so on Instagram].