“I want to make sure at the end of it all, I’m not just an actor-turned-rapper, but that I’m an artist,” he tells Billboard News.
Jharrel Jerome has been making his way into hip-hop, releasing two EPs this year — Rap Pack and Trip Pack — after working on music for the better part of the past decade. The Moonlight actor sat down for the latest episode of Billboard News to talk about why he’s dropping music in this way, the deeper meaning behind his project and what his future in film looks like.
“I’ve been writing music for a long time, and I want to prove that with what I release — I’m talking maybe six or seven years of me in the studio creating records I never released. The reason I’m releasing it in packs like this is because I believe album culture is a little dead right now,” he explained of his rollout process. “Instead, I want to dish it out in a way that’s digestible and understandable. For me, I want to make sure at the end of it all, I’m not just an actor-turned-rapper, but that I’m an artist. And I want people to not only see that I’ve been doing it for a long time, but to believe that I’ve been doing it for a long time.”
The EPs are part of a greater project that Jerome is working on titled Someone I’m Not. The actor explained that the title has multiple meanings, pertaining to his career on film, as well as how he’s perceived on the outside. “[The title]’s a play on the profession that I do in my career, embodying something that I’m not and transforming into a character that I have to create, but to me the irony is also how it correlated to my real life as well,” he stated. “My life changed dramatically in the last few years of my life. I’m still trying to adjust … I’m not all the way ready to be [a certain person] to somebody, so here he or she is viewing me as somebody I’m not.”
As for Jerome’s acting career, he is very much interested in keeping himself open to starring in more movies, but is choosing to be selective with what he invests his energy in. “I feel like I got spoiled early by being a part of projects that are culturally so impactful. I think when you receive a chance like that you don’t wanna go back,” he said of his past projects, which includes Full Circle, When They See Us and more. “You don’t wanna do anything less. I would never quit acting; I’m very selective and I want the role to challenge me and I want to be 45 and look at my credits and be like ‘Damn, I was patient and I was willing to do the harder things.’”
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