Jelly Roll and mgk are helping Spotify launch their new Countdown To vodcast series, which gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at artists' upcoming projects as they count down to album release day.
In July, Spotify expanded its Countdown Pages tool, which helps artists and their fans prepare for album releases by allowing listeners to preview playlists, watch clips, get artist/album merchandise, and see a timer counting down the seconds until the album's release.
With Countdown To, artists sit down with fellow artists, album collaborators, family members and friends to dive into the music, themes and inspirations of a new album. The spearhead series can be found on the artist's Countdown page, while the full video will be available as a vodcast episode on Spotify and on Spotify's YouTube page.
The opening episode features Jelly Roll in conversation with mgk as the countdown begins to the release of Jelly Roll's upcoming album Beautifully broken on October 11. Jelly Roll and mgk previously collaborated on the song “Lonely Road”.
“I felt early on in this writing process, it was becoming my mental health journal,” Jelly Roll said, adding, “It's the longest I've ever written a single piece… I really wrote this record hoping that people would feel like they were talking for. What I hear the most from people is, “Man, this song says things I can't.” And that's what sticks with me, man… That's what I want them to get from this album.”
They also discussed how they became friends from enemies, with mgk saying, “Well, our beginnings were interesting,” and Jelly Roll laughing. “It's so funny how much I love you now,” said Mg, “because, God, I hated you so much then.”
Jelly laughed back, “I was just a mean, bitter dude, you know what I'm saying?” adding, “I explain this to people and they don't understand the concept because of our age now. Every time I talk to my daughter, I say, 'You have to understand that there were only seven white rappers on Earth right now, so it was so competitive when you were in that pool, we were automatically pitted against everybody. but anyway.”
“Sure,” mgk said. “You have been raised to hate each other.”
“And you were like, just thin and beautiful,” Jelly Roll said. “Well, I was just a hater. I was just a hater, man! It's hard to grow up in front of the whole world.”
“This might be one of my favorite records mgk, it was “F–k Machine Gun Kelly and his mohawk,” mgk said, getting more laughs from Jelly Roll. “Because you just had that Southern drawl in your voice where you didn't say 'mohawk,' but you said 'mo-hawck.' And that mohawk, man, my mohawk was just a nice, eight inches of just egg white and cheap hairspray…”
Jelly Roll's song “I Am Not Okay”, appears Beautifully brokenit is currently at No. 9 on Bulletin boardHot Country Songs Chart. Meanwhile, the album shares its name with Jelly Roll's just-launched arena tour, which also features openers Warren Zeiders and Alexandra Kay.
Jelly Roll also talked about the struggle of balancing life on the road with being there for his family, and the two also discussed the ever-expanding reach of country music and compared the expanding boundaries of rock and country.
“Countdown To is the latest effort in our continued commitment to showcasing artists and their new music on Spotify.” Sara Patelloshead of Spotify Music Studios, said in a statement. “Collaboration with the director Karam Gill and mgx creative, these intimate conversations are shot documentary-style to really get to the root of each artist's creative journey.”
Check out Jelly Roll and mgk's discussion below:
