Jack Harlow

“I still wanna be one of the greats,“ rapper Jack Harlow tells Apple Music about his commitment to his craft. “I’m very ambitious about this. And I think I have what it takes to really make a mark because I love the art.” Harlow, born in 1998 in Kentucky, dedicated himself to the task of turning that dream into reality. Growing up in Louisville, Harlow started writing and rapping at the age of 12 and released his bouncy first EP before graduating from school in late 2015. After his more fully realised mixtape, 18, dropped in 2016, Harlow continued to inject his chill party rap and poppy beats with “addictive, candy-coated qualities”, as he described it to Apple Music. “It’s good on the ears.” With 2017’s Gazebo, he established a more mature sound, moodily riding through his hometown with the intense “Dark Knight” and keeping things dreamy using synth pulses on the regret-laden “Wasted Youth”. It’s a vibe he honed on multiple mixtapes in the late 2010s, keeping with a feel he says is representative of Louisville—smooth and laidback—while exploring elements of trap, which is native to his adopted home base of Atlanta. Harlow’s melodic savvy proved to be the key to achieving mass success when he signed with Generation Now and launched an incredible run of major-label hits with 2020’s punchy “WHATS POPPIN”. An irresistibly sly and sultry single from his 2022 album, Come Home The Kids Miss You, “First Class” took him all the way to the place he always saw as his inevitable destination: on top. Released in 2023, Jackman. captures him in a more reflective mode, with Harlow feeling increasingly comfortable at displaying his vulnerability along with his confidence.