Joyner Lucas

Background

Gary Maurice Lucas Jr. was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on August 17, 1988. He has two younger siblings, his parents divorced when he was young, and his mother remarried. Lucas later moved in with his mother, so his stepfather played an important role in his upbringing. He began rapping when he was 10 years old and attended South High Community School in his hometown. Many artists, including Eminem, the Notorious B.I.G., Will Smith, and Method Man, influenced his hip-hop persona. When he first began, he went by the name G-Storm but in 2007, he changed his name to Future Joyner and began working with his uncle, Cyrus tha Great, who was not much older than him, as part of a group called Film Skool Rejekts. They published “Workprint: The Greatest Mixtape of All Time” the same year. They later collaborated on several music projects.

After collaborating with his uncle, he released his first solo mixtape, “Listen to Me,” in 2011. Thereafter, he changed his name (again) to Joyner Lucas because the rapper Future entered the scene. He then released his first mixtape, “LFO’s (Low Frequency Oscillators),” in 2013. “Along Came Joyner,” his second mixtape, gained him a lot of attention when it was featured at the 2015 BET Hip Hop Awards. Three years later, in 2016, he became well-known for his popular hip-hop song remixes. The single ‘I’m Not Racist’ went viral and gained critical acclaim since it was controversial. The video that he posted to Youtube was nominated for a Grammy Awards for ‘Best Music Video.’ Although the video lost to ‘This Is America,’ he still rose in popularity.

Lucas has a son with Carmen Julissa Ayala, Joyner Messiah Lucas, who was born on February 20, 2016. The two had an on-off relationship.