You can’t accuse Jiles of not knowing his audience.
“If you ain’t never had to struggle, then don’t play this shit,” he asserts on “Kids,” the first track of his new album Fuck Jiles. It’s a mantra that quickly sets the tone of the Brockton artist’s new release, which he shared on Tuesday (July 30) via Van Buren Records.
The hard-hitting rap record sifts through Jiles’ background with all the bass-y thump of classic hip-hop and none of the sometimes-customary gloating. “If you know me, you know I can be real jokey, based on social media and in person, but people don’t know my true upbringing and what shaped me into the person I am today,” he says in a promo video for Fuck Jiles on twitter.
“I feel like with this project, I was able to get off everything I needed to get off [my chest],” he adds, citing the topics like alcoholism, poverty, depression, and moving over 20 times in his lifetime. “I don’t really talk about that stuff, so I feel a lot more comfortable when I do it in my raps.”
By his side on the 10 tracks and outro are a handful of his Van Buren labelmates, such as Lord Felix, Saint Lyor, and Luke Bar$, who also executive produced Fuck Jiles. Together, they paint Jiles’ narrative with brushstrokes of sheer candor and a disregard for any kind of musical or material grandstanding.
“Everybody wants to talk about, you know, the bragging shit, the finesse, the clothes, all that shit, but ain’t nobody talking about that real life shit,” he notes. “I feel like it’s up to me to be that one person to really speak on that. I know more poor people than rich people. My city’s not the richest city, so I feel like a lot more people could resonate with what I’ve got to say.”
Loyal to his cause, the Brockton rapper succeeds at holding nothing back; Catch up on Jiles’ collaboration-laden story below.