Q&A: mynameisntjmack Drops Striking New Single “american spirit” and Joins Tommy Richman on the Coyote Tour
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY CHARLOTTE ISIDORE ☆
Photo Credit: Alf Bordallo
WITH HIS SHARP LYRICISM AND SOUL-BARING VULNERABILITY — mynameisntjmack is emerging as one of the most compelling voices in alternative hip-hop. The Virginia-bred, LA-based artist creates music that feels like a late-night confessional—gritty, vulnerable, and fearlessly real. His latest single, “american spirit,” is an invitation inside his intimate world. The lyrics offer a raw and unfiltered look into his relationship with himself and his battles with solitude. Producer daedaePIVOT blends dreamy synth textures and a laid-back beat, making the track feel hazy and raw, yet polished. There is a soft groove without overpowering the introspective lyrics.
The track is a milestone in what has already been a landmark year for jmack. Following the success of his acclaimed debut LP mynameisnt and the resurgence of his breakout collaboration “BUNKER/PREROLL” with longtime friend and fellow Virginia artist Tommy Richman, jmack continues to cement himself as one of rap’s most fascinating storytellers. His music has amassed over 60 million streams and earned praise from tastemakers like Pigeons & Planes and TIDAL. In fact, TIDAL named him one of their 2024 Rising Artists, while his work secured spots on major playlists, including Spotify’s New Music Friday. On top of this success, he is set to support Tommy Richman’s Coyote Tour in 2025, which will take him across the US and Europe, strengthening his growing global reach. Through it all, mynameisntjmack stays true to his roots—creating music that’s honest, immersive, and deeply personal.
Luna sat down with mynameisntjmack to discuss his latest single and his love for his home state. Read below to learn more!
Photo Credit: Ian Anthony
LUNA: Congratulations on the release of your new single, “american spirit.” What conversations or life experiences inspired you to write it?
MYNAMEISNTJMACK: Honestly, I would say self-isolation. I wrote this song after a month and a half-long hiatus. [I went] back to Virginia, isolating myself after some stuff that happened in my personal life. Coming back to it, the song is important to me mainly because it captures a sound that I've never really hit before. It came after a period of being way too stagnant with the music. The song is about pushing people away and having to deal with yourself, which is really what I did over the month and a half that I was gone. The reason why it's called “american spirit” is because I roll all of my spliffs in OCB cones with American Spirit tobacco to help it burn longer. So that's a solace point for me.
I think making sad music for sad settings might be one of the easier things to do because we can all relate to that feeling. The ultimate battle is to make stuff that is vulnerable, but [can] be played in different settings. I grew up inspired by “Throw Away” by Future. In my opinion, it is one of the best songs of all time. The first half is so upbeat, and then in the second half he's talking about the same general premise, but just from a different lens. It is one of those songs that captures that feeling of being able to play a song outside, but [with] some vulnerable substance to it.
LUNA: Hip-hop is a regional genre, and Virginia has been having a moment this year. For you, how did growing up in Virginia shape your sound?
MYNAMEISNTJMACK: It's hard to describe how separated Virginia is in terms of different [musical] pockets. [For example], when I met Tommy [Richman] he lived in Woodbridge at the time, and that was a whole venture to be able to meet him. Then there are people that I made music with in Richmond. If I were to go even further south towards Virginia Beach, it would be where Pharrell, Pusha T, and Missy Elliot, are from, and you could go even further out into the country for somebody like Timbaland. So there's a lot of influence in Virginia —it's just such a large state with different pockets of sounds. So I would say that Virginia forced me [to have] a level of independent curiosity.
There's a similar drive from people from Virginia that I appreciate. None of us make similar music, but we're all very independently-driven in the same way. Greek is somebody that I met out here [in LA], and I didn't know until we had met each other that he was from Martinsville, Virginia. He makes something that sounds completely different from anybody else in Virginia. Nettspend is from Richmond. I love that he’s very vocal about being from Virginia. Shaboozey is from the same place as Tommy.
I have a lot of reverence for Virginia. That's kind of what the overall project is talking about — my view of where I'm at now relative to where I was in Virginia. It's like a vignette of where I've been the past six months. A lot of that has to do with feelings about Virginia, going back as frequently as I do, and trying to maintain some semblance of self.
LUNA: In the new year, you will support fellow Virginian Tommy Richman's US/European tour, The Coyote Tour. Which cities are you most excited to perform in?
MYNAMEISNTJMACK: I was in Chicago opening up for Tommy and I wore Derrick Rose’s high school jersey. I'm a big Bulls fan and love Derrick Rose as a player, and I thought, “Oh, it's Chicago, it would be cool to just wear this the one time that I'm in Chicago performing.” People in the crowd that were like, “Oh, I went to high school with D. Rose and he meant so much to the area. It was cool to see an artist who showed love to the city like that in a way that wasn't just like popping out in a regular jersey.”
So I'm trying to ask the fans if I could get some niche local area sports jerseys to try and represent the area. Women's National Team legend Julie Ertz is from Mesa, Arizona, so I'm trying to get a women's national team jersey for that show specifically. If I were to name a top three, it would be Mesa Arizona, Seattle, [Washington] and then, of course, DC; with an honorable mention being Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
I have a lot of love for people who are just willing to even pop out and see me at all in some of these places. So it's like meeting people in the middle, showing that there's love. I learned a lot from just being a big fan of stand-up comedy and a lot of comics talk about when they're on the road, just sometimes knowing a little bit about a place and being to be able meet people on common ground is insanely important to establishing that connection at a show.
That's something that I've tried to run with because I think that people want to see themselves reflected in the artists that they love and that they genuinely enjoy, and to be acknowledged in that way. I think it's important, you know, and I'm a big sports fan, so the more jerseys I can collect, the better.
LUNA: Who are other Virginia artists that you’d like to collaborate with, or for people to know?
MYNAMEISNTJMACK: So in terms of people from Virginia that I would obviously love to work with, Missy Elliot is at the top of the list for sure. Also, there's a dope rapper from Richmond, Nickelus F who is a cult rapper that I would love to [collaborate] with, [he’s] very well respected.
In terms of artists that I respect there's a lot that are just in the state that make all different kinds of music. So there is Eric Penn, he's a singer-songwriter with a beautiful voice. I believe he has an incredible voice, somebody that I've gotten to see perform live, and I think that that's super important — seeing how somebody represents themselves on stage. He's incredible. Ashley White is another artist, she's phenomenal as well. Then there's Saekyi [who’s] very incredible. And then donnie killjoy.
Those are all four different lanes of music, I would say, from like singer-songwriter with a gospel influence to more neo soul, R&B Sakey [has] neo soul, conscious Hip Hop influence. Donnie Killjoy makes British grunge-inspired punk music. Then there's another artist by the name of Kwajo who does a lot of really cool stuff.
There's a lot of people in Virginia that I try to stay tapped into, even though I can't, like, actively devote the socials all the time to, like, trying to put on for Virginia, but there's a lot of people in the state that I'm sure I'm forgetting, and a lot of people that I just love in general that make really good music and are also really supportive. Because I feel like when I was coming up, you didn't necessarily hear of everybody who was from Virginia until they either made it and got asked in an interview, or they kind of came back and were like, I need some love, you know what I mean. So it's cool to see Tommy be at the forefront of, like, putting love out there for Virginia, shabu Z , and myself, as well, net spending just trying to show that love back and that people in the state aren't looking at it like, oh, they don't really wreck Virginia. They're just as supportive as well.
LUNA: Besides going on tour, do you have anything you’re looking forward to in the next couple of months?
MYNAMEISNTJMACK: I would say on the personal side of things, I just got a Nintendo Switch with Spyro the Dragon. I'm gonna go back to Virginia soon, so I'm just gonna revert to my middle/high school self, which is like sitting in my mama's house playing video games, and wrestling with my dog. Her name is Azula, after the character from Avatar The Last Air Bender.
On the music side of things, I'm really excited about falling more in love with the work that goes into [making music]. I recently quit my job to pursue music full time. It's been hard trying to develop a schedule and really put my full mind towards making it a job. I've worked at one to two jobs every day since I was 15 years old, from working at a YMCA to delivering cakes to being a DJ for a minor league baseball team and an athletic videographer. I've done so many different random odd jobs that, when I quit my job as as a barista, I had no schedule, and I wasn’t working on everybody else's time for so long. So now I'm falling in love with and finding joy from waking up, doing the thing, and trying to make a song a day to build out these projects and make better ideas and get better at the art of making music; as opposed to spending my days [wondering], how can I find the time to make music?
