Joyner Lucas

Birth name: Gary Maurice Lucas, Jr.
Also known as: G-Storm, Future Joyner
Born/Date of Birth: August 17, 1988
Place of Birth: Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
Genres: Hip-Hop\Rap Music
Occupation(s): Rapper,singer,songwriter,record producer,actor
Instruments: Vocals
Labels: Twenty Nine,Atlantic,Dead Silence
Children: Joyner Messiah Lucas
Gary Maurice Lucas, Jr., known professionally as Joyner Lucas, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, poet, and actor. Lucas was born in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Background
Lucas received widespread exposure after the release of his single "Ross Capicchioni" in 2015.

Early life
Gary Maurice Lucas, Jr. was born on August 17, 1988, in Worcester, Massachusetts. Lucas began rapping at the age of 10. Lucas mentions having a white mother and a black father in his song "Half Nigga".

He attended South High Community School in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Career
Joyner Lucas first started recording under the name G-Storm. In 2007, he changed his stage name to Future Joyner and started working with his uncle, Cyrus tha Great, and formed a group called "Film Skool Rejekts". They released their mixtape, Workprint: The Greatest Mixtape of All Time in the same year. Lucas went on to release his first mixtape under the name Future Joyner titled Listen 2 Me in 2011. After rapper Future came to prominence, Lucas dropped the "Future" from his name and continued as Joyner Lucas. He then released another album titled LFO's (Low Frequency Oscillators) in October 2013. Lucas went on to release his next mixtape Along Came Joyner on April 5, 2015. This mixtape contained his critically acclaimed "Ross Capicchioni". Following the success of the song, Lucas was featured in the 2015 BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher, he was originally included in the Internet Only cypher, until the producers heard him rap and included him in the live cyphers.

Lucas signed to Atlantic Records on September 21, 2016. Lucas went on to release a project titled 508-507-2209 on June 16, 2017, with Atlantic Records. The mixtape charted at #7 on the Heatseekers Albums chart on Billboard and contained the singles "I'm Sorry", "Ultrasound", "Just Like You" and "Winter Blues". Ever since 2016, Lucas has also become known for remixing popular hip hop songs.

On November 28, 2017, Lucas released his single "I'm Not Racist", onto his YouTube account which quickly went viral and gained critical acclaim. The controversial song raps about race and society, and race relations from the perspective of a white man and a black man. The video was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Music Video at the 61st Grammy Awards, but lost to Childish Gambino's "This Is America". Lucas and singer Chris Brown announced their collaboration project, titled Angels & Demons on February 25, 2018 with the single "Stranger Things" releasing the following day. On April 1, 2018, Lucas released his single entitled "Frozen", a song focused on different forms of reckless driving. The next single from the Angels and Demons collaborative mixtape "I Don't Die" was released on May 2.

On July 31, 2018, Lucas announced he was forced to cancel shows of his "I'm kinda a Big Deal" tour in Australia and Europe due to hoarseness and laryngitis. Lucas was featured on "Lucky You" from Eminem's tenth album, Kamikaze. The song debuted at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking Lucas' first top 10 entry on the chart. On October 12, 2018, Lucas announced that he would be releasing his debut studio album entitled ADHD. He also announced a single from the album that would be released the following Wednesday. The song, entitled "I Love", was released as the lead single from ADHD, which was released on March 27, 2020. It was preceded by nine singles from October 2018 to March 2020, the time before release.

Artistry
Lucas has cited several artists as influences in his music, but he cites Eminem as his biggest musical influence. He also revealed he was influenced by Will Smith in his song "Will".

Personal life
Joyner Lucas shares a son named Joyner Messiah Lucas with Carmen Julissa Ayala. The two had an off and on romantic relationship. Joyner tells the story of his son's conception in his song "Forever" on his 508-507-2209 mixtape. Joyner Messiah Lucas was born February 20, 2016. He is loved and adored by his father and referenced in many of his songs, he also makes cameos in Joyner Lucas music videos. Most recently he played Will Smith's son Jaden Smith in Joyner Lucas video entitled Will.

Lucas has revealed that the title of his album “ADHD”, comes from the fact that he was diagnosed with ADHD as a child. He explained that people surrounding him (even his own parents) made him feel like he was not normal and treated him differently as a result. Eventually, he would act out and get sent to an alternative school after expulsion.

Feuds
Logic
According to Lucas, when he was on Tech N9ne tour bus, he heard some records from Tech's album The Storm. Lucas expressed interest on collaborating with Logic on the song "Sriracha" and felt that it could add to the display of fast-flow rapping, and Tech acquiesced. Logic was originally slated to be the only feature on "Sriracha", but when he spent over six months to deliver his verse, Lucas hopped on the track to offer his own track. Joyner stated that when they got the record back, he could tell that Logic was not "too happy" about him being on the track once he heard it. On his remix of Future's "Mask Off", Joyner, unhappy by the work Logic turned in after taking nearly half a year to edit his verse, directly addressed the disappointing display. Both Joyner Lucas and Tech N9ne were upset with Logic for not emulating the same quick flow and serving up tired, lazy bars.

After Logic's hit song "1-800-273-8255" peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, Joyner Lucas immediately took offense and argued that the track was named in order to bring direct competition to his project, 508-507-2209. With both Logic's single and Lucas' mixtape dealing with the issue of mental health representation and resource allocation, Lucas was careful to not slam the track too hard.

When Logic dropped his song "Yuck" from his mixtape Bobby Tarantino II in March 2018, the veiled diss inside the song was quickly spotted by Lucas and his fans, despite Logic saying that there was no diss in the song. Seemingly nonplussed by the insult, Lucas dared Logic to call him out directly on Twitter. That same month, Joyner took aim at Logic's song "44 More" and his album Everybody on his remix of BlocBoy JB's "Look Alive".

In 2019, the two rappers ended their feud, which was revealed when Logic made a guest appearance on Joyner Lucas' song "ISIS", the third single from ADHD. Lucas kept the name of the collaborator a secret until he released the song.

Hopsin
In September 2018, when a fan asked Los Angeles rapper Hopsin on Twitter who would win in a rap battle between him and Joyner Lucas, Hopsin implied that he was the better MC when he replied, "That's a dumb question that I'm sure you already know the answer to." Not long after, Lucas commented, "Hold up. @Hopsin wtf is that supposed to mean???" In his response, Hopsin stated that he would "b[r]eak his soul" and also dissed Logic in the comment. This dispute would prove to be short-lived, when in less than two days Hopsin shared a screenshot of a FaceTime call with Lucas, indicating that they finally made peace, but still wanted people to consider who would beat the other in a rap battle. While the majority favored Hopsin, Lucas was adamant without arguing.

Tory Lanez
Joyner Lucas' feud with Canadian recording artist Tory Lanez began over matters similar to his beef with Hopsin. On November 19, 2018, Lanez claimed that he was a better rapper than Joyner Lucas on an Instagram Live session. Incredulous, Lucas immediately responded by inviting Lanez to a battle rapping challenge and telling him to let the public decide who is better. The next day, Lanez dropped a freestyle over Eminem's "Lucky You", of which Lucas made a guest appearance on. In less than 24 hours, Joyner responded with his freestyle over "Litty" by Meek Mill featuring Tory Lanez, also targeting rapper Trippie Redd, who joined Tory's Instagram Live and slandered Joyner's name as well. Shortly after, Lanez retaliated with his own freestyle of "Litty", titled "Litty Again", taking shots at Joyner's collaboration with Eminem. Lucas' answer song was a freestyle of Kodak Black's "Zeze". On the track, he mentions Tory's being accused of plagiarism in 2016, when listeners noticed that the ending of Lanez's song "4am Flex" was similar to Kendrick Lamar's "The Art of Peer Pressure". Joyner also accuses him of copying rapper Don Q's flow on his 2017 Funkmaster Flex freestyle. On November 23, Tory posted on Instagram a video of him declaring victory in the feud and celebrating. Displeased, Lucas reposted the video with his own comment, with a reference to Lanez as a singer.

The end of this rivalry was made public on August 8, 2019, when Joyner Lucas and Tory Lanez collaborated on their remix of "Suge" by DaBaby.