Goonie

On the chorus, he slams on the track, “trap doin good im like yeah yeah yeah/got my mama out the hood/im like yeah yeah yeah/daddy done beat cancer/like im yeah yeah yeah/still im risin/im like yeah yeah yeah and on “all that hating ain’t necessary, yeah, yeah, yeah.”

“I speak truth with a smile on my face,” - a trait that earned him the nickname Goonie.  Penned by family and friends who simply had a hard time pronouncing his birth name,   when describing him they all agree, “It perfectly fits the regular guy with the goofy personality.”

The 27-year rapper from the small town of Covington, GA (today can boast film scenes by movie moguls Ava DuVernay (Selma) and Tyler Perry (Madea’s Family Reunion, and The Family That Preys), was raised in the hood of a community that introduced him to the bleakness of life that bounds most inner-city youths.

Jerrerius Byrd was born under the roof of a tiny 3-bedroom cookie-cutter house rooted in a long history of three generations of women he holds dear to him – his mom, grandmother and great grandmother, who   raised him along with his younger sister. “I grew up in that little house with 8 other people, full of family, cousins, aunts and uncles, surrounded by good times, fun memories, where everybody always being happy,” he recalls. Backyard bar-b-ques, playing crap and shooting hoops with the fellas (a sanctuary that would keep his mind off the streets), was a norm.” And although he was deprived by the conditions that was an everyday way of life, “we were poor, but so happy we didn’t even know it,” he admits, recalling the love and backing of his family.

But not without challenges that would be a setback, but later prove to elevate him to his comeback!   

Goonie’s father, a neighborhood street hustler vulnerable to the trappings of an environment mirrored in front of him, was on a fast track chasing quick money as a means to provide for his family, drifted in and out of prison doors. “He was taken from us trying to do good for his family,” is how Goonie admiringly describes the man who “never abandoned us.”

The absence of his dad, his own bad choices, dealing with grief, and seeing friends incarcerated for their crimes, are the catalysts that would inspire his determination not to become a casualty of his own surroundings. He had to make sure that is dad’s sacrifice for the love of his family was not forsaken. Given these circumstances, Goonie was forced to drop out of Covington High School and find ways to make money to help his mom pay bills and keep the family together.  

“I told my mama we here now/if big mama could see me now/I know she proud/and every song I do im holding you down.”

Today, after the release of the man he held in high regard from afar for so many years, he proudly boasts, “my father was the person who taught me how to humble myself in situations. He never left us and he returned home at a time that I needed him most in my life.” And goes on to express his gratitude for having an “amazing” relationship with “the father who never abandoned him, and molded him into the person he is today.”

Goonie is quick to point out hip-hop king Lil Wayne as his music idol. “He grew up like me, has been through a lot and made something of himself - proving you can do anything you want to do. I can connect with him.” He also names rapper Nelly as one of his influences, because of his focus on fun and family, and names girl group TLC as another of his favorites, for their delivery of strong messages in their songs. 

In addition to All That Hating Ain’t Necessary, Goonie is spending time collaborating with super-producer Christopher Starr, Founder of CSP Music Group, laying down tracks to his 14-song breakout album Purple Tears. The accompanying video to his debut single was shot and filmed in the same (now abandoned) house where he was born.

He describes Purple Tears as a reflection of his personal journey – inspired by the ups and downs of his misfortunes, pain and grief. Spitting lyrics like fire, you can feel his determination to bounce back and not be defeated by his crisis.

“I’m a home run hitter….”