"Ballads of the Broken" is the beginning of Jelly Roll's turn from hip-hop to country. it combines pivots from Rap, to Country, to Pop, all in the course of a 10 track album. The critical success of the single "Son of a Sinner", one of the most country tracks of "Ballads of the Broken" pushed Jelly Roll to fully switch to a country sound on his next album "Whitsitt Chapel'.
Jason DeFord aka Jelly Roll, grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. His home life was tumultuous and shaped the content matter of his music later on. Jelly Roll started his career off in Hip-hop, releasing "The Plain Shmear Tape" in 2003. His project "Pop Another Pill" a collab with Lil Wyte surpassed 6 million views on Youtube in 2010. In 2021 Jelly Roll began his pivot to Country in 2021, performing with Craig Morgan at The Grand Ole Opry. In 2021 he released "Ballads of the Broken. In 2023 he was #1 on Billboard's Emerging Artists for 25 (!!) weeks, breaking all previous records for the chart.
This New Orleans hip hop cousins' third studio album explores addiction, depression, and (unsurprisingly) suicidal ideation.
