A thumping club beat, a deep-toned touch on synth, drawling lyrics being half-sung half-rapped. How did Wolfacejoeyy create his eclectic sound? For starters, the budding artist got his musical education from the Internet. Years before building out his discography, he was merely a 14-year-old who’d hole up in his bedroom Googling phrases like “how to make beats.” Now, at 21, Joeyy knows he’s on the cusp of musical renown. In November, it was announced that he’d be performing at Rolling Loud Miami. The following month, he returned home from opening for Eem Triplin on his US tour.
Looking back on his musical self-education as a teenager on Staten Island, Joeyy says he was simply bored and looking for something to do after school. He began experimenting with Audio Tool (a simple production software) and joined online chat groups for self-taught artists and producers. As he grew bored of simply making beats, a fellow forum acolyte, the Michigan-hailing SoFaygo, suggested he try his hand at recording. “I’m not a rapper,” Joeyy told him, but SoFaygo insisted he at least try it out.
Tealoni Butler/Hypebeast
Joeyy notes that it was difficult to make the transition from producing to recording, though it gradually became an exciting learning curve. Eventually, he began uploading his tracks to SoundCloud. Listeners gravitated to the eclectic sound of his early work, which didn’t quite fit under a label as broad as “rap” or “hip-hop,” instead drawing from influences across club, drill and house. Compared to the contemporary “rage rap” popularized by Travis Scott and Playboi Carti, Wolface Joeyy’s beats still take centerstage while his rap style is more laid back.
“I used to call [my music] ‘trap ballads,’” Joeyy explains. “That kind of evolved into melodic drill stuff. Other tracks were a mix of drill and Jersey club, but I was singing on them too.”
As he began to gain traction in 2018, he was largely listening to some of the most popular rappers at the time — Tyler the Creator, Drake, Don Toliver and the aforementioned Scott. At the same time, Afrobeats was edging into the mainstream.
“I know what [Afrobeats means] to my people, and I know what it means to me, so I would want to do it justice.”
Joeyy, who is Nigerian, had spent some of his childhood in the country before returning to Staten Island. Despite his affinity for some of the most famous rappers, he also leaned into the internet and the tastes of his early musical collaborators to immerse himself in the rap, trap and R&B coming out of underground music scenes globally. He mentions he’s made a handful of Afrobeats songs, but being from the genre’s birthplace has set a high standard. “If I want to release an Afrobeats song, I would want to do it to my greatest capacity,” he explains. “I know what it means to my people, and I know what it means to me, so I would want to do it justice.”
Tealoni Butler/Hypebeast
Scroll through his Spotify page, and it’s apparent that he’s consistently releasing music since 2020, although he got his first taste of mainstream success in 2022 with the track “Shake It.” That same year, he put out his debut EP all your fault.
It was last year, however, that Joeyy landed his first certified hit, a club anthem called “buku” that wound up going viral on TikTok. The track was produced by his close friend and fellow Staten Islander Whereis22 — better known as Power and Orange is the New Black actor Michael Rainey Jr. The two met through mutual friends as teenagers, and have shared beats ever since. After the success of “buku,” Joeyy and 22 have continued to work together, with 22 sending beats during breaks in filming sessions that Joeyy will then write and record bars for.
The popularity of “buku” provided the basis for the duo’s second EP, 22Joeyy. As an emerging artist, he still handles the bulk of creative direction for his cover art and videos and even styled his own outfit for his Hypebeast shoot, which sees him in a Diesel belt and the Vivienne Westwood Romber Bag sneakers, the latter of which he calls his “all-time favorite brand.”
Tealoni Butler/Hypebeast
“I like high fashion stuff but if you catch me on a regular day, I’m probably wearing my homies’ brand,” Joeyy says. His penchant for personal styling was something fostered by his mother, who worked at Macy’s and Nordstrom when he was a child. Oftentimes, she would dress him in preppy outfits with pieces from Ralph Lauren.
Joeyy’s style in the modern day is more streetwear-leaning and centered on meticulous curation rather than throwing on multiple brand names. In time, he says wants to lean further into streetwear and potentially launch his own label. It’s not too far off of a concept, given that amid all of the newfound chaos of his growing career, Joeyy is still a senior in college wrapping up his bachelor’s in digital design. While on tour with Triplin over the past few months, he’d even work on up virtual homework assignments before shows.
“I’m really only in school because my mom was like, ‘you gotta be in school,’” he jokes. “If I was in sophomore year, I probably would have dropped out. But, I’m already here so I want to finish.”
Tealoni Butler/Hypebeast
During tour, Joeyy says he also leaned more into making beats, inspired by Triplin’s intense approach to his own production, where he’d run his latest song “stephanie” through several rounds of edits before settling on a final version to release. Joeyy, inspired by Triplin’s process, says he’s more motivated than ever to be extremely thoughtful and thorough on his next project. In fact, he’s already begun teasing the effort with his latest single, “wya,” a promising first look at what’s sure to be a collection of bangers. As for a full-length album, Joeyy is holding off but says it’ll happen in due time.
“I’m still building and working on my skills. Even though I know I’m pretty good at what I do, if I release an album, I want it to be one that people talk about. You know what I’m saying?”
