jay worthy

Blue Chips is a monthly rap column that highlights exceptional rising rappers. To read previous columns, click here. By most metrics, Jay Worthy is refreshingly accessible, communicative, and punctual for a rapper of his stature. He has hundreds of thousands of monthly listeners on Spotify and millions of streams to his name. Still, with no manager, regular publicist, or team of record execs behind him, he fields interview requests personally. He’s applied this hands-on approach his entire career, quietly rising through the ranks of West Coast rap. “If I was in the hood, I would’ve had you pull up to [Gonzales or Enterprise Park]. If I was at my house, I would’ve got you to meet me at the Bel-Air Hotel,” Worthy says over the phone. He’s lived in Los Angeles since the early 2000s, but sched...