Jack Kays

Cincinnati, Ohio, is where singer-songwriter Jack Kays began, and the city's imprint runs through his story. He took part in theatre and band at Sycamore High School before graduating, but the years that followed were harder, marked by drug addiction. His early work surfaced on SoundCloud as rap posted online, a low-key beginning that set up what came next. Born in December 1998, he can play ten instruments, a detail that suggests how wide his musical reach is.

The breakthrough arrived in May 2020 with "Morbid Mind", a song that gained enough traction to bring a deal with Columbia Records. In 2021 he released the studio album Mixed Emotions, alongside the EPs voice memos and My Favorite Nightmares, the latter made with Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker. That year he also moved to Washington, D.C. From February to May 2025 he led the headlining Washed Up Dried Out World Tour, promoting the album Deadbeat!, with dates across Australia, North America, Europe and the United Kingdom.