Jeremiah Jae, the offspring of jazz and R&B artist and composer Robert Irving III, maintains a distinctive body of left-field accomplishments through partnerships with forward-thinking producers such as Samiyam, Flying Lotus, and Ras G, plus appearances on forward-thinking imprints like Warp and Brainfeeder. He co-established the political hip-hop collective Young Black Preachers while continuing to refine his individual output, shifting from self-released mixtapes issued in the early 2000s toward increasingly atmospheric and abstract textures on the 2013 release RawHyde and the 2018 album Daffi.
Raised in the Chicago area, Jae began as an alternative rock enthusiast before hip-hop captured his attention through the Wu-Tang Clan. He formed Young Black Preachers in 2005 with Tre Smith and Aaron Butler, issuing a run of solo mixtapes concurrently. On Flying Lotus’s recommendation he relocated to Los Angeles in 2007, and the following year the collective debuted with the YBP EP. Jae’s own Dxnce EP arrived in 2009, and the 2011 Rappayamatantra EP initiated his association with Brainfeeder, which issued Raw Money Raps in 2012 before Jae began placing subsequent projects on a range of labels.
He sustained a regular pace of releases, including the conceptual 2013 mixtape RawHyde recorded with cousin Oliver the 2nd and the 2014 Warp mixtape Good Times. In 2015 Jae joined L’Orange for the full-length The Night Took Us in Like Family and also put out the concise mixtape The Decline of Black Anakin. The 2017 EP When Daffi Attacks supplied an early glimpse of the sound that would shape his next project, six tracks built on hazy mid-tempo beats steeped in late-night smokiness. The summer 2018 album Daffi followed, featuring guest appearances by Busdriver, TrentTruce, and Robert Irving III. A further reunion with L’Orange produced Complicate Your Life with Violence in 2019.
