Shootergang Jojo

ShooterGang JoJo first gained notice as a capable solo act while operating within the Sacramento rap collective ShooterGang. His work frequently paired him with fellow ShooterGang artists such as ShooterGang Kony and with additional local rappers including BabyFace Gunna and Young Meezy. The resulting material balanced humorous touches with raw portrayals of street violence, allowing JoJo’s distinctive personality to serve as a central element of his approach. After a short period of incarceration that began in early 2018, he reappeared with the energetic mixtape Free Jojo.

Raised in Sacramento’s Oak Park district, a neighborhood rich in rap activity, JoJo helped establish the ShooterGang collective. Alongside roughly eight fellow rappers and producers who were largely still in their late teens, he started recording tracks around 2016 that later appeared on assorted mixtapes and standalone releases. Following those early group efforts, his debut solo project, Monkey in the Middle, arrived in 2017 through Mozzy Records, the imprint run by Sacramento rapper Mozzy. Later the same year he issued Jumpshot Jodye, a mixtape that expanded his circle of collaborators to include Noni Blanco and Papi Jay. During this period JoJo confronted criminal charges that led to several months in jail beginning in early 2018, when he was nineteen. Immediately after his release he recorded the tense, prison-focused single “Fresh Out,” then delivered the full-length Free JoJo mixtape in July.