For Oakland Rapper Jwalt, One Year of Self-Love Changed Everything

When Oakland lyricist Jwalt wrote the song “Love Myself,” he was in his final semester at NYU.

“I was doing a lot of things,” says the 23-year-old. On top of completing a degree, he was traveling and pursuing a music career — dropping bars on popular platforms like Sway’s Universe and opening for big names like Nas and the Wu-Tang Clan.

But Jwalt wasn’t taking care of his basic needs. “So I started prioritizing my sleep, eating right, taking care of myself,” he says. “That kind of turned into a little mantra.”

That mantra became a song, and when he dropped it last summer it took off. As the video debuted on BET, the track reached #74 on the iTunes Hip-Hop/Rap Songs chart. The song he made to set himself on a better path was resonating with audiences and launching Jwalt’s career into a new era.

Over the past 18 months, Jwalt has been on the grind. He graduated from college and moved back to Oakland in the spring of 2024. Earlier this year he got engaged, and now he and his partner are expecting a baby girl.

On top of all this, Jwalt just dropped a new album. The project, Every Version of Me, paints an image of a multifaceted human being who knows how to tell a story on wax. He’s a person who studies hip-hop culture and is enmeshed in his Oakland community. He’s navigated all that comes with being a Black man at a prestigious university and managed to learn the most important lesson any student can ever learn: “You only live once, so now I’m living for peace / I meditate and celebrate, ’cause now I’m living for me,” as he says on the album’s lead single.

Another standout track from the project, “Graduation,” takes the same sincere tone as “Love Myself” as it gives listeners a glimpse into the artist’s life as a student. He addresses imposter syndrome, survivor’s guilt and classism — not to mention being homesick.

“I got people back home who’ve never left Oakland, never left the Bay,” he says, reflecting on the sentiment that pushed him to pen the song. “And being able to go to NYU, and walk around in different spaces but not see anyone who looks like me, it was very abnormal.”

At the time, Jwalt questioned if he belonged. Now he says it was one of the best decisions he’s ever made. “I had a class called ‘The Art of the MC’ [taught] by Black Thought,” says Jwalt, adding that he now considers the legendary lead MC of The Roots a mentor.

On his latest album, it’s clear that Jwalt’s education in hip-hop began long before he touched down in NYC. One of his earliest “classmates” in the rap game was rising Bay Area artist Seiji Oda.

Jwalt and Oda, who is a few years older, grew up as neighbors, and Jwalt recorded some of his earliest tracks at Oda’s house as a young teen. On Every Version of Me, the two combine forces on a mobby, bass-heavy track produced by ClayDough called “Bay 2 NY.”

“I’ve known Seiji for a while,” says Jwalt. “And being able to see him grow has been dope.”

That’s the case for nearly all the album’s features, which include verses from San Francisco rapper and actor Stunnaman02 and Oakland singer Shanté.

The album also features 1100 Himself, Yelly and Rexx Life Raj, but one guest appearance steals the show: an interlude from the late actor Angus Cloud.

“Angus was one of my biggest supporters,” Jwalt says, opening up about a friendship that grew into a brotherhood. After a chance meeting at an Oakland’s Own clothing pop-up in Jack London Square, the two realized they were both graduates, a few years apart, of the Oakland School for the Arts. From there, a friendship blossomed. 

“We used to talk a lot,” says Jwalt, who has even more archived soundbites from Cloud. “He always encouraged me to keep on going. And when he got his platform he always wanted to share it with other dope artists from Oakland.”

A major component in Jwalt’s young career is how he’s been uplifted by his hometown, individuals and institutions alike.

In just this past year, Jwalt has played in the Reggie Jackson celebrity softball game at the Oakland Coliseum, where he met Oakland A’s legend Rickey Henderson weeks before his untimely passing. He then doubled back to the Coliseum to perform at halftime at an Oakland Roots soccer game.

In April, the Oakland Ballers baseball team announced Jwalt as one of its many part-owners and the author of the team’s new anthem, “Ballers Ballad.” And last week, the red-haired MC rocked a crowd in front of the baseball stadium during a community block party.

Next week, on Tuesday, July 29, Jwalt will be the special guest at the Men’s Wellness Fellowship event hosted by Christian Walker and Karega Bailey at the Black Panther Party Museum in downtown Oakland.

“I’m someone that’s been a proponent of talking about mental health, especially as a young Black man,” says Jwalt, noting that he, too, struggles with anxiety. 

But as a multifaceted artist and a parent, a student of hip-hop and a proud representative of the Town, his biggest aspirations are relatively simple: to tell a story that’s true to his lived experience, and it share it with people who can relate.

He’s done exactly that with the song “Love Myself,” and he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

Jwalt’s latest album, ‘Every Version of Me,’ is available on all platforms. He speaks at the Men’s Wellness Fellowship on Tuesday, July 29. More information here.