Released almost one year after he put his career and life on pause in order to focus exclusively on his mental health, 2022’s Almost Dead marks hip-hop star J Molley’s return to the mic—and offers insight into his journey. From tracking his time in a rehabilitation centre, to dealing with various mental illness diagnoses and managing clinical depression, the album sees the artist find strength in being vulnerable.
“I think it was just important to let my fans know what I went through,” J Molley tells Apple Music. “I think being an advocate for mental health, it's important for me to speak on it, to let other people know that it's okay to feel this way, just to be a voice for the voiceless, really. I think that's why it's important. Just so people can understand a bit more where I was, what happened to me, and that it's okay for them to feel the same way and to go through the same stuff.”
Covering new ground with alternative, classic hip-hop, R&B and drill sounds, Almost Dead sees Molley embrace a more raw, extremely honest approach—underscored with a message of hope. “I want people to know that you honestly can get through the darkest times in your life,” he explains. “I always thought, 'People are just telling me you're going to be able to get out of it, but they don't understand. They're not like me.' And I realised I wasn't the only one suffering from this stuff. So if I can get out of it, I just want other people to know that they can get out of it as well.” Here, he breaks down some of the album’s key tracks.
“Rumours”
“That is actually my favourite track on the tape. It's very inspired by my old sound, which people are always crying about online. They're always like, 'We want the old J Molley back. We want the Dreams Money Can Buy J Molley.' So I took a lot of flows from Dreams Money Can Buy, which was my first debut tape that I dropped, and I put it into that song. And yeah, it's also very raw. It's very truthful. That's the thing about this tape. I think a lot of people are going to think that I'm lying about certain things, but everything is 100% factual. It's everything I went through in the last year and a half, two years. The voice over is by psychologist Jordan Peterson. I always watch his lectures, and debates, and interviews online. I think that he explains things very well, so I wanted to put that in the tape just to help people understand where I'm coming from, and why I'm saying these certain things in this tape. It just helps people to understand what got [me] into that mindset.”
“Still”
“We're planning on shooting a video. That song was made by this American producer BabyPlugg. He produced about four songs on the tape. It's a lot about crime, really. It's about selling drugs. My mom telling me, 'Don't do this,' but I still do it. Yeah.”
“Armed & Dangerous”
“This is also produced by BabyPlugg This is a very raw hip-hop song. I've lacked that in my tapes in the past; I’ve strayed away from that raw hip-hop, 808 trap sound, and I wanted to bring that back in this tape. The voiceover speaks about people with mental health issues and how they're not inherently violent, but without their symptoms being treated, they can become violent. Violence can manifest in many different ways, being bitter, being resentful, just having dark thoughts about the world and what's [going] to happen. It can manifest in many ways. It can be self-destructive. It can be exterior, where you're destructing other people's lives and whatnot. I used to be very angry, but I've calmed down over the year, going through treatments and whatnot. I used to have a lot of mood swings, but they’ve pretty much vanished.”
“No Mind”
“That one is produced by The Baker, who’s [from] Cape Town. He does most of my stuff. He's actually the one that mixed and mastered the tape. This one's just about depression, and just about my experience being depressed, and going to a psychiatric ward, and going through all of that. It’s saying, 'Molley's just depressed. Don't pay him no mind.' Like, 'Don't worry about what he's talking about the whole time. He's just depressed; leave it’, type thing.”
“Soaring”
“That is a drill song that was produced by Artemium, from South Africa. I love UK drill; it’s one of my favourite genres. I don't really rap a lot; I mostly sing. I don't really like my rapping voice, but in that song I rapped the whole way. So I'm looking into exploring more into the rap side of things, and doing more of that, definitely.”
“No Way”
“It's quite funny, that song, because it's such a vibing song. It sounds like it's a good song, like a very positive song, but then the lyrics are so depressing. So it's funny. It's a contradiction, really. But I like that song a lot. I was very Juice WRLD inspired.”
“Heaven”
“This song is just about love, and just how love gets you through a lot of the hardships in life. There's a quote that I like that says, 'The salvation of man is found through and in love.' And I think it's very important. And I think love is what gets us through the dark times, gives us something to live for, purpose. So yeah, that song is just speaking about love, and how that's helped me along the way a lot. Mostly romantic love; I’m a sucker for romantic love; I believe in love.”