Jelly Roll is a 39 year old rapper & singer/songwriter from Antioch, Tennesse who’s been hustling within the underground for over 2 decades already building up a discography of 21 mixtapes as well as 8 full-lengths & 3 EPs. His rise to international stardom began in 2020 when he signed a 2-album deal with the Strange Music subsidiary It Goes Up Entertainment, releasing A Beautiful Disaster & Self Medicated to critical acclaim. Whitsitt Chapel marked his country debut & “Need a Favor” proved to be his biggest hit, eventually signing with Republic Records for his 9th LP after making appearances for both Endeavor-owned TKO Group Holdings divisions UFC & WWE.
“Winning Streak” begins his Republic debut in the form of this powerful piano ballad singing about standin’ in the rain just trying to stay dry whereas “Burning” gives off more of a traditional country sound instrumentally asking God to show him another way. “Heart of Stone” in need of a different kind of drug carrying over the sounds of the previous cut onto here, but then the lead single “I’m Not Ok” fuses pop rock & country pop tackling the theme of mental health.
Meanwhile on “When the Drugs Don’t Work”, we have Jelly Roll asking who’s gonna drive you home once the drugs start to wear off putting a bigger emphasis on country pop just before “Higher Than Heaven” featuring Wiz Khalifa finds the 2 talking about smoking weed being their way out of the darkness. The official WWE SummerSlam XXXVII theme song “Liar” heads towards a pop rock direction calling out someone tryna be his friend for cappin’ leading into “Everyone Bleeds” explains that you can only fly so close to Heaven.
“Get By” pulls inspiration from the stomp & holler scene showin’ up Sunday morning lookin’ the same way he did the previous evening while “Unpretty” sings about resenting the man that he used to be radiating a calmer vibe to the beat. “Grace” brings back the country pop influences finding love in the heart of the darkness & hope when the times are the hardest while “What It Takes” sings about a 40 Oz. only numbing the pain.
To get Beautifully Broken’s other half going, “Hey Mama” serve as his passionate country tribute to Jelly Roll’s mother Donna DeFord & the guitar-driven “Time of Day” feels more like an MGK song since he handles pretty much all the verses & not as well as the primary artist himself. “Born Again” clarifies that you can’t kill a man that was born to be born again while “Guilty” maintains the country feeling expressing the love he has for his wife Alyssa.
“Little Light” is this country rock/country pop hybrid encouraging to leave some light since this person is on the close to the edge of letting go while “Hear Me Out” wanting y’all to tell him how he’s always feeling like something’s missin’ & we don’t know all the pain he’s felt. “Woman” gives his flowers to Alyssa once again detailing he won’t understand why she still calls him her’s while “Smile So Much” singing about one understanding why he’s been smiling a lot if you’ve seen him cry.
The penultimate track “My Cross” pushes towards the conclusion of the LP referring to hurt & trauma as a sickness, explaining that he’d rather die than to pass it to either of his 2 children since it’s his pain to bear rather than theirs hoping the apple falls far from the tree & the sins of the father stop with him while “What’s Wrong with Me” ends by singing about being fine with all his flaws. “Take a Bow” featuring Halsey starts the deluxe run promising one another the highest of highs over pianos while “Don’t Want To” featuring Keith Urban is a country duet clarifying just because they aren’t tempting that temptation or lighting up that fuse doesn’t mean they don’t want to.
“Devil Down” featuring Ernest finds the 2 sticking with a traditional country flare asking for God to help them overcome their addictions since it isn’t a strongpoint for them while the acoustic “Really Gone” featuring Russ talks about hearing the special people in their lives who’ve passed through the night sky. The stripped-back “Past Yesterday” with Skylar Grey on the hook asks not to judge him if he gets too high & the final bonus track “Lonely Road” featuring MGK fresh off being in Logan Paul’s corner when L.A. Knight finally dethroned him as WWE United States Champion at SummerSlam XXXVII couple months ago has to be one of the worst singles of the year mutating country pop & emo pop whining about feeling alone.
I’ve always found it ignorant when people say that Jelly Roll is a sellout or a culture vulture or inauthentic because the dude was grinding nonstop for the longest time working with those from Tech N9ne to more recently the closing track of Eminem’s highly conceptual THE DƎATH OF SLIM SHADY (COUP DE GRÂCE) & his Republic debut here stands as the best offering of his ever since he forayed deeper towards country. He’s grappling with his newfound fame during the 83 minute runtime bouncing between country, pop rock & country pop.
Score: 3.5/5
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