JayDee
JayDee is the first to admit that he can be a bit serio. He comes off quiet, more reserved, and to himself when he first meets someone. He keeps to his business, continues his hustle, and just works toward his success on his own. “But when it’s time to actually spit some shit, I get down with it,” he says with conviction. “I listen more than I talk, but when it’s time for me to talk, I do what needs to be done.” It’s part of what’s made the Yuba City native such a secret weapon in the trap-corrido space — and soon, in Hollywood.
Born Jesús Diego, JayDee has cemented himself as a leader in the trap-corrido space as the founder of Herencia de Patrones. Since forming the group in 2016, he’s forged his own lane in a budding música mexicana scene, earning a reputation as a pioneer.
“When we did it, nobody was doing it. When I say nobody, I literally mean nobody,” he says. “We’re proud to hear people call us pioneers, because sometimes I feel like we sometimes don’t get the respect we deserve.”
That respect didn’t come easy. Before releasing six albums over the last decade — including tracks like “Ladeando” with Fuerza Regida and “Ya No Me Preocupe,” which have a combined 254 million streams on Spotify — JayDee was helping his parents pick crops under the hot California sun.
Music was what kept him going, blasting it in the fields and at home. In his late teens, he decided to take making his own sound seriously, even if not everyone believed in the vision at first. He and his cousin formed a band and named it Herencia de Patrones, or “Inheritance of Bosses” in honor of their family’s musical roots. “People thought it was corny,” he says. “Everything is corny until it’s not. Now they fuck with this.”
JayDee dropped out of school, worked construction, and started performing privadas, or backyard parties for the homies, with his band to make ends meet. One night, after a particularly lit set, someone tipped the group $500 at In-N-Out. “That’s when we really started and realized we could make money from this,” he says with a giggle. From there, things just continued to grow.
JayDee sees his live album (and first full LP) En Vivo Desde Wounded as one that he really cherishes, since it gained him “a lot of unexpected respect” in the industry. Many of the songs were covers of songs by other bands, but it ultimately became the group’s first blessing. On the record, he started to find his voice as a songwriter and in the trap-corrido space.
“It's easy for me to hop on something like this knowing that nobody else can hop on it. Our style is so different, because no one does it like we do,” JayDee says. “I bring my own sauce to it, Uzi brings his own sauce, and it makes a good mix,” he adds of his bandmate.
The group’s Pa Las Vibras could be seen as Herencia’s turning point for the band. For JayDee, the album was just him “talking my shit” from the perspective of his upbringing. It was also built from him freestyling over beats “off the top of my head,” without writing lyrics down. “I work more
naturally like that. It can be stressful to see the words down on paper and you overthink it, but when you lay it down, you only have a half-second to react to say your next word,” he says. “It’s some crazy thing that comes out, and it’s natural.”
That album included “Cosas de la Clika,” which caught the attention of Rancho Humilde founder Jimmy Humilde. “They were fucking with it because it was just something different,” JayDee says. Signing with Rancho Humilde was a turning point. “If you’re signed there, you fucking made it,” he says. “Shit got crazy.”
And things are about to get wilder for the singer as he’s soon to live his biggest personal career achievement yet. Later this year, the once-shy, North Californian crop-picker-turned-music-giant will star in CLIKA, a Rancho Humilde production alongside Columbia Pictures and Sony Music.
The film is set to be a juggernaut in creating space for Mexican American storylines in Hollywood.
The singer never thought he’d get the chance to act professionally, but he was “always open” to anything. He loved watching movies and cracking jokes with his friends, and even without experience, he felt “acting came naturally,” he says. Those first few days reading his script and stepping onto set, JayDee jokes he wasn’t sure what he’d gotten himself into. But now? “I don’t feel out of place. The more I do it, the more I pick up little tricks about acting.”
JayDee plays a character that mirrors his own life experiences in many ways. JayDee’s character Chito is the older brother in a family. He spends his days in the grueling sun picking peaches, like the singer once did before finding music, and he’s trying to help out his family as much as he can. Chito knows his mom is struggling to make ends meet, so much so that he feels the pressure to step up and be the man of the house. While trying to make more money to help his family, he starts selling drugs.
Through it all, though, Chito’s heart has always been in music. He’s a songwriter with friends who constantly push him toward the mic instead of trouble. “Chito is really me. That’s how I live, that’s how it is out here,” he says. “It’s the work ethic he has in the movie that resonates. I’m a lot like him.”
The story follows Chito as he tries to balance making music and making fast money, only to learn there’s no shortcut to success. When he’s given a second chance, he chooses music and finds his version of the American Dream.
For JayDee, the role was a chance to put a life he rarely sees represented on screen. “I’ve never seen a film or show that reflects the crop-picking life I lived,” he says. “I always gave it my all… I always will.”
Born Jesús Diego, JayDee has cemented himself as a leader in the trap-corrido space as the founder of Herencia de Patrones. Since forming the group in 2016, he’s forged his own lane in a budding música mexicana scene, earning a reputation as a pioneer.
“When we did it, nobody was doing it. When I say nobody, I literally mean nobody,” he says. “We’re proud to hear people call us pioneers, because sometimes I feel like we sometimes don’t get the respect we deserve.”
That respect didn’t come easy. Before releasing six albums over the last decade — including tracks like “Ladeando” with Fuerza Regida and “Ya No Me Preocupe,” which have a combined 254 million streams on Spotify — JayDee was helping his parents pick crops under the hot California sun.
Music was what kept him going, blasting it in the fields and at home. In his late teens, he decided to take making his own sound seriously, even if not everyone believed in the vision at first. He and his cousin formed a band and named it Herencia de Patrones, or “Inheritance of Bosses” in honor of their family’s musical roots. “People thought it was corny,” he says. “Everything is corny until it’s not. Now they fuck with this.”
JayDee dropped out of school, worked construction, and started performing privadas, or backyard parties for the homies, with his band to make ends meet. One night, after a particularly lit set, someone tipped the group $500 at In-N-Out. “That’s when we really started and realized we could make money from this,” he says with a giggle. From there, things just continued to grow.
JayDee sees his live album (and first full LP) En Vivo Desde Wounded as one that he really cherishes, since it gained him “a lot of unexpected respect” in the industry. Many of the songs were covers of songs by other bands, but it ultimately became the group’s first blessing. On the record, he started to find his voice as a songwriter and in the trap-corrido space.
“It's easy for me to hop on something like this knowing that nobody else can hop on it. Our style is so different, because no one does it like we do,” JayDee says. “I bring my own sauce to it, Uzi brings his own sauce, and it makes a good mix,” he adds of his bandmate.
The group’s Pa Las Vibras could be seen as Herencia’s turning point for the band. For JayDee, the album was just him “talking my shit” from the perspective of his upbringing. It was also built from him freestyling over beats “off the top of my head,” without writing lyrics down. “I work more
naturally like that. It can be stressful to see the words down on paper and you overthink it, but when you lay it down, you only have a half-second to react to say your next word,” he says. “It’s some crazy thing that comes out, and it’s natural.”
That album included “Cosas de la Clika,” which caught the attention of Rancho Humilde founder Jimmy Humilde. “They were fucking with it because it was just something different,” JayDee says. Signing with Rancho Humilde was a turning point. “If you’re signed there, you fucking made it,” he says. “Shit got crazy.”
And things are about to get wilder for the singer as he’s soon to live his biggest personal career achievement yet. Later this year, the once-shy, North Californian crop-picker-turned-music-giant will star in CLIKA, a Rancho Humilde production alongside Columbia Pictures and Sony Music.
The film is set to be a juggernaut in creating space for Mexican American storylines in Hollywood.
The singer never thought he’d get the chance to act professionally, but he was “always open” to anything. He loved watching movies and cracking jokes with his friends, and even without experience, he felt “acting came naturally,” he says. Those first few days reading his script and stepping onto set, JayDee jokes he wasn’t sure what he’d gotten himself into. But now? “I don’t feel out of place. The more I do it, the more I pick up little tricks about acting.”
JayDee plays a character that mirrors his own life experiences in many ways. JayDee’s character Chito is the older brother in a family. He spends his days in the grueling sun picking peaches, like the singer once did before finding music, and he’s trying to help out his family as much as he can. Chito knows his mom is struggling to make ends meet, so much so that he feels the pressure to step up and be the man of the house. While trying to make more money to help his family, he starts selling drugs.
Through it all, though, Chito’s heart has always been in music. He’s a songwriter with friends who constantly push him toward the mic instead of trouble. “Chito is really me. That’s how I live, that’s how it is out here,” he says. “It’s the work ethic he has in the movie that resonates. I’m a lot like him.”
The story follows Chito as he tries to balance making music and making fast money, only to learn there’s no shortcut to success. When he’s given a second chance, he chooses music and finds his version of the American Dream.
For JayDee, the role was a chance to put a life he rarely sees represented on screen. “I’ve never seen a film or show that reflects the crop-picking life I lived,” he says. “I always gave it my all… I always will.”