In 2021, Jelly Roll offered up the short project Ballads of the Broken.
Another full-length, Self Medicated, followed that October. It landed at number nine on the Billboard Independent Albums chart. In March 2020, he put out the full-length album A Beautiful Disaster, which featured guest spots by Krizz Kaliko, Lil Wyte, Struggle Jennings, and others. In 2019, Jelly Roll issued a second Whiskey Sessions and the EP Crosses and Crossroads. He teamed up with Struggle again on 2018's Waylon & Willie II & III that same year, he released the solo Goodnight Nashville. He followed with No Filter 2 at the end of 2016 before issuing Addiction Kills in April 2017. Two years later, Jelly Roll was back with Sobriety Sucks, which featured Struggle on "Train Tracks" and Alexander King on "Need Nobody." The LP became his first to chart, hitting Top Heatseekers, Independent Albums, and even the R&B Albums chart. The solo album Biggest Loser followed in 2014, along with the EP Whiskey Sessions. By the end of the year, he and Haystak released the collaborative album Business as Usual.
After a cease-and-desist letter from Waffle House, and some nasty online posts from Jelly Roll, the two parties settled their beef with the mixtape renamed Whiskey, Weed, & Women, while the 450-pound rapper declared the chain was still his favorite. Jelly Roll's independent debut album, The Big Sal Story, appeared in 2012, and in 2013 he announced his Whiskey, Weed, & Waffle House mixtape, quickly drawing the attention of the breakfast restaurant chain's legal department. In 2011, he joined Wyte and BPZ in the group SNO, who issued Year Round, an album produced by DJ Paul and Juicy J and released on the Three 6 Mafia-associated label Hypnotize Minds. His music took the form of rugged Southern rock, R&B-tinged instrumentals, country-inspired acoustic numbers, and hardcore rap on albums like 2020's A Beautiful Disaster and 2021's Ballads of the Broken.īorn Jason DeFord, Jelly Roll began rapping around 2005, and started to break through the underground thanks to collaborations with Lil Wyte and Haystak. Going deep into the Southern roots of various styles, Tennessee rapper/vocalist/songwriter Jelly Roll explores themes of addiction, pain, and struggling to reach better days with Southern rap beats and soulful, bluesy vocal performances.