As the featured artist on one of the biggest hits of the year, Lil Nas X‘s “Industry Baby,” Jack Harlow is riding a wave of success. He received two Grammy nominations for the song, attended the Met Gala, and now sits courtside with household names at basketball games.
However, the Louisville, Kentucky, native knows fame can be fleeting.
“I’m terrified to fall off and lose my spot or lose the ground I’ve covered, or not reach the potential that people see,” Harlow admits to Variety. “Every time I sit courtside at these games or go to the Met Gala or maybe the Grammys, what’s in my head is, ‘I’ve gotta be here next year.’ I don’t want this to be the last time.”
Meanwhile, the “Whats Poppin” rapper says that while he is focused on his creativity, he finds that as his popularity rises, music has become less important.
“Once you become actually famous, it’s only half about the music,” he says. “They’re just showing up to see you in the flesh, put you on their Snap, throw some panties at you, whether they know a single lyric or not.”
Harlow also wishes that, like Kendrick Lamar and Eminem, he had an alter ego to hide behind.
“Sometimes artists will assume characters for a verse or a feature — Kendrick does that, Em had it with Slim Shady, and sometimes in the studio my engineer will even encourage me to ‘get out of Jack Harlow,'” he says. “That’s something I’d have to work on intentionally, and maybe I will.”
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