Johnny Reed McKinzie Jr., born March 31, 1985, records as Jay Rock. He grew up in the Nickerson Gardens projects in Watts, joined the Bounty Hunter Bloods as a teenager and attended Locke High School before Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith signed him to Top Dawg Entertainment in 2005 after hearing a single verse. He was the label's first artist, and met Kendrick Lamar there, forming Black Hippy with Lamar, Ab-Soul and Schoolboy Q. His debut album Follow Me Home arrived in 2011 after a decade of label complications, followed by 90059 in 2015. A near-fatal motorcycle crash in 2016 nearly ended his career, and his return album Redemption debuted at number 13 and produced "Win" and the Grammy-winning "King's Dead" with Lamar, Future and James Blake.