JID

Born Destin Choice Route in Atlanta, Georgia, he grew up as the youngest of seven children of Carl Louis Route Jr. and Kathy Jean Route. His grandmother gave him the nickname "JID" during his childhood because of his restless and jittery behavior. In his youth, he immersed himself in his parents' collection of classic funk and soul vinyl before exploring 1990s East Coast hip-hop artists like Jay-Z, Nas, and Mobb Deep.

He revealed on the closing track of his 2025 studio album God Does Like Ugly that he is a father. Beyond his musical endeavors, he has participated in community and political events in Georgia, including performing at a 2020 campaign rally in DeKalb County supporting Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

During his teenage years, Route attended Stephenson High School in Georgia, where he excelled as a defensive back on the varsity football team. Despite suffering a dislocated hip during his senior year, he earned a full athletic scholarship to play NCAA Division I football at Hampton University in Virginia. After redshirting his first year, he played two collegiate seasons before being removed from the team for skipping team practices.

Following his departure from college athletics, Route focused entirely on music and moved in with Olu O. Fann and Eian Undrai Parker, the rap duo known as EarthGang whom he had met while in Virginia. In 2010, Route and EarthGang founded the musical collective Spillage Village alongside Hollywood JB and Jordxn Bryant. To finance his earliest mixtapes, including Cakewalk, Route of All Evil, and Para Tu, he worked shifts in call centers and delivered pizzas before securing paid performance bookings.

In February 2017, J. Cole announced that JID had signed to his Interscope Records imprint, Dreamville Records. JID released his commercial debut studio album, The Never Story, in March 2017, led by the single "Never" and featuring collaborations with EarthGang, 6LACK, and Mereba. He subsequently joined the North American and European legs of Cole's 4 Your Eyez Only Tour and embarked on the co-headlining Never Had Shit Tour with EarthGang.

His rapid rise was highlighted by his inclusion in the 2018 XXL Freshman Class. In November 2018, he released his second studio album, DiCaprio 2, featuring guest appearances from J. Cole, Method Man, Joey Bada$$, A$AP Ferg, and Ella Mai. The promotional Catch Me If You Can Tour in early 2019 gained unexpected notoriety when a show in Ithaca, New York, had to be shut down by local authorities after the audience's jumping cracked the ceiling beneath the floor. Later that year, his contributions to Dreamville's compilation Revenge of the Dreamers III yielded RIAA gold-certified tracks including "Down Bad" and "Costa Rica".

JID achieved substantial mainstream chart success in late 2021 through his appearance on Imagine Dragons' crossover hit "Enemy", which served as the theme song for the animated series Arcane and climbed to number five on the Billboard Hot 100. In August 2022, he issued his third studio album, The Forever Story, featuring singles like "Surround Sound" with 21 Savage and Baby Tate, alongside guest verses from Lil Wayne, Yasiin Bey, and Kenny Mason.

Over the following years, he contributed verses to major releases including Eminem's "Fuel" and Westside Gunn's "Mamas PrimeTime". In August 2025, JID released his fourth studio album, God Does Like Ugly, supported by the lead single "WRK" and the promotional extended play GDLU (Preluxe). The project featured an extensive ensemble of collaborators such as Vince Staples, Clipse, Ciara, and Ty Dolla Sign, securing top-15 chart positioning and critical recognition at the Grammy Awards.