Jay Worthy Is Rap’s Forrest Gump

Crossing the threshold of Jay’s home is like stepping out of a portal into, like, 1996. Almost every square inch of wall features some kind of poster or even rarer collectible memorabilia for classic movies and albums from that decade. But the piece de resistance is the far wall of his den, which boasts an obsessively curated, artfully displayed collection of films on VHS—which you can actually watch on a VCR he’s somehow fixed up to his flatscreen.

“Any time I bring a bitch through here,” he jokes, in his raspy LA-dude croak, “I tell her welcome to Blockbuster.”

His dialect screams born-and-raised-in-the-213, but the Jay Worthy lore actually begins in Vancouver, though he’s reluctant to dwell too much on those days.

“I was off the porch by [age] 10, man,” he recalls of his time up north. He’d visit California frequently to see family members, then head back to Vancouver bragging about being “down with homies from this hood in Compton,” until fate brought him out west permanently.

“A series of tragic events happened,” is his intentionally vague explanation. “My crew [in Vancouver] got dispersed and it wasn’t safe for me to be there. So I came out [to LA full-time]. Long story short, my auntie’s like, ‘You can’t stay with us in this house.’ So my homie Ram, he took me in and I ended up living in Compton, where it just so happens that I get [embraced by] this neighborhood that’s home to Kendrick Lamar.”

He rattles off a full list of fellow hometown heroes from that same part of Compton. “Westside Boogie wasn’t anybody then, Problem was probably just starting his career. YG Hootie was starting his shit. But we didn’t have anything really going. And now look where the section is. Our specific section is responsible for me, Wallie the Sensei, Westside Boogie, Kendrick, Problem, Meet The Whoops, YS, Hitta J3. There was just so much talent—when I talk about our hood, I’m talking about a four-block radius. Not Compton, just our hood, you know what I mean?”