Amid Continued Jelly Roll Praise, N-Word Incident Goes Unreported

Jelly Roll has evolved into not only one of the most successful and lauded entertainers in the country music sphere at the moment, but into an American cultural icon and institution, recognized across cultural and institutional divides.

If it isn’t for his music with its pop sensibilities that cast a wide net, it’s been Jelly Roll’s story of redemption that has compelled so many in the United States and beyond to become Jelly Roll believers. That’s how a man with excessive face tattoos and a felonious past became someone that even your Christian mother strongly approves of.

Despite his list of previous felonies, or his overindulgences of the past, over the last few months Jelly Roll has evolved even further to be invited to participate in some of America’s topmost cultural institutions. We’re not just talking about his prominent appearances on WWE wrestling recently, endearing the entertainer to an even wider audience beyond the world of music. On July 16th and 17th, Jelly Roll hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live! while Kimmel was on vacation. Jelly Roll is quickly becoming like a Ryan Seacrest character in American culture.

If it feels like Jelly Roll is everywhere, it’s because he is, especially since he’s been a favorite in media and beyond, ingratiating himself by his fiery acceptance speeches at award shows, and from the way his sound and image embody what many outside of country music believe to be what country music needs to “evolve.” Puff piece-style human interest stories on Jelly Roll and his wife Bunnie XO are daily occurrences.

But through this rehabilitation of the Jelly Roll image, it’s fair to question if enough scrutiny has been brought to make sure Jelly Roll the man has properly reconciled with his past, and to ask why performers with much less shadier histories face much greater scrutiny. It’s also fair to ask if the media is outright shielding Jelly Roll from criticism that would otherwise inspire outright cancellation campaigns against other performers.

For example, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Jelly Roll has been captured on video using the N-word multiple times given his country rap past. In fact, this video evidence has been floating out there for many months, and has even gone viral on Reddit and other social media threads multiple times. Yet the media seems to either refuse to address it, or be so blind or soft to the Jelly Roll beat, it’s gone completely unreported.

It was Morgan Wallen using the N-word on January 31st, 2021, caught on a neighbor’s Ring doorbell camera that set off an incredible firestorm in country music and beyond that in certain circles is still raging to this day.

Hayley Williams for the pop punk band Paramore recently released a song called “Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party” that starts off by repeating, “I’ll be the biggest star at this racist country singer’s bar” in reference to Wallen. While Morgan Wallen has not been allowed to officially return to the Grand Ole Opry since the N-Word incident.

But in video taken on January 23rd, 2023 at the Ghost Ranch of fellow country rapper Ryan Upchurch (also referred to as simply “Upchurch”), Jelly Roll is heard using the N-word in conversation, and perhaps as many as three times.

This video was captured nearly two years after the Morgan Wallen N-word incident. And unlike the Morgan Wallen footage that was published exclusively via TMZ, you can find this footage and many mentions of it on YouTube, X/Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook/Instagram/Threads. A major Reddit thread was posted about the incident in July. However, the media has never addressed it.

“We need to have 10 more conversations like this. I just turned down $50,000 from Tyler Farr, and I don’t know why. You know why? Because he’s somebody I can’t get a hold of … (inaudible) Because you’re beefin’ with Tyler Farr nigg–“ Jelly Roll is heard saying in the clip that has been the most widely shared. But it appears he’s heard using the N-word twice more later in the full video.

The full, 18:25 video was uploaded onto YouTube by an anonymous account called “The Leakage Capsule” on January 3rd, 2025. Along with the above remark found at the 7:42 mark of the video, other N-word’s can be potentially heard at the 6:46 mark when Jelly Roll is talking about talking to Taste of Country journalist/DJ Evan Paul, and at the 8:29 mark where Jelly Roll is talking about a collaboration with Jason Aldean.

Though both of these moments have been pointed out as other N-word moments, the audio is not clear enough to verify exactly what Jelly Roll is saying, unlike the moment at the 7:42 mark.

But the video has also surfaced in other places, and earlier than the full YouTube video. On December 18th, 2024, a Ryan Upchurch fan account on TikTok uploaded the N-word video, along with a series of videos of Ryan Upchurch addressing the video beforehand, and explaining the context of his meeting with Jelly Roll and fellow country rapper Adam Calhoun on January 23rd, 2023.

“I’ve been sitting her trying to start this video for the last 30 minutes, cause I ain’t gonna lie, this is probably one of my favorite videos I’m ever gonna make. And it’s also my most non-favorite video I’m ever gonna make. Why is it my favorite? Because everybody needs to see this,” Upchurch says. “And a lot of y’all are going to go back, and things are going to start clicking for y’all. By the end of this video, there’s gonna be some motherf-ckers who don’t have careers no more. Because that is absolutely true.”

Though the December 2024 TikTok clips are where many people first saw the information and the N-Word video, it doesn’t appear to be the origin of them. It was likely a YouTube video from Upchurch himself that has perhaps now been removed. Also interesting to note, the final video in the TikTok series that contains Jelly Roll using the N-Word has the sound removed, likely due to a violation for offensive language by TikTok’s policies.

Then on January 2nd, 2025, Adam Calhoun posted a response video calling Ryan Upchurch a narc for posting the Jelly Roll video. Addressing Upchurch, Adam Calhoun says, “You’re secretly recording people without their consent like a f-cking cop. You police officer, Fed, cop, narc, snitch-ass, tattle-telling little boy.”

Adam Calhoun’s response was in part due to the perception that the video would damage Jelly Roll’s reputation. But since the media never reported on it, no potential damage was ever incurred.

The January 23rd, 2023 meeting of Ryan Upchurch, Jelly Roll, and Adam Calhoun stemmed from a video clip of Jelly Roll being interviewed by Taste of Country’s Evan Paul. Jelly Roll was asked who might be the next country rap artist to break out. After shouting out Struggle Jennings, Jelly Roll also mentions Ryan Upchurch, but says, “I think Ryan Upchurch would be good for the format if we could ever to get him to dial in.”

Upchurch explained later that that the “dial in” comment by Jelly Roll is what offended many people in Upchurch’s fan base, and was the reason for the in-person meeting with Jelly Roll.

“When that’s up there on that channel that’s respected called ‘Taste of Country,’ and the title is ‘Jelly Roll: Why won’t Upchurch commit to country.’ Dude, that is straying people away from ‘Upchurch don’t do country music. Upchurch ain’t country.’ That’s when you get the fan base asking me a question,” Upchurch explains.

Jelly Roll defends himself by saying in the January 23rd, 2023 meeting, “I’m never going to go into one of these interviews and not bring up Ryan Upchurch, not bring up Adam Calhoun, and not bring up Struggle. #1, these are my friends, so I thought.”

Taste of Country actually used the conflict to promote a clip from the interview on YouTube, titling it, “Upchurch got real mad at us after he watched this video.” The clip alone has 1.5 million views. This means a major country music media outlet was very aware of the beef that was happening between Upchurch and Jelly Roll.

The underlying conflict between Jelly Roll, Ryan Upchurch, Adam Calhoun, and others goes much deeper than a single quote, and basically devolves into all of the complexities or a rap beef, and feelings on authenticity. Though many might not be familiar with the name Upchurch, he’s a massive country rap star with multiple Certified Gold and Platinum records. He’s also been someone who has regularly criticized other country rap stars and some country stars for not “keeping it real.”

It was Ryan Upchurch who Luke Combs collaborated with early in Luke’s career, and was later criticized for Confederate Flag imagery that appeared in a video they did together. As artists like Jelly Roll in the underground country rap scene started signing with major labels, Ryan Upchurch remained independent. Another part of the conversation finds Jelly Roll attempting to defend his authenticity, despite being played on mainstream country radio.

“My spirit is that I’m in a radio period, with Nashville radio people,” Jelly Roll says. “Because I’m now on Nashville radio finally, which #1, we should all be celebrating. There should be a moment unanimously for everybody in our culture that goes, ‘Yo, Jelly Roll snuck in the back door on these bitches dog. He’s probably in there doing cocaine and f-ckin’ starting fights and shit. Our dude’s in there.’ That’s how I thought that should be received.”

But when Upchurch says in his introductory video, “By the end of this video, there’s gonna be some motherf-ckers who don’t have careers no more,” he was completely wrong. For whatever reason, the Jelly Roll N-word moment has remained outside of the mainstream perception, and Jelly Roll was never even compelled to issue an apology or an explanation for it.

Saving Country Music reached out to the publicist of Jelly Roll for comment or clarification on this story. They have so far not responded.

Should the public draw the conclusion that Jelly Roll is racist since he’s caught on camera using a racial slur? Very similar to Morgan Wallen, this moment probably has much more to do with an individual very heavily influenced by hip-hop music speaking in the parlance of hip-hop. Also similar to the Morgan Wallen situation, Jelly Roll was in a private moment when he didn’t know he was being recorded, and was in no way exhibiting animosity or anger towards Black people.

However, Jelly Roll’s use of the N-word is still wrong, and especially after the major reckoning that Morgan Wallen and country music endured after the Morgan Wallen N-word incident nearly two years before. At the absolute least, it would seem like the Jelly Roll video would be something the media would find worth reporting on. This is just as much a media issue as it is Jelly Roll getting caught using the N-word.

Morgan Wallen’s N-word moment was not just used against Morgan Wallen. It was used against country music, and continues to be. Should Jelly Roll’s N-word situation be used against country too? The irony of both situations is it wasn’t their country music roots that inspired the utterances. It was their hip-hop ones. The phrase that Morgan Wallen used, “Pus-y ass nigg-“ is common parlance in hip-hip songs, and is even the title of numerous hip-hop tracks.

It is the hip-hop influence within the sound of both Morgan Wallen and Jelly Roll that have made them so widely popular in music, yet strongly polarizing in country. It’s also what has earned both of them the most diverse Black and Brown audiences in the entire country genre.

And as hip-hop continues to encroach as an influence in country, this ironically doesn’t reduce the amount of perceived racism within the genre, it increases it. It’s within the country rap community where you still hear the N-word used, and still see Confederate flags like in the Upchurch video and other country rap videos—things most of mainstream Southern culture and country music moved on from years ago.

Jelly Roll has also seemed to have moved on from many of the excesses of his past, even if he presents himself partly as a sober story, yet continues to openly admit to still imbibing in some drugs and alcohol. But how much of Jelly Roll’s rehabilitation story is a true journey, how much of it is marketing, and how much the media is helping to shield Jelly Roll from the same criticism other performers and country music continue to face is a very fair question to ask.

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