Jay Rock Earns His First RIAA Gold Certified Album

Jay Rock has reached a new career milestone. The Watts-bred rapper updated his Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certifications and now counts his gold album, as well as additional platinum tracks. His 2018 album Redemption has officially half a million units, reaching the coveted status.

The album, his third, stands at 15 tracks and features Future, J. Cole, Jeremih, Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Tee Grizzley, Mozzy, and DCMBR.

“All in all, when you think of Redemption, I’m basically going off of my career when I was… after I dropped 9005,9 I had a lot of things lined up. I was supposed to be at awards and things of that nature. I felt like, man, I’m here now. I was excited,” detailed the Top Dawg Entertainment signee of making the album to Complex.

“But sometimes things happen. Kind of like I had got put in a setback when I got into my accident. So I was going through a whole lot dealing with that. I just told myself this time around when you come back, I want to redeem myself. Not just for me, but for the fans too. They was waiting on me. A lot of people was waiting on new music and see a lot more of Jay Rock.”

He continued, “So this time around, when I healed up, I said, you know what? I just gotta redeem myself. This gon’ be my redemption. My comeback, you know? And just become better than ever.”

Along with the Redemption, Jay Rock also added gold plaques for the songs “Tap Out,” which features Jeremih, and “OSOM,” featuring J. Cole, both from the album. The 40-year-old also added platinum certifications for “Wow (Freestyle)” featuring Kendrick Lamar, “King’s Dead” featuring Kendrick Lamar, James Blake, and Future, and his solo single “Win.”

While Redemption might stand as Jay Rock’s last-released full-length project, fans of rhymer could be in luck. Earlier this month, he teased new music on social media.

“I’ve been in Tha shadows listening,” wrote the musician on Instagram stories. “I can’t wait to drop this music I got,” he closed with the ESJ acronym, likely standing for Eastside Johnny, the rumored name of the pending album.