24kGoldn: No. 1 Without A Tour … Yet!

“Me, I’m normally a very late sleeper. Barry Weiss, the head of RECORDS, my label, called me at eight in the morning West Coast time and I’m like, ‘What the fuck is this guy calling me for right now? I’m asleep right now,’” the rising star otherwise known as rapper/singer 24kGoldn told Pollstar with a wry smile in his voice.  

Turns out Weiss, a legendary label exec, had a good reason. 

“He was like, ‘Yo, I know you’re normally not awake right now but I thought it would be cool because I gotta tell you you’re going to have the No. 1 song. It’s not official yet, it’s not out yet on Billboard but we’re going to have it,’” 24kGoldn says. “I was like ‘Whoa, that’s crazy!’ A couple hours later I got the texts and tweets saying ‘congratulations’ and I literally spring out of bed and I just ran around the house and I jumped in the swimming pool with my pajamas on still. KBeaZy lives there, Omer [Fedi] lives there – two of the people who worked on the song – so we all got to celebrate that together.”

24kGoldn’s “Mood,” featuring rapper/singer Iann Dior, initially hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on the chart dated Oct. 24, marking the first No. 1 single for both artists. The single was released via streaming services in July and hit alternative radio and rhythmic contemporary in September.   

“Mood” has spent eight total weeks at No. 1, having ascended the Hot 100 four separate times. After two weeks at No. 1 in October, “Mood” dropped to No. 3 and then returned to the top of the chart the last three weeks of November. That month, 24kGoldn released a remix of the song featuring vocals from Justin Bieber and J Balvin. “Mood” fell to No. 2 and then was back on top Dec. 12. The single returned to No. 1 for the charts dated Jan. 9 and 16, following rankings at Nos. 2, 5 and 7.

Although Von Jones has enjoyed his sustained No. 1 success over the last few months, he, like many other up-and-coming artists, faces a purely 2020-21 conundrum: How does a hot recording artist establish their touring career side without the ability to have live shows? It’s a crucial question his team – which includes WME, Active Management, Electric Feel, RECORDS/Columbia – are now strategizing. 

The wildfire success of songs like “Mood” on platforms like TikTok have led to huge flashes of sudden stardom, but it’s nothing new. Perhaps the greatest example was Lil Nas X, whose 2018 smash “Old Town Road” led to his debut live performance at Stagecoach with Diplo and Billy Ray Cyrus. With the absence of live performances, that can’t happen. But this peculiar time in our world does have some advantages.

“COVID has probably been the best and worst thing that ever happened to me,” 24kGoldn says. “It’s like I get this No. 1 song that probably wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the circumstances of being in a quarantine lockdown, but I don’t get to perform … I don’t get to meet the people that appreciate the music that we made. … Every once in a while, I’ll be like, ‘I wish I was on tour right now,’ but I think everything happens for a reason. And there was a lot of good that came from dealing with this type of fast success without it being too hectic, like time to reflect and figure shit out without having to be moving around every other day.”

Part of the appeal of “Mood” is that the catchy song doesn’t fit into just one category, attracting fans of rap, pop and rock. The bop, with its upbeat vibe, contrasted with lyrics dedicated to a toxic relationship with a love interest who’s “always in a mood,” is topped off by trap beats and a great guitar riff by Fedi. In the U.S., the song is certified 2X Platinum and hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Top 40, Rhythmic, and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, and it also charted across the globe.  

While achieving a No. 1 single would be an incredible moment for any artist, it’s especially impressive seeing as how 24kGoldn only started writing songs a handful of years ago as a sophomore in high school.

The singer/rapper grew up in San Francisco with a Black, Catholic father and a white, Jewish mother who listened to all kinds of music at home including “classical music … pop, R&B, soul, hip-hop, oldies, blues, jazz.” He credits being raised in San Francisco’s diverse environment for influencing him artistically: “The Bay is notorious for the hyphy movement, but it’s also notorious for the Grateful Dead and the whole hippie movement. And when you combine all these different subcultures into one place, it gives you a well-rounded experience. I grew up listening to all types of music, I grew up seeing all different kinds of people from the richest of the rich to people with nothing in the Tenderloin. I just got to see so much more life and perspectives, more things to talk about in my music, to understand how people feel.”

24kGoldn got an early taste of the entertainment world by acting in commercials as a child and singing in choir in junior and high school. He says, “I was the kid singing Bruno Mars covers to the girls at lunchtime, trying to act cute. I’ve always had this thing with music, but I didn’t really have the confidence to be like ‘Yo, this is my original music, these are the songs I’m putting out’ until I got to high school and people fucked with it.” 24kGoldn praises his mentor, fellow Bay Area rapper Paperboy, for getting him in the studio for the first time and helping “me understand what it means to be an artist.”

With a birth name like Golden, along with his natural magnetism, a career in the limelight seems like it was fate, but he initially planned on becoming a hedge fund manager and earned a scholarship to attend the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. He explains that while music is his passion, he’s an entrepreneur at heart and there’s a part of his brain that’s always thinking about the business side of things. That instinct has carried over to giving input on business decisions in his music career. 

As 24kGoldn was preparing for a move across the state for college, rapper/youth mentor Richard “Big Rich” Bougere, who is the co-founder/executive director of the nonprofit community outreach program Project Level that 24kGoldn attended, got in touch with Active Management’s Chioke “Stretch” McCoy. 

“He wanted me to meet him, to look out for him and make sure that everything’s cool,” Stretch says. “So, I met him, and he played me some of his music and I was blown away. We started working [together] from there.” 

Stretch – who has worked with Run The Jewels, SOB x RBE and Sage The Gemini and co-manages 24kGoldn with Electric Feel’s Austin Rosen – notes that he could immediately tell 24kGoldn was special because of his drive and the songs he’d written. “One of the songs, ‘Valentino,’ he’d already had and hadn’t released it because he was like ‘I think this song could be really big and I just want to wait until I have the right team behind me that could help me push this.’ That to me was a telltale sign this kid was going places.”

24kGoldn comments that Stretch is “like my uncle basically. Stretch just gets it. … He knows the balance between culture and commerce, which is something that I walk the line. He cares about me as a person and my personal growth and development just as much if not more than the music side of things. Knowing that you have someone like that that’s got your back just lets me be an artist more comfortably.”