Before 03 Greedo would collab with DJ Mustard, Shoreline Mafia, Freddie Gibbs, Buddy, PnB
Rock, YG, Lil Uzi and more
Before Greedo would drop songs like Never Mind which has over 7 million views on YouTube,
“Mafia Business” with over 3 million views, and “Sweet Lady” with close to 6 million
views on the audio alone.
Before he would have close to 200k followers on Instagram and become a huge part of the
new LA rap scene.
And before he would be facing up to 20 years in prison…
03 Greedo has had a wild journey over the course of his 30 years. Everything bad that
could possibly happen in someone’s life, Greedo has experienced. From losing his father
when he was only just a toddler to his good friend being murdered. He has been shot, kidnapped
by bounty hunters and at one point he was even homeless eating out of garbage cans.
Greedo has suffered a lot of trauma, but he was able to take that pain and turn it into
something beautiful through his music. Currently, he’s serving a sentence where he could face
up to 20 years in prison, but he’s still flooding the market with music, dropping the
album “Still Summer In The Projects” with DJ Mustard. And his legacy isn’t done, he
wants to be one of the greats. Can you guess which legendary artists he wants to one day
be compared to? Stick around until the end to find out the answer. This, is the story
of 03 Greedo.
What’s going on good people in the comment section? Shoutout to the people watching after
school, on their work break, at lunch, or the toilet and shoutout to people watching
in Australia today just because! I hope you’re having one Hecht of a Day, my name is Jeremy
Hecht, documenting the life and career of 03 Greedo here for you on Before They Were
Famous. If you’re new here, I’m here to help out Michael with content for the channel
so nice to meet you! We recently dropped a videos on Meg The Stallion and NLE Choppa
so check those out after you finish watching this video and you gotta let us know who’s
next in the comment section down below. Alright, now let's get into it!
03 Greedo was born Jason Jamal Jackson on July 26, 1987 in Los Angeles, California to
parents Michael and Lisa Jackson. Greedo is the youngest of three siblings with an older
brother and sister. When he was still a baby, Greedo had a series of ear infections that
lead to a small tube being inserted into his ear lobe to help stabilize things, it was
called Tympanostomy tube surgery. The surgery left him with a fake eardrum, making him partially
deaf. He cites this surgery as the reason for his nasaly voice.
But when Greedo was only a year old, his father was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident.
And after his father’s passing, growing up in Watts, LA didn’t get much easier.
He described where he grew up to Complex as:
“I was born in Los Angeles Hospital, but I'm from Watts. L.A. It’s more like the
culture that you see in movies like Boys In Da Hood, but I'm the guy from where they
shot Menace II Society.”
He said that Watt’s was very dangerous but also very soulful and full of love. There
was a lot of inspiring energy for him as an artist. But he also says:
“It's a lot of hatred, it's a lot of murder, it's a lot of f*cking betrayal, a lot of crooked
cops, bad healthcare. I'm from the bottom of the bottom, I didn't just grow up in one
place, I grew up homeless.”
And Greedo means that literally. He was moving around a lot as a kid. Him and his mother
didn’t get along very well when he was younger so he found other places to stay. He says
he was in St. Louis living in the basement with his grandpa at one point. And it was
in St. Louis that he lost his virginity. Later, he moved to Kansas City with his Auntie when
his grandpa passed away. He describes Kansas as the most boring part of his life but later
bounced around between Sacramento where his Grandpa on his dad’s side stayed, going
to Compton and Gardena California. Finally, he found a home at the Jordan Downs Housing
Projects in Watts when he was around the age of 13 or 14. It was there that he was faced
with a choice to either join the Grape Street Crips gang or face further consequences, so
he chose the former. In school, Greedo was a class clown telling LA Weekly that he had
hard times but was always the most popular in school. But, he was also constantly getting
into trouble, bringing guns to school, going through other kid’s lockers and getting
into fights. He would even skip school to shop on Melrose. But that lifestyle lead to
some tension in the household and still staying with his mother, she was fed up with his behavior
and kicked him out. He stayed with 7 different families over the course of the next chapter
of his life, including his friend’s couches and bounced from place to place, even sleeping
with girls just so that he could have a place to stay. At one point, he was actually homeless,
sleeping on Subway stops and saying:
“Like, eat out the trash can homeless, like sleep on a park bench homeless.”
But all of that bouncing around inspired his perspective on life and allowed him to create
a diverse collective of music. Before music though, he actually wanted to be an actor.
Greedo began rapping in the 7th grade, being inspired by battle rap and artists like the
Lil Wayne andHot Boys, Lloyd Banks, Fabolos, Boosie later on and Pharrell as a producer.
He would also listen to Stevie Wonder… So he had some diverse influences musically too.
His first ever rap CD was Nelly’s “Country Grammer” which his mom later confiscated
from him before he turned to Limewire. And Nipsey Hussle was a huge inspiration for Greedo,
calling him a musical mentor. He identifies with Nipsey’s journey telling Complex:
I was supposed to come out when I was 12! I was supposed to come out when Bow Wow came
out. I saw Nip say that same sh*t—he thought when he was a kid he was coming out. But the
only difference between me and a lot of other rappers is that they stay rappers and I wanted
to be a rock’n’roll n*gga at some point, I wanted to have a band like blink-182 or
something. Remember Gym Class Heroes? They were kinda short-lived”
Shout out to Travy McCoy. But his dreams of being the lead singer of a boy band may have
gone down the drain after he got “Living Legend” tatted on his face. Now, he says
he makes “emo music for gangbangerss.”
At just 17 years old, Greedo’s first love and girlfriend became pregnant with his child.
In order to support the family, he worked jobs at Robinson’s-May, Fry’s Electronics
and Best Buy and started to sell the beats he was producing at the time. Here’s a video
of him producing his very first beat:
After the two both turned 18, their child was born. But unfortunately, the money wasn’t
enough and Greedo turned to hustling to make some extra cash. But that lifestyle caught
up with him and in 2009, he served 10 months of a yearlong sentence. But when he got out
he began taking music more seriously. The first studio that he recorded at was at his
friend Lil’ Chris’ house. And before going back to jail again, he released 6 self-produced
mixtapes under his original rap name, which was Greedy Giddy, including the “Bipolar”
series, “Everybody Weak” and “Money, Powder, Regrets.” He would upload his early
work to Datpiff, YouTube and Tumblr. I found his old YouTube page and it only has 905 subscribers
and videos that range from 400 views to a few thousand, including a freestlye over Drake’s
“Started From The Bottom.”
And his Datpiff page didn’t have many plays either. But he kept pumping out mixtapes.
His name was later changed to Greedo by people in the projects.
But in 2013, he served 2 years in state prison. Due to his ADHD, while in his cell, he would
pace back and forth and write down lyrics to songs, claiming to have written thousands
of songs. And based on his current output, I honestly don’t doubt that! He also read
a lot and expanded his mind.
Then he started releasing his music to soundcloud in 2014. That’s when he met his manager
Runch, who told Greedo that he wanted him to prove how serious he was about making music.
A year later, Greedo went back to Runch and showed him some of his new songs.
2016 was a huge year for him, changing his name to 03
Greedo later that year. In 2016 he released 2 mixtapes “Purple Summer” and “Purple
Summer 2.” He also started his own label that year called “Golden Grenade Empire.”
But it was also that year that he was arrested in Texas for drug trafficking and possession
of a firearm. According to reports, police opened his trunk after smelling weed and found
harder drugs and two stolen weapons. Originally, Greedo was facing an absurd 300 years for
the charges, but eventually the charges were dropped to 20 years.
It was in 2017 that things started turning around for Greedo when he was discovered by
Todd Moscowitz who signed him to a million-dollar deal with Alamo Records. Before he got signed,
he said he already had 6 projects lined up and ready to go. He released “The Wolf of
Grape Street,” “God Level” and “Money Changes Everything” which was 33 songs dedicated
to his friend Lil Money who was tragically murdered. Lil Money was extremely close to
Greedo and still inspires a lot of what Greedo hopes to do with his music. Rest in peace.
Greedo himself was involved in a shooting, having his tibia shattered by a bullet. Doctors
told him that he would need to get it amputated, but he said.. no I’m okay without. Bold
move but, the tibia was replaced with a metal rod and he seemed to be okay. While in the
hospital recovering, he was recording and making beats on his laptop using FruityLoops.
But the troubles didn’t stop there. After releasing Purple Summer 03, according to a
Noisy article, he was captured by Bounty hunters and taken to the city of Amarillo where he
sat with handcuffs on his wrists and ankles in the back of a van for six straight days,
having to pee into a bottle and still in extreme pain from his leg wound. This guy can’t
catch a break.
Musically, under the label and started to gain some real buzz and got some big features
within the industry. And it looked like Greedo was about to take over. But his charges from
2016 were catching up with him and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Most recently, it was announced that he would be eligible for parole in 2020, so we can
only hope for the best.
The night before his sentencing, Greedo met with Lil Pump, Smokepurpp, Lil Uzi and Desto
Dubb to record a bunch of tracks. And that isn’t the only material that Greedo has
in his stash, because allegedly, the guy has a lot more albums that are ready to go. He
is one of the most prolific artists out and says the most songs he ever recorded in one
night was 16. But his plans for music are much larger than just dropping songs, he wants
to leave a real legacy. He says:
“Eventually, in maybe five years that street music is gonna be over with for me, as far
as for my projects. I'll kill it for features, I always will. But what I have to do is larger,
like Elvis or Frank Sinatra or Michael Jackson. I have to get to that. I just have a lot on
my mind.”
And there’s the answer to your question from the beginning of the video. It’s crazy
that his dad’s name is also Michael Jackson.
03 has already gone through an extremely traumatic life and I can’t even imagine what he’s
going through, but all I can do is wish him and his family the best and hope that he gets
out as soon as possible. I’m looking forward to hearing more of the many albums that he
has done soon.
As for the rest of the story, well you know the story because this is Before They Were
Famous. As always, let us know who to cover next in the comments down below or you can
hit me up on Instagram @jeremy_hecht, Dream Good, Live Better, I hope you have one Hecht
of a day and I’ll see you in the next video.