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About

JIMMY (Jimmy Deon Poindexter) is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. He is one of the founding members of American hip-hop collective Prism Tribe.

Poindexter’s full-length LP *GHETTOLAND gained rapid attention on social media as a result of his self-produced promotional rollout. The album gained over 1 million views and streams across social media and music streaming platforms since the release. The album was reviewed by American music critic Anthony Fantano.

JIMMY is known for his DIY approach, as he writes, produces, performs, mixes, and masters all of his own music, as well as plans, films, directs, and acts in all of his own videos. As a visual artist, JIMMY designs all of his own graphics, cover arts, merchandise, and websites.

Early life and education

JIMMY was born on February 13, 1998 in Las Vegas, Nevada and is of African-American descent. JIMMY primarily grew up in North Long Beach, California with his father and stepmother. However, in 2013, he moved in with his mother who lived in East Las Vegas, Nevada after his father was no longer able to take care of him financially. Growing up, his family would play everything from oldies, to west coast rap, early 2000s pop and hip hop around him, which served as his introduction to music and culture.

His parents split apart when he was young and his father took him to live with him in North Long Beach, California before he began 1st grade. He lived there until 2013. He attended school in Paramount, California. Poindexter completed his freshman year of high school at Paramount High School West Campus. He completed the rest of high school at Sunrise Mountain High School.

At the age of 15, JIMMY taught himself how to use Adobe Photoshop, FL Studio and Adobe Premiere after watching his older brother make music and score films for his assignments from LA Film School. He watched interviews, vlogs and documentaries of Blog Era artists like Odd Future, A$AP Mob, Pro Era, Donald Glover and more for inspiration on how to approach his career early on.

Career

2013 – 2017: Career Beginnings

Poindexter began his music career in high school releasing several projects from his bedroom, which gained local buzz. In 2014, he began posting his first songs and beats to Soundcloud under the artist name Jimmy Luna also using Saber Nebula as a production credit. Poindexter founded the alternative hip hop collective Prism Tribe in June 2014, alongside Chozin, SckSolo, Casey Frizzell, Jesusontherocks, Prismatic Parker and Ash Sekito. While in high school, Prism Tribe performed an opening set for Drake Bell and performed a set at House of Blues Las Vegas as part of the House of Blues Foundation’s New Artist showcase in 2016. JIMMY attended college at University of Colorado Denver for two semesters before dropping out in May 2017 to pursue music full time.

2018 – 2021: Prism Tribe, Welcome To Darkness and GNARLY

On March 16, 2018, Prism Tribe released PTWW$$EW Vol. I, their debut project as a collective. In 2019, Poindexter released a trilogy of EPs within four months, dubbed the Welcome To Darkness series as well as two music videos for “Freedom!” and “Pink!” directed by Ben Escobar. Prism Tribe released their second project DOG DAYS on August 28, 2020. Poindexter produced, mixed and master the entirety of the project as well as managed the collective’s promotional efforts.

On July 20, 2021, he released his full-length LP GNARLY. The project did not gain much success despite Poindexter promoting the album with physical & digital ads, putting up two billboards in Los Angeles, getting a plane banner over Fairfax & Melrose Ave, performing a concert in Los Angeles, and launching consistent social media campaigns. Poindexter shared that “he almost quit” after not receiving the results he hoped for on his Instagram page.

2022 – present: *GHETTOLAND

Since GNARLY did not produce the results Poindexter hoped for, he began sharing a string of promotional singles & mixtapes at the start of 2022 in promotion of his album *GHETTOLAND. In April 2022, he launched a fundraiser to fund the album that ended with just 5 donors contributing.

In May 2022, Poindexter shared “fake” interviews and freestyles to his YouTube account using established press outlets names and formats to promote his music and gain an engaged audience. On August 18, 2022, he shared ROAD TO *GHETTOLAND EP to gain buzz online before releasing the upcoming LP.

On October 28, 2022, JIMMY shared the first single from the GHETTOLAND album “TWENTY”. Shortly after, it was announced by him on November 22, 2022 that the album along with a docu-series TV show of the same title would be releasing December 2, 2022 via a trailer and image on his Instagram page.

On December 30, 2022, American music critic Anthony Fantano shared the link to the music video for “*UNCULTURED,” track three from *GHETTOLAND on his Twitter page. Fantano shared a review of the album on February 3, 2022.