Music

Meet Ghostwridah, a poetic lyricist and rapper from Florida you should know

Troy Jeffery-Morris, AKA Ghostwridah, just dropped his new single, "MEDS." Find out what inspires this profound artist and hear more about his anticipated upcoming album, "Flowers."

By Vivian Tang

11 min readPublished on 05/12/2023 · 3:29 PM UTC

Born and raised in Miami, Troy Jeffery-Morris, AKA Ghostwridah, always knew he was destined for something great. The son of a professional football player, it wasn't his dream to follow in his father's footsteps, but instead he created his own path. So he chose the next closest thing to his heart - music.

"My father is a professional football player, he used to play for the '72 Dolphins," shared Troy. "I didn't take that route because I feel like it wasn't meant for me. I love sports, both football and basketball are among my favorite. But I had no desire to walk in my father's footsteps. Which are really big shoes to fill. There's a lot of pressure associated with successful parents. He's etched in the history book for what he does. I want to be etched in there for what I do."

Where Troy grew up, he felt that there wasn't a lot of options. "Everybody that ever made it out of our neighborhood made it because of sports," Troy said. "I’m like ‘Okay, I'm not going to play ball, I'm going to try music.’"

It's a good thing he tried music, because the vulnerability he shares as an artist is unique and deep. His roots and honesty comes through in every verse and every record. With the loss of his mother last year, Troy has put his heart into his latest single, "MEDS," produced by 40Mil of Rebellion Records. Created out of emotional depression, "The thing I love about being an artist is the ability you get to communicate your current feelings in real time."

Ghostwridah "MEDS"
© Camilo Rafael Sierra

We sat down with Troy to learn more about him as an artist, how he became the rapper he is today and his upcoming album, "Flowers."

Tell us about the name “Ghostwridah” - where did it come from?

Ghostwridah: Initially when I started making music, I went through a series of different names. When you’re 16 and 17, everything you come up with is pretty corny. I went through so many different rap names. I ended up writing other parts for people who made music as well and I didn't know what that was called. I remember just being in the studio and someone telling me, 'You know what you’re doing is called ghostwriting.'

The funny thing is, it was actually spelt the correct way initially. I had got my first mixed tape placement with DJ2NEN, and he spelt my name wrong - "wridah" - and I was kind of upset and bummed, like this was my first mixed tape placement, the world’s finally got to know my name and that just deflated me. At the time, my girlfriend said ‘Hey you should keep it this way, it’s different and it's unique. It still means the same thing, it's going to stand out.' And you know, a woman’s advice, it’s vital, it’s important and I took it.

Do you think music was always your calling?

Where I come from, there’s not a lot of options - nobody really looks at like ‘Oh man you could be something greater than an athlete or someone who makes music’ because those options were never shown to us. Everybody that ever made it out of our neighborhood made it because of music or sports.

I’m like ‘Okay, I'm not going to play ball, I'm going to try music.’ It happened to me around 15-17 when I realized I'm really good at this. I couldn’t see myself doing anything else after that. If I removed music from my life, it seems like the lights would be out, it would be black.

What inspired you to pursue music?

I went to high school with Pitbull. Pitbull was my real first example that someone that close to me that was successful could actually make it.

I'm going through Best Buy one day and - this is my friend at the time and I knew he was doing some big things - I went to Best Buy to see what new CD’s were out (this was when CDs were really dominating) and then I had heard Pitbull had done this record with Uncle Luke. I looked at the back of the CD and saw his name, something clicked for me in that moment.

If someone this close to me can be in this store, which I've been shopping to get all my favorite music, I know that I can actually do this. That was the moment for me that this is real, this can happen.

How has Miami influenced you musically?

None of my musical influences aside from that [Pitbull] moment that I mentioned were from Miami. My older brother has such a diverse ear when it comes to music that he was playing records that were far beyond the confines of the community we grew up in. When I was younger, I was listening to Nas, Wu-Tang, Jay-Z, OutKast, N.W.A., those are the people that influenced me when I was younger.

I never really caught inspiration musically from the people around me because I was so engulfed in everything else that was far East and on the West Coast, because those guys have something significant to say, I was more drawn to that, which is why I'm a lyricist from Miami today.

I'm an enigma, you don't hear many people that come from this city that sound the way I sound. I used to get made fun of for actually sounding intelligent on records because people thought, 'we don't rap like that, we don't use the slang that you’re using,' but I was so motivated and inspired by the people I grew up listening to. Hip-hop to me wasn’t Miami, it wasn’t Florida. It was New York, it was the West Coast, it was Atlanta. Those are my musical influences.”

You're a very poetic lyricist. Where does that stem from?

For me, I’m very expressive. The things I couldn’t say to people because I didn’t know how to communicate to people, I felt that when I made the music, I was free to do so there.

I feel like communication wise and emotionally, I walked around in a cage for so long because when you’re a kid growing up and you’re not taught emotional intelligence and how to value communication, what ends up happening is that you bottle that up. Thank God for me, I had an outlet to release those thoughts and feelings, so the kind of poetry side of it is just me completely being expressive in ways I wasn’t able to communicate with actual people. Like I want to say so much to this particular person and I don’t know how to say it, but if I get a beat and I get in a booth, I can say everything I wanted to say.

What is your writing process like now? How has it evolved?

When I started, I didn't have beats. To try to find somebody to make a beat for you, it was like winning the lottery, it was hard. My process initially was I would just write to instrumentals that were popular just to sharpen my writing skills. If I didn't have instrumentals, I would just write what was in my heart and try to match that to a beat if I could find one later.

But as time progressed and people started to see my skill set progressing and heard my name a lot more, then producers started coming around. Now my process is - which I’m very picky - I would ask most of my producers to make around 10-15 beats for me per producer and I would go through each of them and sometimes they don't hit the day I listen to them. But I would hold on to them anyway, and maybe a year later I'll listen to it again and I'm like ‘Okay what I wasn't prepared to say back then, I'm ready now.’ To me, I have to get my open line, that first open line is the most important part of the song to me. Sometimes I'll sit for an hour trying to find the right opening line, and then once I find that right opening line, I'll be done in thirty minutes.

This is blue collar rap music.
Ghostwridah

How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it before?

I would say it’s human. I’m going to provide you the closest thing to a human experience from a rapper that you’ll get. I want you to listen to my record and feel like everything that you’re hearing is relative to your life because you can’t relate if I all I talk to you about is the good times, how much money I’m spending, jewelry or the car I want to buy. If you want to get the upmost human experience and relatable experience, this is what I have to offer.

This is blue collar rap music. I want you to feel like ‘This guy knows exactly what I’m going through’ because I do, we all do.

You took a break from music when your son was born. How does he inspire you?

I did take a break when my son was born because I was in fear of what my success would do to our relationship. Because growing up my dad and I didn't have a relationship. Later in life we made it right and I always loved and admired him regardless. Sometimes you get to have the fairytale Black household. But I am just happy we made it right and that we're close today. But as far as the break I took, all I could think about is how I didn't want my son to have those experiences. So I stepped away at the height of my career.

My son inspired me to actually take a break, to actually discover who I needed to be in order to raise him to be a man he’d be proud of. My greatest inspiration from him wasn't even primarily about music, it was just about manhood. He inspired me to just better myself, period. Which then trickles down into the music and the legacy. The greater I do, the more of an opportunity he has to carry on a legacy he can pass on to his children.

Who is your dream collab with?

I'm a super huge fan of André 3000. As far as newer artists, I love 21 Savage. Definitely would be dope to do a record with Kendrick and Cole. And Victoria Monét , I'm a really big fan of her. And obviously everybody at my label, Rebellion, I love those guys.

Talk to us about your upcoming album, "Flowers." How is that going?

Album is going great. My mom passed away last year and after my mom passed, I didn't know if or when I’d be able to get back in the studio. Obviously losing my mother devastated me. But then something happened three or four months in, where I'm just in bed every single day, not really working out, not going to the studio. My world around me had collapsed.

I had a moment where I'm like ‘I know this isn’t what my mom wants for me.' When she was here, she’d push me, no matter what it is you’re going through, you gotta take that and put it into what you love. So I made a decision to get up and to get out of this rut I was in and push myself to make an album based on what I was going through.

I took that and got into the studio and I made what to me is arguably the best music I’ve ever made in my life. I believe that this album will be the most significant album - no matter who I do an album with or who I collab with - because the significance of the lost of my mom, I feel like this is the most important music I'll ever make in my life.

Overcoming hardships has gotten Ghostwridah to where and who he is now, but overcoming self doubt will always be the toughest part. "I think the most challenging part of anybody's journey when you’re trying to become something or somebody is overcoming self doubt," he shared. "No matter how great you are, there’s always this voice in your head that’s like ‘What if you’re not great enough? What if this doesn't resonate with the people you believe it will?'" He does one thing to keep himself going: "Just reminding myself on a constant basis that what I do is meaningful and the world needs what I have to say. That’s what keeps me balanced."

With "Flowers" in the last stages as he and his producer Lowkey work to perfect the sound, we can't wait to see Ghostwridah blossom.

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