“I didn't want to make something until I was ready to scream it. I needed to know why I was making it.”Jeremy Pope is embracing his “season of affirmation and confidence,” and the proof is in the pudding. In 2024, the multi-hyphenate artist has starred in a sizzling Calvin Klein, and accepted a Native Son award for excellence as a Black gay man in media.
I was really drawn by the “God Is Good” monologue, and one of the lines that stood out to me was, “why would I choose to make my life more complicated than it already is?” What you were thinking about when you wrote that specific line? Being that “U, Lost” is the first record on the album, it's like the beginning. The energy behind that record was me talking my sh*t, but more a conversation with my ego and allowing that to be the first thing that you hear. I think culturally, men are the ones that speak up, or are the loudest or biggest. It was me unpacking the layers of how we view masculine energy. Visually, for me, it was about going back to the first entry points of seeing hyper-masculinity.
It really speaks to this space you've carved out for yourself. What’s the intention behind your fashion choices this year, and especially your Met Gala look? I was very grateful when that moment came in last year. It gave me an opportunity to have a better relationship with my body in the gym, because immediately you think, “I need to get in the best shape of my life.” My dad is a professional bodybuilder, so I'm looking at the genetics going, “damn. So I can do that.” But for me, it was about a feeling.