Jerynee: Taking Her “Best Shot” at Freedom, Reinvention & the Art of Letting Go
Written by The Mixtape Queens
There’s a particular kind of courage required to start over when you weren’t finished the first time.
For Charlotte-born artist Jerynee, 2025 forced exactly that. She was preparing to release an album when being scammed and hacked cost her the music she had been building toward. Suddenly, an artist who had spent most of her life surrounded by creativity had to find her footing again—not only rebuilding what was lost, but learning to trust her own sound again. That experience now lives inside her upcoming project, Best Shot, arriving September 25. But this isn’t simply a project about what was taken from her. It follows the emotional distance between loss and acceptance, revenge and grace, and the complicated reality of trying to become yourself while you’re still young enough to be figuring out exactly who that is.
BEFORE THE MUSIC, THERE WAS MOVEMENT:
Born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, Jerynee’s relationship with creativity started almost as early as she did. She began singing around four or five years old, while her mother placed her in competitive dance at five. Music was already part of the atmosphere at home. Her father is a minister of music and a music teacher, so the piano and the language of music were never far away. For years, dance gave Jerynee an outlet for performance and expression. But around 12, singing began to take on a different weight. What had always been present started becoming a passion strong enough to outweigh her love for dance.
Soon, she was writing fun teenage songs and discovering that music could give her something movement alone couldn’t. As she grew into her artistry, she expanded beyond her voice, learning guitar, piano and bass. Today, she also has a home studio—a space where she can create on her own terms. That independence fits the artist she’s becoming. Jerynee describes herself as eccentric, outspoken, generous, observant and funny, and that individuality carries directly into her fashion. She loves thrifting and putting different styles together rather than following one predetermined aesthetic. Her personal style and artistry aren't separate identities; they’re different pieces of the same person. Her upbringing also gave her another foundation to examine as she got older. She grew up Christian and today considers herself spiritual, maintaining a relationship with God without being firmly attached to religion. She’s outspoken about the world around her, including her belief that the government is actively working against people from multiple angles. Jerynee isn't interested in shrinking those perspectives to make herself easier to package. She wants room to create.
LOSING THE MUSIC — AND FINDING JERYNEE AGAIN:
Then came January 2025.
Jerynee had an album she was preparing to release. Instead, after being scammed and hacked, she lost everything.
The loss went deeper than missing files. It disrupted her trust. It interrupted a creative chapter she had already invested herself in. And instead of simply picking up where she left off, Jerynee found herself having to start over and regain a sense of what her music was supposed to sound like. That experience became part of the foundation for Best Shot. Its title track confronts the person who scammed her and took her music, channeling some of that experience into revenge. But the larger project stretches beyond one person or one incident. Jerynee is writing about grief in its many forms: losing things she cared about, losing people, losing time, losing experiences and confronting the areas where life forces growth before you necessarily feel prepared for it. Because, as she sees it, being young and navigating your twenties can be tough.
Best Shot follows that emotional progression. It begins in loss and moves toward acceptance and grace.
That distinction gives the project its heart. Jerynee isn't pretending the painful parts didn't happen. She’s creating from them, allowing the music to hold the anger, grief and growth while still leaving room for something on the other side. In a strange way, having to rebuild also pushed her toward the freedom she now wants from her career. When the old version disappears, there comes a point where you have to decide whether you're going to spend your energy recreating it—or give yourself permission to become something new. Jerynee chose to keep creating.
HER BEST SHOT IS A LIFE SHE ACTUALLY ENJOYS:
For all the ambition surrounding her music, Jerynee’s definition of success isn't centered solely around chasing the industry.
She wants to create art and enjoy what comes with it. She wants a community that inspires and strengthens each other. She wants to introduce new ideas, explore creativity freely and build a life where making art doesn't require sacrificing the person making it and sometimes, that means knowing when not to work. Jerynee cherishes rest. Outside of the studio, she loves thrifting, playing pickleball, going to cafés and grabbing matcha. Those details may seem small beside an album release, but they're part of the larger philosophy emerging around her life: she doesn't want to become so consumed with reaching the next destination that she misses the life happening around her.
It’s also reflected in the advice she gives other artists:
“Do what you want. If you sit too long on something, a moment will pass you by. Stop being a people pleaser and live life and have fun.”
After what happened in 2025, those words carry more weight.
Jerynee knows what it feels like to have plans interrupted. She knows what it means to watch something you worked toward disappear and be left with the question of what happens next.
Her answer is Best Shot. The project isn't arriving because everything went according to plan. It exists because it didn't.
It’s a record shaped by losing, grieving, rebuilding and eventually making enough peace with the past to move differently in the future. And for an artist whose ultimate goal is freedom through creativity, perhaps that is the most fitting introduction to this era. Jerynee isn't trying to recover the exact artist she was before everything changed.
She’s taking what survived, giving herself permission to evolve, and taking her Best Shot at what comes next.
Best Shot arrives September 25.
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