SUMTER, S.C. — One trip to New York City turned into the experience of a lifetime for one Sumter man after he was featured on a billboard in Times Square.
"It was my first trip ever to New York," Jair Golden remembers. "I've never been to New York."
Golden’s first trip to the Big Apple is one he’ll never forget. He was there for a meeting to work on his music, when he heard one of his songs, Ain't Too Many Solid, was about to show up on the biggest billboard.
"We're looking at all the small ones. He says, ‘That one’ and then boom, I see my durag, my mom Mira, my aunt, window. I just see everything that only I feel like I know, everything that comes from my house," Golden explains." My background. I know that and that made me feel really good. Real good. I can't even explain to you."
It wasn’t an easy road getting here. Golden fell in love with rapping at age seven, constantly working to get better. Then, he got in a motorcycle wreck in 2016.
"It was so new and so scary," Golden recalls. "I never been that close to death."
As he re-learned how to walk, he put music on pause. Then, he ran into trouble with the law, receiving five years of probation. During this time, Golden tells me he turned to music and found community support for his rapping along the way.
"I just got off five years probation and my probation officer supports it. The love from the community, I feel like that's why I'm so proud to see him because when I see Jair on the billboard, I see the PO," Golden explains. "I see the probation officer, I see the judge. I see my old bosses. I see my old manager, I see everybody that told me you will make it happen. Everything I feel like I went through I feel like I had to go to it."
He says it’s a testament to people back home, which he’s using to inspire others in Sumter.
His producer and brother Lakim says this recognition is a way to highlight their hometown.
"I'm hoping that this opens up the opportunity for the community in higher places to have channels to help us bring one home for the team. Because that's all we really want to do," Lakim shares. "It took a village to raise us and to give us the opportunity to have a intellect to say we're going to do more with this music, you know than have ever been done out here in time."
"This is something for everybody to see that, hey, even if you don't have this or have that, it could still happen to you," Golden explains. "It can still happen to you and for you."