Yes, Jay Will Wrote His Own ‘Tulsa King’ Rap Songs

In the latest episode of Tulsa King, Tyson (Jay Will) explored a new career path: becoming a rapper.

We’d seen Tyson spit bars before on the show all the way back in Season 2, but on Friday’s (November 6) new episode, he made a go of it as a money-making prospect, turning Higher Plane into his own personal studio and bringing Bodhi (Martin Starr) and Grace (McKenna Quigley Harrington) in as his producers.

Not only does he leave his crewmates bopping along, but he also gets the approval of his boss, Dwight “The General” Manfredi, to follow this dream. For the actor portraying Tyson, this was a huge moment to combine his two passions, and he had just one non-negotiable condition for doing so: He had to write his own rhymes.

Here, TV Insider caught up with Jay Will to talk about his new musical adventure in Tulsa King.

I loved seeing you get to rap in this episode. You’d done it before, briefly, but this time we got to actually see you pursue this. So how exciting was that for you? And also, how important was it for Tyson to get Dwight’s approval to do that?

Jay Will: It was very important because this is something that [he hid before]. He was in the car as Dwight was coming out, and he was grabbing it, hid it real quick because he didn’t want Dwight to hear because he didn’t know how he would feel about it. Now … Dwight actually wants him to follow it and be the best rapper that he actually can. “Whatever, if you want to be a garbage man working in the New York City garbage line, you better be the best one at it.” That’s Dwight’s mentality about all of this, and I totally appreciate that. It’s one of those things where he was like, “I don’t know, I’m ashamed about this. I don’t know how they respond to it,” and you reveal it. They’re like, “What do you mean? No, I would love that.” Yeah. So it’s more of a weight lifted off, and Tyson could actually be more of who he actually is. But that’s the dangerous part.

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Did you write the rhymes that you do?

One hundred percent. That was the no-negotiation thing that I was not able to work with. I wanted to because I’m in the character. I’m really in this character. I leave work, and I can still tap into this. I can turn the switch on if I want to, and I can be in my studio right here, and I can put on the pad and turn on the beat, and I can write in the character as well. And I love my writers. I love them. Honestly, to me, they’re the best writers in the TV business right now. I gotta toot their horn. But it’s like I wanted to be able to give a first-person experience about this, if not collaborate with the writers. The greatest thing about it was the fact that they were able to collaborate with me, and they were like, “Yeah, you go ahead, dive on in.” They let me write everything. Even in between, it was like, “Look, we might want to have Tyson come up with a rap right here.” It was, “OK, no problem.” That’s just how it does. So they learned this new skill I have, and now they’re gonna be juicing that thing up for the whole season. So it’s gonna be very crazy.

Steve Swisher / Paramount+

Did it inspire your confidence in that a little bit that Garrett Hedlund does his music as well for the show?

Totally, totally, totally. You know, it inspired me in the beginning for sure. Yeah, I remember the first season seeing him perform in the finale. I was like, “I want to do that.” And it worked out. And it was a space for both of those worlds to collide together, and it was different. It was very different. We tried some ideas, trying to get some songs together. It was a different vibe, but at all times, I feel like the creation of art is the art and not the product. The product of it is just like a shadow or a glimpse of what the process was. The process is the creation. So being in the studio, working with Garrett, coming up with these songs and trying stuff, that was the art. People may not see it, might never see it, but to me, that was the art of it. So I’m grateful.

Tulsa King, Fridays, Paramount+