Jack Harlow’s TikTok handle is @missionaryjack. It is not a reference to spreading the Lord’s good word. At the Grammys this year, the Kentucky-born rapper hopped on stage with Lil Nas X to perform their 2021 megahit Industry Baby; as the sound of spanking echoed around the MGM Arena in Las Vegas, Harlow swung his microphone around like a string of sausages. “I’m really about to scream without the s,” wrote @jackharlowsfingernails, a fan account dedicated to his well‑kept claws.
Six days before the release of his new album, Come Home the Kids Miss You, Harlow is busy as hell, with two shows tonight at American colleges. “It feels like we’re in the middle of something red hot right now,” he says from a hotel room in Boston. His latest single, First Class, built around a clever sample of Fergie’s Glamorous, is preposterously huge in the US, having racked up more first-week streams than Adele’s Easy on Me (it is likely to spend a fourth week at No 2 in the UK, behind Harry Styles). “I’m trying to remind myself to enjoy the moment,” Harlow says, with a deep exhale. “But I’m such a futurist that I’m just really hungry. I want to dominate.”
