Listening to Atlanta MC JID’s third studio album The Forever Story, it’s hard to imagine the Dreamville signee pursuing a career in anything other than rap, but according to the man born Destin Choice Route, establishing himself as one of his generation’s most clever wordsmiths was plan B. “I ain't always want to be a rapper, artist or nothing like this,” he told Apple Music’s Ebro Darden ahead of the album’s release. “This wasn't my dream. This was just like, ‘I’m really fire at this. I'm really gifted at this.’ I always wanted to be a football player, you feel me? That was my whole shit.” Though he’s long ago moved on from any delusions of playing the sport professionally, the voicemail tacked on to the end of album intro “Galaxy” reveals a closeness to the sport, and more specifically those who helped him learn it. “That's my old football coach,” JID says of the voice we hear chewing him out for not answering the phone. “He was just giving me shit. That was his whole demeanour, but it was always for the better. He was my father away from home. He was just a big part of the whole story.” The Forever Story, to be specific, is a deep dive into the MC’s family lore and an exploration of what growing up the youngest of seven meant for his outlook. If JID’s last proper album, The Never Story, was an introduction to his lyrical prowess and a declaration that he had a story to tell, The Forever Story is an expansion of that universe. “Never came from a very humble mindset,” he says. “It was coming from, I never had shit. The Forever Story's just the evolved origin story, really just giving you more of who I am—more family stories, where I'm from, why I am kind of how I am.” He tells these stories in grave detail on songs like “Raydar”, “Can’t Punk Me”, “Kody Blu 31” and “Can’t Make U Change” and then includes collaborations with heroes-turned-peers (“Stars” featuring Yasiin Bey, “Just in Time” with Lil Wayne) that acknowledge a reverence for his craft. He raps about his siblings on songs like “Bruddanem” and “Sistanem”, but it’s “Crack Sandwich”, a song where the MC details an encounter in which his family fought together, that seems the most like a story JID will enjoy telling forever. “We were all together like Avengers and shit,” he says. “Back-to-back brawling in New Orleans. It was crazy.”