Jody Upshaw went for a nap earlier this week—and, by the time she awoke, had reached a new level of fame. It wasn't a dream, or at least not the eyes-closed kind: Her single "Straight Shooter" had played on the season two premiere of HBO's Zendaya-starring smash hit Euphoria, alongside the track "Mr.Bangbadaboom" by Dartmouth MC Thrillah.
"I woke up to so many notifications—because everyone my age was watching it," Upshaw says with a laugh, speaking by phone days after the episode aired. Her friends' group chat was lit up with clips of pals recognizing Upshaw's song while watching the show. "It was just really nice to feel the support from everyone in the city that basically I've ever talked to," the R&B artist adds, saying her DMs are full of love from strangers, former teachers and more.
The song, which was produced by Classified and released in 2018, is now having a sleeper hit moment a la Lizzo: "I thought that I had already ridden the wave for that song and it was done, like a long time ago. So it's just funny that that ended up even being the one because it was one of my really older ones," Upshaw says.
Back in 2018, when we put Upshaw on the cover of our New Music Issue alongside fellow teen up-and-comers Shay Pitts and Maura Whitman, Upshaw told us: "Once I put out my first song I was just like, I love doing this. How could I not do this forever?"
The Coast chat with the young musician on Instagram about the song, how it felt to be on TV and what's next: