John Michael Kays (born December 15, 1998), known professionally as Jack Kays, is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer from Cincinnati, Ohio.

Music has always been in Kays' family as his father and uncle are both musicians, so he developed an early love for music as both an art form and an outlet. Blending the genres of hip-hop, alternative, and folk, Jack sculpts his own sound with his touching stories. Through his songs, he shares honest accounts of his struggles, raising awareness about mental health, drug addiction, and redemption—all situations and obstacles he has personally faced and overcame.

Kays began making and posting music online in 2017 while studying at a culinary school—his second passion. However, once “MORBID MIND,” a fast-paced acoustic guitar track, went viral on TikTok and accumulated over a million streams, he scrubbed all older releases from his catalog.

During a September 2020 interview with Daily Chiefers, Kays explained his reasoning for removing his older music:

I’ve been making music for four years now. So I had a shit ton of music. When “MORBID MIND” started to do numbers, my manager reached out to me and he was like maybe you should consider taking some of the old stuff down, so you can draw more attention to “MORBID MIND.” But, really to just kinda focus in and be able to drop some of the better songs off the old catalog and get those the recognition they deserve. Because as much as they’re old songs, they’re hits and I think they deserve to see the light of day in the right way.

In 2020, Jack Kays moved to Washington D.C. and signed with the Columbia Records‘ label. Then, in January 2021, he released his debut album MIXED EMOTIONS, which included the singles “MORBID MIND,” “BOTTOM OF THE BOTTLE” and “GIN N JUICE.”