After viral dino rap, Lincoln Square sixth grader charts course for the future

Chicago Sun Times / by Stefano Esposito / May 5, 2026

JJ Qaiyum, aka “JJQ,” has the stage strut down: the requisite snarl when he spits rhymes; a loose-limbed bounce; a mop of honey-gold hair to flop along with his favored “golden era” boom bap beats.

What JJ lacks right now is sleep. Stretching out on the carpet in his family’s Lincoln Square basement recording studio on a recent afternoon, he yawns expansively, a big-cat kind of yawn.

Rappers need sleep too — especially 11-year-old ones who have homework, piano practice, and, last week, preparations for an album-release party at Martyrs’ in North Center. Read More Here.