Atlanta-raised rapper J.I.D, who once played college football for Hampton University, is ready to revisit his athletic roots through his new partnership with U.K. retailer JD Sports, which is rapidly expanding its North American retail presence.

“Growing up playing sports has been a big part of my upbringing — being competitive and all of that,” J.I.D told FN in between Paris Fashion Week engagements in late June. “So being involved with a sports brand is on brand for me. I just think it’s cool because I miss football all the time. So I like being involved with sports and whatever can get me back to the feeling that I had when I was in that world of sports.”

Paul Diehl, vice president of brand strategy and creative at JD Sports, said of the partnership, “J.I.D is the perfect partner for the JD brand as we present something different to the North American consumer. Living at the intersection of fashion, sports and music, our brand stands with those moving global culture forward fearlessly, with a spirit of unwavering authenticity to themselves.”

J.I.D, who is signed to J. Cole’s Dreamville label under Universal’s Interscope Records, wants the partnership to represent his identity and reveal his athletic side. “It’s kind of like stuff that I talk about in my music all the time, my fans they understand that about me, how much I love sports. The goal is just to grow from it and make some good content for fans and fans of music and sports — like, align it, I think that’s cool.”

The rapper, whose album “God Do Like Ugly” is set for release on Aug. 8, reflected on how fashion influences his music and artistic image.

“As far as the hip-hop culture, it’s always been regional things,” he said. “So the stuff that I wear kind of opens up to different places I’ve been. I’m from Atlanta, and when I was there, I used to wear certain types of things that felt like the city. Now I go around the world, and I take inspiration from different walks of life, and it kind of adds into my fashion and the things I like to wear.”

J.I.D also credits hip-hop with exposing him to fashion and how it varies from place-to-place: “The videos and everything we grew up with kind of opened up our eyes to different swag that people do in different areas where they’re from.”

Growing up, he had a penchant for the bandana trend and its versatility, crediting Hot Boys and Cash Money Records for that inspiration, and was also influenced by rapper T.I.’s love of hats. And the fashion culture of Atlanta inspired him, where jerseys were a popular look. “All those cultural references. All those people who used to wear things and drove the culture, they inspired me to grow up and put my own twist on whatever I liked from back then,” he said.

He looked back on the sneakers he wore in his early days in Atlanta: “When I grew up, we were doing [Reebok] Soulja Rees. It was like discounts at the mall where they used to get two pair of Reeboks for 80 bucks or something like that. And that used to be before school shopping for us, and then fake Jordans from the flea market and stuff like that. We ain’t had no bread like that, so we just get it how we live. So I used to be wearing hand-me-down shoes until I got into a place where I could afford it for myself.”

He explained this in the midst of his latest Paris Fashion Week experience — he also attended in the winter — where he was connecting with the likes of designer Yohji Yamamoto. While exposed to luxury fashion, his taste in sneakers still veers toward the classics; if he were to walk into JD Sports today and pick out some sneakers, he said he might grab a pair of Nike Air Force 1s, Vans or original Converse, though his preferences shift depending on the day.

Brandon Edler, brand director at JD Sports, also commented on the partnership: “J.I.D doesn’t follow the typical playbook — and that’s exactly why we wanted to work with him. He’s not just another artist, he’s a philosopher, an architect, a technician and a creative force. This partnership lets us tap into something deeper than trends — it’s about substance, identity and showing up with purpose.”

As for “God Do Like Ugly,” J.I.D credits his late grandmother with the album name, who would use that phrase instead of “God don’t like ugly” and follow it up with a laugh; she encouraged him to take it as a title, and he explained that the spin on the saying opened him up to different perspectives.

“So this is just another chapter of J.I.D,” he said as he contemplated his album influences and how the project reflects his current era. “I’m a little older and I see things, and I’ve been around in the industry for a minute. So it’s kind of my perspective into life and everything that I’m dealing with and things that other people are dealing with as well.”