2017–2020: Career beginnings, Who Dat and Poetic Pain Toosii's stage name derived from his childhood nickname of "Toota", and changed it to Toosii after his football teammates said it as a joke, adding the two I's because "You need two eyes to see the vision". Toosii was discovered by the South Coast Music Group. He signed with the record label in 2019. Toosii was inspired to try music by both his brother and father and spent a period of time homeless before his career began to further develop. Toosii released several mixtapes during the roots of his career such as
Label Me Diverse,
Hell on Earth, and
Why Not Now. He got his big break in 2019 with the release of the track "Red Lights", which went on to accrue millions of streams. The mixtape was later reissued as a 20-track deluxe version. On September 18, 2020, his third South Coast Music Group-affiliated album
Poetic Pain was released as his first project on
Capitol Records. His signing to Capitol was made on September 30, by Chris Turner (A&R) following the release of his official video for "Love Cycle" with
Summer Walker. Toosii was credited with 50,000 US adjusted sales and over 250 million combined global streams in 2020 at the time of this release. "Love Cycle" was later certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on January 11, 2021. His project
Poetic Pain debuted at number 17 on the
Billboard 200 chart in September 2020 and features the RIAA-certified gold single "Love Cycle" with
Summer Walker.
2021–2022: Thank You for Believing, Pretty Girls Love Toosii and ''Boys Don't Cry'' Ahead of releasing his Thank You For Believing mixtape, Toosii was named "Up Now" by music streaming service
Audiomack. “I feel like I am the GOAT,” Toosii said. “Thank you Audiomack for the opportunity to be your next #UpNow artist.” On May 7, 2021, Toosii released his seventh mixtape,
Thank You for Believing. The tape's title shows "gratitude to those that had faith in him and helped get him where he is today". It contains 13 tracks, and features
Mulatto,
Key Glock, and
DaBaby. Just under a year later, on October 7, 2022, Toosii released his fourth EP, ''Boys Don't Cry
which featured his TikTok viral, "Love Is..." alongside "Heartaches" which also gained traction on social media. On November 11, 2022, Toosii released a deluxe to his EP titled, Boys Don't Cry: Men Do''. Just a week later, he released a visual to the intro of the deluxe EP, "Frozen Below Zero".
2023–2024: Naujour and Jaded Beginning 2023, Toosii released his first single of the year, "Magic Potion" on January 27, 2023. Just weeks later, Toosii released his Valentine's Day special, "
Favorite Song". The track marked Toosii's debut on the
Billboard Hot 100 after debuting at #51. The track received remixes from
Khalid and
Future released on May 5 and May 19. The track also peaked at #25 on the
Billboard Global 200. The track was certified platinum just three months after its release and 2× platinum in August 2023. The album peaked at #19 on the
Billboard 200, marking Toosii's second highest-charting album. Continuing off of his success, on November 3, 2023, Toosii released "Suffice", the lead single to his eighth mixtape,
Jaded, which includes a guest appearance from the American pop rock band,
LANY.
2025–present: Football career In August 2025, he announced that he was pausing his music career to play
college football. He accepted an offer to play football at
Syracuse in December 2025. After a falling out with Syracuse coach
Fran Brown, Grainger joined
Louisiana State University's football team in March 2026. == Discography ==