Cashonly X JAYRoll《Step By Step 》

The project unfolds in two chapters: The Evolution of the Mythical Dragon and Kirin. The former explores transformation, trials, and ascension; the latter, strength, restraint, and benevolence.

Together, they point toward a single idea—true growth is never a sudden transformation. It is the self that finally takes shape after moving forward, step by step.

Concept

《Baopuzi》: “There are dragons born as dragons, and there are dragons transformed from serpents; those called Masters of Rain in the mountains are dragons.”

The transformation of a serpent into a dragon is an enduring theme in Eastern culture, symbolizing metamorphosis, transcendence, and the attainment of greater power. Shuyi Ji records: “After five hundred years, a serpent becomes a jiao; after a thousand years, the jiao becomes a dragon; after another five hundred years, the dragon becomes a horned dragon; and after another thousand years, it becomes a Yinglong.”

According to a widely circulated tradition, a serpent spends years absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and the essence of the sun and moon. In time, the serpent transforms into a jiao, and only after another metamorphosis does the jiao finally become a dragon.

In traditional culture, the dragon embodies immense and auspicious power, with supernatural command over rain, wind, and floods. In Journey to the West, for instance, the Dragon King of the Jing River is responsible for governing rainfall. Within Chinese culture, the dragon is a profoundly spiritual creature associated with nobility, strength, and exalted lineage—an enduring symbol of nature, supreme authority, and majesty.

Chinese fiction often tells of animals in the mountains cultivating themselves over hundreds or even thousands of years until they become supernatural beings. Although the celebrated Legend of the White Snake does not explicitly depict a serpent becoming a dragon, its themes similarly echo the idea of transcending into a higher form of existence through cultivation. The novel Forbidden Zone Hunter likewise features a hook snake enduring a heavenly thunder tribulation in its attempt to transform into a dragon.

Literary motifs such as the serpent becoming a dragon or the carp transforming into a dragon are more than imaginative attempts by generations of writers and scholars to construct a mythology around the dragon’s origins. They also embody a longing for advancement through perseverance—the possibility of rising beyond one’s circumstances, from a serpent crawling upon the earth to a dragon soaring through the heavens.

2025 marks the Yisi Year of the Snake. Beginning with the legend of the serpent transforming into a dragon, cashonly projects the idea of energy accumulated over years, waiting for its moment of release, onto JAYRoll’s musical journey.

Within the artwork, a serpent entwined in broken chains points toward a past once held in silence, its energy not yet fully released. Opposite it, an Azure Dragon stretches out its five claws, like a future on the verge of taking form. Placed together, the two figures do not represent a rupture, but a transformation already in motion.

For JAYRoll, years spent beneath the surface were never years of stagnation, but a gathering of momentum through repeated trials and refinement. New music, the live stage, and this collaboration all begin with Step By Step—marking his return from those trials and his ascent toward something higher.

The Book of Songs · Zhou Nan · The Feet of the Lin: “The feet of the Lin—noble are the prince’s sons. Ah, the Lin! The brow of the Lin—noble are the prince’s descendants. Ah, the Lin! The horn of the Lin—noble are the prince’s kindred. Ah, the Lin!”

More than two thousand years ago, The Book of Songs had already begun to sketch the earliest outlines of the Kirin, identifying defining features such as its hooves and horn. Legend also tells that before Confucius was born, a Kirin appeared in his family courtyard carrying a jade inscription in its mouth—giving rise to the tradition of the Kirin as a bearer of gifted children.

Before the Tang and Song dynasties, texts generally described the Kirin as a fur-covered creature without scales. From the Song through the Yuan and Ming dynasties, its image gradually evolved from a deer-like beast into a creature with a dragon’s head, the body of a horse, and scales. By the Yuan and Ming periods, its artistic form had become increasingly established: a dragon-headed, horse- or deer-bodied creature covered in scales, usually with two horns, though sometimes depicted with only one.

Across centuries, generations of writers and scholars continued to add details to the Kirin through literature and classical texts, gradually giving the legendary creature an ever more vivid and complete form.

In legend, the Kirin is remarkably gentle and benevolent. Though equipped with the means to defend itself, it does not attack without cause, harms no living creature, and is said to avoid even breaking the grass beneath its feet.

Beyond regarding it as a symbol of good fortune, poets and writers also endowed the Kirin with a sense of justice and moral integrity, giving it the title “the Benevolent Beast.”

Cashonly renders the Kirin in dimensional detail across the garments, while observations drawn from working closely with the musician bring a more personal interpretation to the mythical creature

: the microphone becomes a symbol of music; an elegant yet cold shade of purple echoes JAYRoll’s sharp and resilient creative character;

while the idea of the “Benevolent Beast” subtly reflects the kind of strength he carries without the need to put it on display.

Armed, yet unwilling to harm; sharp, yet always measured. This is the essence of the Kirin Hoodie / Tee—a kind of strength that has no need to announce itself.

Step By Step is not a performance created only for a single moment, nor is it simply the creation of two collaborative garments. It documents the years a musician spent developing beneath the surface, while also recording the way cashonly brings music, mythology, and clothing into a single narrative.

From the serpent’s transformation into a dragon to the benevolence and strength embodied by the Kirin, these are not merely distant legends. They are reflections on time, conviction, and everything accumulated one step at a time. When the lights come up and the music begins, every road traveled becomes the shape of this moment.