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J-Live was born and raised in Uptown Manhattan, New York City. After making a home for himself in Brooklyn upon graduating from SUNY at Albany, J relocated to Philadelphia in 2003. "Moving to Philly was more for the family than any kind of career move. But the whole music scene here and the hip hop community here have embraced me with open arms since I arrived. I've gotten a lot of support from so many different artists and dee jays. This city is jam packed with talented and beautiful people." Read Full BioJ-Live was born and raised in Uptown Manhattan, New York City. After making a home for himself in Brooklyn upon graduating from SUNY at Albany, J relocated to Philadelphia in 2003. "Moving to Philly was more for the family than any kind of career move. But the whole music scene here and the hip hop community here have embraced me with open arms since I arrived. I've gotten a lot of support from so many different artists and dee jays. This city is jam packed with talented and beautiful people."
J-Live started his career by releasing solid 12" such as "Longevity", "Braggin' Writes", and "Hush the Crowd", which earned him a spot in The Source's "Unsigned Hype" column.
Recorded mostly at J's own Triple Threat Studios in Philadelphia, The Hear After actually seems to have taken on a life of its own. Guest vocalist on the album, include up and coming artist, Kola Rock, Cvees, and the soulful sounds of Virgin recording artist, Dwele. The album features production by Floyd the Locsmif (Atl), Hezekiah, James Poysner (Philly), Probe DMS, Fire Dept., (NYC), Oddisee (DC), and J-Live himself. "The title is a play on words. People think of the here after as the after life or somewhere you go when you die. Like heaven or hell. Me personally, I see heaven as being at peace with yourself while you're alive. I see hell as the path you choose in life as opposed to a place you go after death. The album is called The Hear After because I'm at peace with myself musically, and I've been through hell to get that way. This is what you "hear after" all that has transpired so far. This is what I've been working to accomplish since the last album."
Like J's last two full length records, The Best Part and All of the Above, The Hear After covers a wide range of thoughts and emotions both musically and with its subject matter. "If you were to look at the whole thing, you would see a story line about an artist trying to maintain and expand his career and still be there for his family. That was the biggest struggle while making the record, and its no coincidence that it's a theme that becomes obvious listening to it. But there are songs about almost every aspect of my life from growing up in the city, to raising kids, touring heavy, building and teaching, politics, party and bullshit. I can't just spit about one thing for a whole record. That's not my style."
J-Live has been rhyming and mixing since the age of 12 but he has made much more of a name for himself as an MC than as a DJ. "I definitely focus on rhyming more. Growing up doing both it was easier on the pockets to be an MC. Records and equipment can get expensive. But I love spinning." One of the highlights of his entertaining live show is when he rhymes and beat juggles on the turntables simultaneously, performing his classic, "Braggin' Writes." J-Live is also known to produce beats.
J-Live has always used music to get his messages across. He explains, "I grew up listening to everything from BDP to NWA, to PE [[artist]Public Enemy], Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane, Nice and Smooth. Whether the music was pimped out, gangsta, militant or whatever, rappers had something important to say to kids like me. And I listened intently. As a 5%er, I can't imagine how much of an influence hip hop had on the way I see the world."
Case in point, J's favorite song on the album, "Audio Visual" is so descriptive it's a song "in 3-D". From the quirky, key accents to the thick-ass bottom running throughout the song, J-Live paints a colorful, picture of his life on and off the mic. "Brooklyn Public" is his ode to his days as an educator. Earlier in his career, J-Live taught middle school English/Language Arts in Brooklyn for a few years.
Making music for the walkmans as well as the Jeeps, J-Live made a mature, sonically sophisticated album. "I feel like I represent hip hop's middle class. Seems like everybody's either crying broke or screaming rich or both. I try to speak to the people in between. The everyday hard working fun loving hip hop heads."
Year Formed: 1995
Official Site: http://www.j-livemusic.com/
J-Live started his career by releasing solid 12" such as "Longevity", "Braggin' Writes", and "Hush the Crowd", which earned him a spot in The Source's "Unsigned Hype" column.
Recorded mostly at J's own Triple Threat Studios in Philadelphia, The Hear After actually seems to have taken on a life of its own. Guest vocalist on the album, include up and coming artist, Kola Rock, Cvees, and the soulful sounds of Virgin recording artist, Dwele. The album features production by Floyd the Locsmif (Atl), Hezekiah, James Poysner (Philly), Probe DMS, Fire Dept., (NYC), Oddisee (DC), and J-Live himself. "The title is a play on words. People think of the here after as the after life or somewhere you go when you die. Like heaven or hell. Me personally, I see heaven as being at peace with yourself while you're alive. I see hell as the path you choose in life as opposed to a place you go after death. The album is called The Hear After because I'm at peace with myself musically, and I've been through hell to get that way. This is what you "hear after" all that has transpired so far. This is what I've been working to accomplish since the last album."
Like J's last two full length records, The Best Part and All of the Above, The Hear After covers a wide range of thoughts and emotions both musically and with its subject matter. "If you were to look at the whole thing, you would see a story line about an artist trying to maintain and expand his career and still be there for his family. That was the biggest struggle while making the record, and its no coincidence that it's a theme that becomes obvious listening to it. But there are songs about almost every aspect of my life from growing up in the city, to raising kids, touring heavy, building and teaching, politics, party and bullshit. I can't just spit about one thing for a whole record. That's not my style."
J-Live has been rhyming and mixing since the age of 12 but he has made much more of a name for himself as an MC than as a DJ. "I definitely focus on rhyming more. Growing up doing both it was easier on the pockets to be an MC. Records and equipment can get expensive. But I love spinning." One of the highlights of his entertaining live show is when he rhymes and beat juggles on the turntables simultaneously, performing his classic, "Braggin' Writes." J-Live is also known to produce beats.
J-Live has always used music to get his messages across. He explains, "I grew up listening to everything from BDP to NWA, to PE [[artist]Public Enemy], Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane, Nice and Smooth. Whether the music was pimped out, gangsta, militant or whatever, rappers had something important to say to kids like me. And I listened intently. As a 5%er, I can't imagine how much of an influence hip hop had on the way I see the world."
Case in point, J's favorite song on the album, "Audio Visual" is so descriptive it's a song "in 3-D". From the quirky, key accents to the thick-ass bottom running throughout the song, J-Live paints a colorful, picture of his life on and off the mic. "Brooklyn Public" is his ode to his days as an educator. Earlier in his career, J-Live taught middle school English/Language Arts in Brooklyn for a few years.
Making music for the walkmans as well as the Jeeps, J-Live made a mature, sonically sophisticated album. "I feel like I represent hip hop's middle class. Seems like everybody's either crying broke or screaming rich or both. I try to speak to the people in between. The everyday hard working fun loving hip hop heads."
Year Formed: 1995
Official Site: http://www.j-livemusic.com/
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The Best Part
by J-Live
{*scratched: "Hip Hop"*}
[J-Live]
MC's out there, head down and listen here
It's J-Live and I brought Premier
And the crowd don't +Hush+ no more they say yeah
Hell yeah! With they hands up like they don't care
True school styles light up the night like Times Square
GZA said it, this is not a eighty-five affair
It's the grand openin of a long career
That's been, planned and developed for about ten years
Let the scene blur out; selector, press rewind
Just to show 'em who flat top groove in eighty-nine
Thirteen, still lacking b-ball skills to shine
but I got mine when I went home to write rhymes
Mastered all possible tactics of pause mix
Saved up - got my first Gemini starter kit
Like Rocky - these hands train on the cheap shit
So every other DJ they was bound to skip
Meanwhile now, for every new joint I caught
My MC style developed at the speed of thought
So hip-hop was the vessel that convinced my heart
Space and time make today's sun, tommorow's star; The Best Part
Chorus: {*scratched*}
"Like this in the place y'all; it's like this y'all, ya don't stop"
"I make it happen" ... "On the mic"
"Do things for the kids" -> Prodigy
"Like this in the place y'all; it's like this y'all, ya don't stop"
"I make it happen" ... "On the mic"
"God Bless the child that can write his own rhymes"
[J-Live]
Ten years, ten crates and ten rhyme books later
My history, daily renewed on it's equator
Supreme mathematics is now the translator
As the stakes and the skills and the love became greater
For a artform to spread from East to Westside
The coast the hemisphere, look how hip-hop grew
But it's still the proverbial sad clown of music
Exploited by many, understood by few
I do the knowledge to the game from a bird's eye view
If I ain't have the stomach for it I'd have been passed through
Cause every level I examined from A&R to zigga zigga
prove a MC ain't got a God damn clue
So let the babies be great, break down the bare essence
and build upon styles that's dope and brand new
Let no man put asunder to what the Bronx create
Manhattan make, Brooklyn take, and peace to Queens too
Cause the strength of any nation always been the babies
Let 'em learn from the elders that was strong and smart
So hip-hop'll be the music that still don't quit
When the next batch of MC's prove to be; The Best Part
{Chorus} - cuts after 2/3rds
[J-Live]
Yo, yo, turn the music down, turn the music down
We gonna end it like this in the place y'all
It's like this y'all, and you don't stop
{*with hand clap only, no instrumental*}
Aiyyo; East to West I'm a contender with the best
And more or less you're a pretender just confess
Sell your mic and buy a bike because you're weak
And take a hike when the J-Live starts to speak
Save that shit for the toilet and watch me flush
My style's a snow blizzard, yours is just the slush
My rhyme's a redwood tree, and you're just sawdust
I'm like a pizza, and sheeit you're just the crust
{*instrumental kicks back in*}
So now you see the place I've been is the place I'm at
Dig up a seventh grade rhyme style and bring it back
So when you write your first rhyme tell me how you feel
Cause back then we wasn't thinkin 'bout a record deal
But now adays when a kid wanna MC
It's like just another job in the industry
So why you in it, for the pocket or the heart
Cause today's star gotta be tommrow's sun; The Best Part
{Chorus} - repeat to fade
Contributed by Matthew E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
by J-Live
{*scratched: "Hip Hop"*}
[J-Live]
MC's out there, head down and listen here
It's J-Live and I brought Premier
And the crowd don't +Hush+ no more they say yeah
Hell yeah! With they hands up like they don't care
True school styles light up the night like Times Square
GZA said it, this is not a eighty-five affair
It's the grand openin of a long career
That's been, planned and developed for about ten years
Let the scene blur out; selector, press rewind
Just to show 'em who flat top groove in eighty-nine
Thirteen, still lacking b-ball skills to shine
but I got mine when I went home to write rhymes
Mastered all possible tactics of pause mix
Saved up - got my first Gemini starter kit
Like Rocky - these hands train on the cheap shit
So every other DJ they was bound to skip
Meanwhile now, for every new joint I caught
My MC style developed at the speed of thought
So hip-hop was the vessel that convinced my heart
Space and time make today's sun, tommorow's star; The Best Part
Chorus: {*scratched*}
"Like this in the place y'all; it's like this y'all, ya don't stop"
"I make it happen" ... "On the mic"
"Do things for the kids" -> Prodigy
"Like this in the place y'all; it's like this y'all, ya don't stop"
"I make it happen" ... "On the mic"
"God Bless the child that can write his own rhymes"
[J-Live]
Ten years, ten crates and ten rhyme books later
My history, daily renewed on it's equator
Supreme mathematics is now the translator
As the stakes and the skills and the love became greater
For a artform to spread from East to Westside
The coast the hemisphere, look how hip-hop grew
But it's still the proverbial sad clown of music
Exploited by many, understood by few
I do the knowledge to the game from a bird's eye view
If I ain't have the stomach for it I'd have been passed through
Cause every level I examined from A&R to zigga zigga
prove a MC ain't got a God damn clue
So let the babies be great, break down the bare essence
and build upon styles that's dope and brand new
Let no man put asunder to what the Bronx create
Manhattan make, Brooklyn take, and peace to Queens too
Cause the strength of any nation always been the babies
Let 'em learn from the elders that was strong and smart
So hip-hop'll be the music that still don't quit
When the next batch of MC's prove to be; The Best Part
{Chorus} - cuts after 2/3rds
[J-Live]
Yo, yo, turn the music down, turn the music down
We gonna end it like this in the place y'all
It's like this y'all, and you don't stop
{*with hand clap only, no instrumental*}
Aiyyo; East to West I'm a contender with the best
And more or less you're a pretender just confess
Sell your mic and buy a bike because you're weak
And take a hike when the J-Live starts to speak
Save that shit for the toilet and watch me flush
My style's a snow blizzard, yours is just the slush
My rhyme's a redwood tree, and you're just sawdust
I'm like a pizza, and sheeit you're just the crust
{*instrumental kicks back in*}
So now you see the place I've been is the place I'm at
Dig up a seventh grade rhyme style and bring it back
So when you write your first rhyme tell me how you feel
Cause back then we wasn't thinkin 'bout a record deal
But now adays when a kid wanna MC
It's like just another job in the industry
So why you in it, for the pocket or the heart
Cause today's star gotta be tommrow's sun; The Best Part
{Chorus} - repeat to fade
Contributed by Matthew E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
To comment on specific lyrics, highlight them
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