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Joey Bada$$ - An introduction
RnB/Hip Hop | Wednesday 12th December 2012 | Jake
This 17 year old Flatbush, Brooklyn native has already made a big impact on hip-hop in 2012 and his mixtape 1999 is widely regarded as one of the best releases, free or otherwise, to come out of the genre in recent years.
He mixes new school lyricism with old school boom-bap style beats and his tracks can take a few listens before you catch all of the word play he uses, a particular favourite of mine being “All the girls I used to eff with, eff it/They all get passed off, get an F for effort”.
He started out rapping under the name JayOhVee but later changed to Joey Bada$$ and he is a founding member of the collective Progressive Era (sometimes shortened to Pro Era) along with high school friends Capital Steez and CJ Fly. Pro Era consists of around 20 rappers, producers, graphic designers, photographers and clothing designers.
He was discovered in 2010 when he uploaded a video of himself freestyling to YouTube, this was then posted on the popular US hip hop site World Star Hip Hop and was seen by Jonny Shipes (the manager of Big K.R.I.T. and Smoke DZA among others) who contacted Joey via Twitter and quickly became his manager.
Since then he has gone from strength to strength and is a regular feature on the New York radio station Hot97, has toured North America and has recently finished his first European tour, I was lucky enough to catch him at XOYO in November with DJ Semtex and he got the crowd going wild. The only hip hop show I’ve been to with the same level as energy are OFWGKTA and Waka Flocka Flame, which is a big compliment.
He is known to use beats from the “golden era” of hip-hop from producers such as Lord Finesse, MF DOOM and Madlib. The beat for his first video, Survival Tactics, shares its name and beat with the 1998 Styles of Beyond track.
In 2012 he released two mixtapes, 1999 and Rejex which feature tracks he didn’t feel were strong enough to put on the original mixtape.
Another artist sure to make big moves in 2013, keep your third eye open for him and his Pro Era crew.
Jake @BAKEJENT
