The Thinker

The cover of New York rapper J-Live's latest release, All of the Above, is a telling image. J-Live, awash in blue tints, sitting in front of the mic with one arm bent back around behind his head and one hand on his chin in a pensive pose. Those familiar with even the most basic jazz albums will immediately recognize the image as a play on the cover of John Coltrane's seminal classic, Blue Train. The cover of J-live's album conveys the vibe on All of the Above - as it did on Blue Train - a casually jazzy, thoughtful feel that permeates even the album's more up-tempo tracks.
"That was one of the first jazz records I ever heard - that and [Miles Davis'] Sketches of Spain," says J-Live, whose real name is Justice Allah, from his home in Bedford-Stuyvesant, New York City. "Basically, it's dope because I know it was real candid moment when Coltrane took that pose, and I know it was pretty contrived to do [my cover shot] like that, but at the same time, it paints a picture of really just chillin' out and listenin'. It's the kind of album you can sit down with and scratch your chin and think, you know, like, 'What's he talking about?' as well as be amped to the songs that are kinda jumpy."
The April 2002 release of All of the Above is a victory for J-Live. One of independent hip-hop's most talented, most highly praised and still slept-on MCs, J-Live's last album, the critically acclaimed The Best Part, was never commercially released. Though the street date was advertised in national hip-hop magazines, promotional copies were sent to press and radio and everything seemed ready to go, it was during the great major label integration of the late '90s and because of label politics or market research or whatever keeps major labels from supporting talented young artists, the record was permanently shelved. Even though it was lost in the shuffle when London Records was absorbed by Universal, The Best Part became the best hip-hop record that no one ever heard…until it was bootlegged on the Internet.
"When the whole thing happened between London Records and their distributor, they went to Warner Brothers and left all their artists with the distributor," explains J-Live, who was finally able to release The Best Part on his own last year. "It took that long for me to get out of my contract after I realized that there were no labels under that distributor that I wanted to go to. That's the story - the record was supposed to come out, I was working on it with an indie [Raw Shack] in 1997, but I had to get rid of the label, and then we recorded everything in '98, and it was supposed to come out in '99 on London, but that whole merger thing happened. The record got bootlegged ad nauseum because it got released to press right before London left their distributor. But it's cool now to finally have it out and out of the way, kinda clearing a path for the new one. At the time, in 1999, I hadn't put out a record since I was independent, so I basically signed to major to make some money and not put out any records. Now that I'm independent I can make records again."
J-Live says that his experiences in the shark-infested major-label waters have taught him a few things about doing business. Most importantly, though, it taught him that despite being out of the public eye for a few years, there is still a fan base clamoring for his music.
"The fact that, with all the pitfalls that happen, without having an official release in three years, to still get the love and support that I get off the strength of my stage show and off the strength of my songs that people heard that didn't come out, I have a lot of be grateful and appreciative for, and you can hear that a bit in this album," he says, adding that the love he felt from his fans pushed him to release All of the Above on its original schedule. "The Best Part was supposed to come out in 1999, and All of the Above was supposed to be made in 2000 and 2001, so it's good to have this one come out on time."
And that might be considered a feat in and of itself. Until about a year ago, J-Live was a middle school teacher in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and managed to balance his career as a rapper - recording and touring on the weekends - while still guiding the youth of New York City. That had to stop however, in favor of J-Live's musical pursuits.
"You can't really teach and MC at the same time. I've gotten away with it for a couple of years, but I think that how I've promoted myself could have been a lot better if wasn't teaching, and how I prepared my lessons could have been that much better if I wasn't leaving town every weekend," he reflects. "I love teaching and that's something I'm going to go back to when it's all said and done, or when I'm playing a lesser role in my music career. See, you can teach when you're 60, but you can't rhyme when you're 60, so now's the time to do this. I mean, eventually I want to get to that point as a producer where I got grandkids and I'm still making music for 'em, but I don't see myself doing 27 shows in a month at that point. Now is the time to do that kind of thing."
With the business tribulations of his recent past behind him, J-Live has taken a more aggressive professional stance, going full court press on the release of All of the Above, as well as making sure that he's touring as consistently as possible. But the music on the record, as alluded to by its blue-toned cover, embodies a different kind of conviction - that of personal struggle and honest achievement married to a chill vibe and clever rhymes.
"Basically, the reason it's called All of the Above is that it's everything from the neck up, everything that was on my mind at the time," says the intelligent and friendly rapper. "'All of the Above is caused by the son of man' - meaning that I'm responsible for my actions and the choices I make and the people I associate myself with so win, lose or draw, whether this album comes out or not, all of the above will be caused by me. In the same way, win lose or draw, the best part about The Best Part was having that album finally come out, having it available to listen to even though it wasn't officially released."

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