J-Zone
Sick of Being Rich
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Decrease Font SizeEditor's Review:
J-Zone is currently one of hip-hop’s most diverse and talented players.
This East Coast producer and rapper has called New York’s Jamaica, Queens
neighborhood home his entire life, and he grew up immersed in the jazzy East Coast
rap vibe; but he was also heavily influenced by the Miami booty bass movement
and the Bay Area’s unique pimp rap game (Too $hort, E-40 et. al). Zone is
also a brutally honest rapper, brazenly proclaiming his pimp status despite not
having any bling-laden success to speak of — repeatedly referring to himself
as a “bootleg pimp” who’s “ballin’ on a budget.”
Zone’s wide range of influences and straightforward approach to the mic
culminate in a most unique style, an amalgamation that adheres to tenets of the
old school vibe and sports a new school aesthetic.
Zone is a quality rhyme-writer (not an off-the-top MC, as he blatantly states
in “Fuck You Pay Me,” “J-Zone uplift? What you talking about?!
/ All I uplift is my dick and my bank account”) but his real talent is in
the crafting of beats. Zone can keep it simple, as heard in the minimal organ
and laugh scratch on “38th & 8th” featuring Al-Shid; or he can
sauce things up with multiple samples (including his signature bites from old
films and television) to create almost any aural environment, from the slightly
buttery R&B of “Too Many Babies” to the slick Japanese Koto and
flute sample in “Ho Kung Fu.” J-Zone just might have dropped the best
rap record of 2003.
– Max Sidman
 Record Label Old Maid Billionaires / Fat Beats Released July 2003 |
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J-Zone
Bio[+]J-Zone, a Queens-based producer, DJ, part-time MC and indie label owner has been putting out music on his own label, Old Maid Entertainment since his 1999 debut, Music For Tu Madre, which as it turns out, was his senior project from Purchase College in New York (Major in Music, minor in “pimpology”). J-Zone has toured the Eastern United States, Australia and various parts of Europe and the U.K., where the bulk of his fanbase resides. Other releases include 2000’s Bottle of Whup Ass, 2001’s Pimps Don’t Pay Taxes and several 12’ singles. He has produced tracks for Biz Markie, High and Mighty and Ra the Rugged Man, and his motto is: “Fuck You, Pay Me.”
– Maurice S. Teilmann (July, 2001)
Merch
– Maurice S. Teilmann (July, 2001)