J-Live · (Active: 2000's)

Styles:
Alternative Rap
East Coast Rap
Underground Rap
Born:
1976
Brooklyn, NY
Active:
2000's
Biography by Martin Woodside, All Music Guide
Brooklyn MC J-Live first garnered notice with the release of his 1995 single "Bragging Writes." Delivering his thoughtful lyrics with confidence and ease, J-Live's rapping was strong and his soul-inflected grooves immediately appealed to fans of underground hip-hop. A year later he followed up with another hit, "Hush the Crowd," and started to generate a palpable buzz. With tracks produced by luminaries such as Prince Paul, DJ Premier, and Pete Rock, the release of J-Live's full-length debut, The Best Part, was hotly anticipated and the future looked promising for the ascendant MC. At this point, though, J-Live was beset by a host of troubles. Amidst constant label shuffling and plagued by a series of illegal bootlegs, the release of The Best Part was delayed for five years. There was some talk that J-Live was behind some of the bootlegs -- a few of which were of extremely high quality -- and the ongoing saga became something of an underground legend. In the interim, J-Live worked as an eighth-grade teacher in Brunswick, NY, and continued to embellish and refine his debut. He kept good company, making cameo appearances on strong albums like Handsome Boy Modeling School's So...How's Your Girl? and J. Rawls' The Essence of J. Rawls. The Best Part finally enjoyed its official release in the fall of 2001. All of the Above followed one year later, and 2003 brought a two-part mini-LP tribute to his early days, Always Has Been and Always Will Be. J-Live released his third LP, The Hear After, in 2005 on the Penalty (Ryko) label and followed up with the Reveal the Secret EP in 2007. Then What Happened? debuted on BBE Records the following year.
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Album   Released Publisher Rating
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Top Questions about J-Live Back to the top
You can listen to triple j as a high bitrate stream (96kpbs) if you connect via Windows Media player v9. Or you can listen at 128kbps if you connect to the mp3 stream.
In 2002 his second album, All of the Above was released on the label, Coup D'état. It featured production by DJ Spinna Usef Dinero , and DJ Jazzy Jeff . In 2003 J-Live simultaneously released two EPs Always Has Been and Always Will Be Alway...
I don’t, actually. But I think Jay is still pretty miffed by the whole thing, but that was his name when I met him, way back then – Jay Live. He had a group named E&J. It was him and this cat named Equality. I listened to their demo tap...
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