Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

J-Zone

 
Artist: J-Zone
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Pop Artists

Similar Artists:

Handsome Boy Modeling School, The Pharcyde, Edan, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, The Beatnuts
See J-Zone Lyrics
  • Active: '90s, 2000s
  • Genres: Rap
  • Instrument: Producer
  • Representative Albums: "Pimps Don't Pay Taxes", "To Love a Hooker", "A Job Ain't Nuthin But Work

Biography

Westchester-bred, Queens-based rap artist J-Zone (né J. Mumford) began his musical quest when he picked up and mastered a variety of instruments before he even made it out of elementary school. Growing up in suburbia, he specifically dreamed of a career playing bass guitar in a raw urban funk band and would scour record stores for hours to dig up old funk LPs just to mimic the bass lines. Surrounded by hip-hop culture and a now-significant vinyl collection, inspired by "Yo! MTV Raps," and influenced by the likes of the Bomb Squad, Marley Marl, DJ Premier, and local beatsmith-made-good Pete Rock, however, J-Zone had mostly put his funk fantasies on hold by the time he reached high school--where he also earned his pseudonym due to the same zany, zoned-out personality that would eventually manifest itself on his recordings--to concentrate on his emerging skills as a rap producer and DJ, while also occasionally dabbling as an MC on the side. It wasn't until a friend hooked him up with Vance Wright, Slick Rick's longtime DJ and producer, though, that his career officially began to take off. On the basis of J-Zone's home demos, Wright brought him into the neighborhood studio he owned as an intern, and the teenaged Zone eventually worked his way up to head engineer. By the time he had mastered the studio, the fledgling producer was also ready to attend SUNY Purchase in New York City, where he majored in Music. His senior project, in fact, also turned out to be J-Zone's unintentional debut album, the long EP Music for Tu Madre, pressed and released in 1999 on his own slapdash record label, Old Maid Entertainment on vinyl and cassette only. Always considering himself more of a producer than a rapper despite evidence to the contrary, the album also introduced the "Old Maid Billionaires," a group of MCs headed by Al-Shid and Huggy Bear, both whom he would return to on all subsequent recording projects and countless future live performances. The EP earned significant buzz in underground circles, not least because of the integral early support of Bobbito Garcia, who played J-Zone's early singles on his popular radio program. The following year saw the release of a second EP, A Bottle of Whup Ass, and almost across-the-board acclaim. At the beginning of 2002 he signed a distribution deal with Fat Beats Records to release the third Old Maid Billionaires joint (though his first "official" full-length), Pimps Don't Pay Taxes, then subsequently took an indefinite sabbatical from rapping to concentrate on the technical side of the art, producing 12" releases for both Al-Shid and Huggy Bear in addition to creating tracks for Biz Markie, Celph Titled and Louis Logic of the Demigodz, Cage, and High & Mighty, among others. At the end of the year J-Zone returned to his own music, putting out the "S.L.A.P."/"Ho Kung Fu" single and preparing his fourth proper album for the summer of 2003, as well as a supergroup project headed by him and Dick $tallion, Go-Rilla Pimp$. A Job Ain't Nuthin' But Work was released in 2004. ~ Stanton Swihart, All Music Guide
Search unanswered questions...

Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics

Wikipedia: J-Zone
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia

J-Zone is a producer, DJ, Journalist, former emcee, and the CEO of Old Maid Entertainment. He lives in Queens, New York and has enjoyed a large following of underground hip hop aficionados and a sizable European fan base that continues to grow.

At a young age, he developed and honed his musical abilities by listening to records and playing bass guitar. He later learned the basics of production under the tutelage of DJ Vance Wright (Slick Rick's DJ) in 1994. In 1999, he released his college senior project, Music for Tu Madre, garnering critical acclaim in the hip hop underground, but it was not enough to propel him into the mainstream spotlight. He has since released four albums, a group album with longtime collaborator Celph Titled and many remix, instrumental and limited edition projects. He has also worked with and produced beats for artists such as CunninLynguists, Biz Markie, Devin The Dude, Masta Ace, King T, Gnarls Barkley, E-40, Pete Rock, Large Professor, Prince Paul, Lonely Island, Esham, Cage, Danger Mouse, Mr. Lif, Sadat X, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, Casual, R.A. the Rugged Man, Tame 1, MF Grimm, and Tha Liks.

J-Zone's music could be described as somewhat unconventional. He typically uses lots of offbeat samples and attention to detail. While generally praised for his comedic storytelling, clever punch lines, acerbic wit, and stellar production work, some critics have claimed that his music is crude, juvenile, and misogynistic. He has recently shifted his focus away from rapping to concentrate full time on production, DJing, his Gator$-n-Fur$ mixshow podcast (with his alter-ego Chief Chinchilla), TV Commercials, journalism and behind the scenes work. J-Zone also serves as an adjunct Professor at the State University of New York and is a freelance sports journalist. He covers New York High School basketball and does NBA Blogging as a regular contributor for SLAM Magazine and slamonline.com, France-based Reverse Magazine and many others. He currently contributes humorous and opinionated social and music commentary -via his own blog [1]- on the website of industry veteran A&R, producer and taste maker Dante Ross. In 2007 he wrote a column for HipHopDX.com called 5 Things That Killed Hip Hop and stated that crews, too much music, no balance, the law and the Internet were all killing hip hop.[1]. The said column was eventually published in Common Culture: 6th Edition (Prentice Hall, 2009), a pop culture textbook.

J-Zone has sizable following in the UK because of collaborations with UK Hip-Hop artists Jehst and the Diversion Tactics.[citation needed]

Contents

Discography

Albums

  • Music for Tu Madre - 1999
  • A Bottle of Whup Ass EP - 2000
  • Pimps Don't Pay Taxes - 2001
  • $ick of Bein' Rich - 2003
  • A Job Ain't Nuthin' But Work - 2004
  • To Love A Hooker: The Motion Picture Soundtrack (Instrumental) - 2006

Other Projects and Guest Appearances

  • Ghetto Pop Life - 2003
  • Gimme Dat Beat Fool: The J-Zone Remix Project" - 2005
  • J-Zone & Celph Titled are The Bo$$ Hog Barbarian$ - Every Hog Has Its Day - 2006
  • J-Zone & Celph Titled are The Bo$$ Hog Barbarian$ - The Hogs Sing the Hits EP - 2006
  • Experienced EP - 2006
  • The Analog Catalog:2001-2007 (iTunes only)- 2007
  • J-Zone Remixes Vol. 1: Hi-Top Fade Not Included - 2008
  • J-Zone Presents...Chief Chinchilla: Live @ The Liqua Sto - 2008

Production Credits

References

  1. ^ HipHopDX.com - 5 Things That Killed Hip Hop. HipHopDX.com. Accessed November 28, 2008.

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 
Learn More
Pimps Don't Pay Taxes (2002 Album by J-Zone)
Music for Tu' Madre (1999 Album by J-Zone)
The Slickness (2004 Album by Prince Po)

What is J? Read answer...
J j thomsons experements? Read answer...
Why is there no J time zone? Read answer...

Help us answer these
What is the no zone?
What is a no zone?
What is ''j''?

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

 

Copyrights:

Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "J-Zone".  Read more

Related answers
» More
 
Answer these
» More

Mentioned in

» More» More