Life hasn’t always been fair to J-Live. When his label, Pay Day/London Records folded, his much-loved debut The Best Part didn’t get officially released. Instead it became a victim of rampant bootlegging. The experience was enough to put a sour taste in a rapper’s mouth. Yet the ambitious and persistent J-Live returned like a boomerang with All Of The Above, his second full-length album. “Coming off of a situation where I had an album that a lot of people liked and didn’t get to hear, and knowing this album would be treated differently, I was able to just go back to the lab with that experience and a different perspective and do what I was able to do,” explains the ex-7th and 8th English grade teacher.
“I wanted to make something that was eclectic even though there weren’t that many producers [DJ Spinna, Usef Dinero, DJ Jazzy Jeff’s Touch of Jazz and J himself] on it and that I would be proud of, that I could play for my folks and my friends,” Brooklyn’s underground finest reveals. “I try to make thought-provoking music. A lot of times the mainstream seems to flow away from that direction. According to them it’s not that commercially viable. But I’m of the mind that if you give people a chance to listen to something that’s not stupid, chances are they’ll pick it up and enjoy it.” Every track on All Of The Above is aural ecstasy. From the Run DMC-inspired “Stir Of Echoes” to his pep talk to woman on the wittily-titled “Like This Anna” and hypnotic rhythms and sampling on “First Things First,” J represents both the past and present with his Next Millennium lyrics and richly-layered jazzy beats. His CNN-like political commentary on “Satisfied?” is as hard-hitting as PE’s and The Coup’s and his clever storytelling style on “One For The Griot” is Wu-Tang material.
“One of my favorite songs is ‘A Charmed Life‘ because of the way my mother reacted to it the first time I let her hear it,” says J. “She was listening to it on a mini disc player so I couldn’t hear what she was hearing but I saw the big ol’ smile on her face. She was real happy and I knew I did what I intended to do, which was put my life on paper.” Unlike many MCees who aim to make ladies shake their booties and thugs throw their guns up, J is searching for smiles and teaching the children. “I want to give kids an alternative to the ignorance of commercial music, give them something positive to learn from plus they enjoy it just as much,” he emphasizes. That’s one of his definitions of an MCee, a term he explores in his self-produced song “MCee.” His Earth (J-Live is a Five Percenter and calls his wife his Earth) appears on the intro, disclosing why she rhymes: “I write poetry out of a deep-seated need to be loved.” “We did that because of all the different responses she gets when says she’s a rapper,” J points out. “People think an MCee is some dude in Vegas in between acts. People think a rapper is a gangsta, a thug or a backpacker.”
These days, Jay is chilling in Atlanta, working with underground groups like Mass Influence, getting his weight up on production and working on another album. “I’ve got a strong following that’s been with me since the first single, ‘Braggin’ Writes.’ They keep me grounded in what I need to do. Basically, I hope all artists struggling have an example and glimmer of hope that if you put your album out correctly, it will get exposure and it’s not all about what’s in today.”
