Fav 5 Emcee: J-Live

Listen to these songs to hear why J-Live is one of my favorite emcees.

Believe it or not, some rappers place love & education above fame & fortune. J-Live is a shining example of this, and that’s why he has my utmost respect. The former middle school English teacher values the power of the pad & pen, and he lives to pass on his knowledge & wisdom.

I remember when I first heard J-Live.

It was a sunny day in 1999 and my buddy Tyler hooked me up with an album that had just been leaked on the internet. That album was The Best Part, and it rocked my world. Unfortunately for J, the album was shelved several times due to numerous record problems, so his classic debut wasn’t officially released until 2001.

But J-Live (born Jean-Jacques Cadet) had proven his creative and versatile skills on the mic, and I (and many others worldwide) have been paying attention ever since.

Below are 5 of my favorite J-Live songs. If you haven’t heard them before, you’re in for a treat. (FYI- I’m using a new music player now. Click play to hear the song and if you want to download, just right-click the song title and save).

After the songs, I’ll bring you up to date with info on his upcoming album and various thoughts on his last full length release (including a bonus album to download for free!).

If you can “utilize your ears’ function as a garbage filter,” I think you’ll hear why J-Live is one of my fav 5 emcees.

J-Live - Epilogue

When Tyler handed me The Best Part, he was a little bummed because the last song got cut off. It didn’t matter at the time because the rest of the album was pure genius, but when I finally heard J’s “Epilogue,” I realized what I had been missing. Quite simply, when his career is “all said and done,” this track will be a beautiful testament to J-Live’s legacy.

“What does it take, to be a great, MC?”

If you ask me, it’s much more than Mastering Ceremonies
Because a lot of Masquerading Cornballs
Don’t realize it also means Mad Creativity
In this day and age of mediocrity
There’s two types of rappers that you’ll recognize and hear
But I prefer the ones with the lyrics of the year
Than the gimmick with the gear and the right puppeteer

Now you could be the next Rakim Shakespeare
You’re STILL 10 steps away from having a career
You step up the plate to earn respect from your peers
And end up on deck for the remainder of your years
I suppose this means greatness takes blood, sweat, and tears
It also takes an industry that doesn’t breed fear
Or pumping all this mindless crap up in your ears
And limiting the contrast of what you get to hear
You got to recognize it’s a determined idea
A righteous young mind is a devil’s worst fear

But when you wanna give the people peace and satisfaction
Everybody’s mama wants a piece of the action
So now I fall victim to supply and demand
Immaculate conceptions, born illegitimate
Destined to be the greatest story ever missed
Which means its meant to be for whoever’s hearing this

[CHORUS]
When it’s all said and done it should be heard and seen
‘Till this cold-hearted game forces us to change teams
While the lust for the loot spreads out like gangrene
So the haves chase their tails while the nots chase their dreams
As the years chase the days, past the futures, meet fate
Like your firstborn, waiting for pop’s release date
Postpone, meanwhile, I accumulate means
To revise and renew what was just heard and seen

It’s been stated that I rhyme like God and I build like a poet
One hand wash the other like Lady Macbeth
Flip styles like Bela Karolyi
Warm hearted, cold blooded
I write like opposite left
I left opposites right where they left off
My rights left right-wing as left to right beside me
Left my right hand man ’cause he left what’s right
And I reserve the right to write ’till I’m free
‘Cause I free styles with my pen,
That y’all couldn’t if you freestyled all day long

Literally, this literature designed for one orator
Stays on the head
Emcee’s emcee, that I be the emcee’s emcee
‘Cause I am saying what I am thinking
Except when my mind’s blanking
My eyes open even when my eyes blinking
I’s a socializer, but more so with those wiser
Ask yourself why’s the
music so misused it’s self-contained
And not-self sustained
I myself contemplate this ’till I make myself complain
Shall my raps stay maintained, wrapped in cellophane
‘Till they’re unwrapped by human consumers?
Emphatically no, so I rap wherever I go
And let it grow up in your brain like a tumor

[CHORUS]

Aiyyo, y’all really think ya know me well?
There’s more to me than ya mind got room for
And much much more than a clever verse or two
That’s all you know about me, you ain’t even knowing that
You think I give a fuck whether or not my record sells?
You’re damn right but you see that ain’t the way I’m keeping score
If one million people said it, does that make it true?
You judge my music by whether or not my pocket’s fat
Well, fuck you and the cash cow you’re milking
It ain’t yours but the job pays well, don’t it?
And if you’re lucky you can even get to taste a drop
We’ll see who’s happy when you’re old but you’re not grown
You see me, now? yeah, you’ll see me later too
Fucking you up when the vantage point change, don’t it?
I know what’s hip, but you determine if it’s hop or pop
You’re just a man without a voice, pass the microphone
I know the diff between written rhymes and freestyles
You see, for me, it’s like having sex or making love
And you should know by now I’m married to the pad and pen
But I’m entitled to cheat on her every now and then

Will your children know their hip-hop history?
Will the songs you hate be shrouded in mystery?
Don’t step to me with your stats and your date smarts
You know your neighborhood by street signs or landmarks?
I’m not talking ’bout the first record ever made
I’m talking ’bout the first one that ever made YOU
The first records that I played never played me
And I can still play ‘em today ’cause they stay true
You know this time I’m only speaking on the timeless
It makes sense now and then, yeah, now and then
‘Cause right now it’s making picture perfect sense and then
It’s making picture perfect sense like it did now
‘Cause right now it’s making picture perfect sense and then
It’s making picture perfect sense like it did now

[CHORUS x3]

J-Live - Them That’s Not

“Once upon a time there was a brotha named Kastro…” (A Rags to Rap to Riches story)

J-Live - School’s In

Every time I hear this song, I’m like . In case you’re questioning J’s teaching skills…

Welcome, to the voice response registration system
of True School University
Representing universally
You have added
Hip-Hop Ethics
One-Two-Zero
For those that don’t know…
School’s in

Who got the nerve ta
write a jam that you can swerve ta
Over tracks so fat, the nickname Big Bertha
It’s probably the kid that half the crews have never hearda
Whose mind travels further
than sex, drugs, and murder
So when you play the role of the timeless inserter
I’m sorry if you’re 85 and you would have preferred a
album full of ignorance
the place is an experience
Before the reasons why
for the sake of sounding fly, but I
grade your style without the curve
Cause you don’t deserve to
receive the grade that might let you build up the nerve to
bite the rhyme that feeds you
I need you to listen
My words are wet with crystal-clear wisdom so they glisten
and I fill in the blanks for all the answers that you’re missing
I’m rolling with the mongoose, cause snakes is steady hissin’
To expose my flaws like salt in sores
since they cannot be reformed I simply kill ‘em by the fours
So in other words, nah man, skip the explanation
see that what the rewind’s for, so be patient
Cause this is the direction that my pen should be draggin’
to transform your dollar cabs into bandwagons

J-Live with the mic is like a chef with a blade
No doubt
Man I cut ya like lumber
(x 2)

You see somewhere in between the old school and the new school
A master of the next school
came to teach the now school
Cause business class was steady playing old tricks on new fools
so everybody rocks jewels, but can’t nobody drop jewels
One-track-minded, blinded, thinking only pop’s cool
supply & demand rules, replaced by A&R rules
A scholar of the next school
he wasn’t trying to hear that
So principals and teachers abroad began to fear that
“If this guy makes an impact on the students that we play,
they’ll end up having way too much control over their grades!”
See grades will equal status for power, so just like college
You’re so caught up in letter grades, you skip the ‘F’ing knowledge!

See that’s how music power shifts from listener to maker
and that’s why music maker shifts from listener to faker
So when the listener graduates to be an artist
they still enslaved by the principles because they’re heartless
First they make you imitate another man’s skill
now you use your power for another man’s will
Move the crowd’s mental when they tell you sit still
move the crowd’s pockets instead to get the bread
Yeah that’s what the students gather from what the principal said
they make you think the world bleeds green instead of red
But class is in session now so all that stuff is dead
I’m coming through with knowledge and wisdom to fill your head

J-Live with the mic is like a chef with a blade
No doubt
Man I cut ya like lumber
(x3)

“Now wait a minute, what the hell does chopping trees have to do with culinary?”
That’s the spirit kid, analyze the lyric
from the moment that you hear it, see, cause most don’t have the skill to
Utilize their ears’ function as a garbage filter
So their brain gets clogged and congested
by the time and the effort that’s invested in illusion
And by the time’s definition of reality
by the time you get the facts, they’re outnumbered in confusion
So I come, to get shit off my chest and up in you
and I come, to make you feel at home with your power
and I come, to plant seeds of responsibility
Cause I come, harder than a sleepless cold shower
Refining and refreshing
Reprimanding those who claim they’re representing
by demanding, clarity
Cause when a mouthful don’t equal an eyeful, an earful sound awful
at least that’s how it seems to me
So I lead by example in my sound-proof room
and the comp gets trampled on my wack-proof stage
and my answers be ample in the packed classroom
Cause my thoughts are reflected on an ink-filled page!

J-Live with the mic is like a chef with a blade
No doubt
Man I cut ya like lumber
(x4)

J-Live - Satisfied?

“Throw your fists up if you’re not satisfied!”

J-Live - 9000 Miles

Yeah, this is my joint! 9000 Miles is one of my Top 10 songs of ALL-TIME. If you’re reading this J-Live, you’ve GOT to make a video for this song!!! Need someone to swim thru each of the oceans? Consider it done. Need someone to hock a loogie and hit an ant from 30 feet away? No problemo. This song is incredible and it deserves a killer video to preserve it’s spot in the annals of hip-hop.

(STROKE) x7
(STROKE)
(STROKE)
(STROKE)
(STROKE)

My mind speaks mathematics
Sometimes I feel english is a poor translation of my heart’s palpitations
That’s why I give it to you quarter notes at a time
So that my rhymes are aided by body gyrations
But now it’s like each hymn ain’t nothin but a word with
countless synonyms, where should I begin with ‘em?
Every sentence is a jail bid lockin’ me in
to bars of meaning with so much space between ‘em
And it’s so real, if I took a little bit of time
to reflect on the unreal my brain might peel
off my mind to reveal this, pegasus spring well
wholesale fairy tale echo in a conch shell
But why say it if you can’t see it?
I can call it abstract and say take what you want from it
I can do that all day ’till my tongue goes numb from it
But see what good would come from it?
I got somethin’ to say, I can’t run from it
I gotta confront it, I can’t watch while this
music that taught me so much as a child
Grows louder every day but the world grows dumb from it
So every line that I draw from my pen
That shapes a letter, that makes a word, that feeds a verse
is a swim for home, a place with infinite styles
But it feels like 9000 miles
So I…

[CHORUS]
(STROKE), through the Atlantic
(STROKE), through the Pacific
(STROKE), through the Indian
(STROKE), through the Arctic
(STROKE), through the cold current
(STROKE), through the warm current
(STROKE), through the fair and the foul, for 9000 miles
(STROKE), like you swimmin’ from the sharks and the slave ships
(STROKE), from the suicide jump to a brave trip
(STROKE), like you see the shoreline in the distance
(STROKE), like if you don’t, you’ll drown any instant
(STROKE)

So here we are again
The same space and mind, but now we in
A different place at a different time
A different taste to a different rhyme
with so many flavors to embrace, I can’t waste a line
So I’m, going for self with no hesitation
cuz my, self-expression is my self-preservation
My skills pay bills to fulfill my will, to do for others what I do for myself
Like motivation thru verses if it was a virtual conversation
All the pros and the cons of a real situation
Inspired by my knowledge of self, determination
To ease the frustrations of mis-education
That’s wise God music from I takin your eye
From trials and tribulations to kingdom and the patience
That’s why heart’s path is beaten by beats made from good vibrations
Passed down for generations
On a…

[CHORUS]

I get hype, I get home at night
I get a beat in my head, I get my book to write
I get writer’s block, I get so stressed that I
get dope rhymes from it just to get rest
I get frustrated from this whole world mess
So when I, got to get the bad air out my chest
I get on the mic and strive to be the best
but it’s not just to flow, there’s more to the test
I gotta spit like there’s no time to waste
Spit like I can’t take away this life taste
Spit for rebellion, spit for resistance
Spit for accuracy, spit for distance
I can’t just spit that shit you can market
Even though I know we got the same target
And I can’t just spit that old rhetoric
I gotta spit what’s ten steps ahead of it
I gotta spit for the life of my kids
and not just the next meal from my next deal
I feel like these rhymes could shape tomorrow
so they can walk thru it with a little less sorrow
I gotta spit out the mouthpiece protection
and stick and move these lines to perfection
I gotta spit shit no one ever thought of
Spit like I’ma choke on the saltwater
When I…

[CHORUS]

J-Live: 2005-Present

Musically, J-Live is a triple threat: skilled as an MC, DJ, and producer. However, in 2005, his production skills were questioned after the release of The Hear After, an album that he produced half the tracks for. Since J is always on point lyrically and The Best Part was such a classic (in part thanks to the excellent beats by Prince Paul, DJ Premier, Pete Rock, DJ Spinna, 88 Keys, etc.), fans have come to expect albums that are nothing short of spectacular. In this respect, The Hear After fell short. It was still better than your average hip-hop album, but it did not live up to most people’s expectations (for Professor Live at least). In fact, it fell out of my rotation and I had almost forgotten about it until…

I recently came across J-Live Digs Deeper - After the Hearing, a mashup album blending J’s vocals from The Here After with beats from other artists. It blew me away the first time I listened to it, as I was reminded why J-Live is one of my favorite emcees (nay, MUSICIANS and POETS) of all time. I searched for more info, and found out that the man responsible is some dude who goes by PhreshCut. Here is his myspace page.

The guy has been creating new musical blends/ mashups every month since 2005, and he releases all of them for free as “the goodwill projects.” Which means if you look around his site, you’ll find a PLETHORA of good music to download. (PhreshCut is going to keep me busy for awhile, and I’m sure I’ll mention him again on my site).

J-Live - After the Hearing mashup album Click Here to Download

If you enjoyed and appreciated the 5 songs that I posted, I highly suggest clicking on the above link. PhreshCut has breathed new life into J-Live’s stellar lyrics and the result is a near masterpiece. Some of the highlights?

-J observing the code of the streets from the “Sidewalks” over a funky RZA beat
-J & Kola Rock’s ode to “Listening” over Talib Kweli’s “Listen” (prod. by Kwame)
-J painting a picture of the “Brooklyn Public” school system over “We as Americans”
-J spittin “Whoever” over Deltron 3030’s “Things You Can Do” (prod. by Dan the Automator)
-J describing in “Audio Visual” terms over Blockhead’s chill “Cherry Picker” beat
-J contemplating on “After” over Sade’s “Color of Love” (no joke, this song kicks ass!)

But before we dismiss the original beats from The Here After, I think we need to hear from the man himself. In this excellent recent interview, J-Live explains why the production on his last album was rather lackluster:

“The thing that people don’t realize is, that [on] The Here After, we only sampled from Rykor’s catalogue cuz they said they couldn’t afford any sample issues. It was an interesting experiment, very worth the effort, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t go back to 70s soul or Jazz and Funk, so every producer on the record had their hands tied behind their back, including myself. It was apparent in the end product.”

So there you go. I don’t want to hear anyone dissing J-Live anymore, because he has a new full-length album dropping next month, and I’m extremely excited.

His new album is called Then What Happened? and as you can see, the cover shows J knocked out with his glasses broken. He knows that people were disappointed with his last full-length album, so here is his response.

“Musically this is me getting off the ground.”

“I didn’t do any beats on this one,” says J, who is famously known for being able to scratch records and rhyme at the same time. “I’m not trying to have a beat on the album for the sake of having a beat. I got Jazzy Jeff, Evil Dee, Oddisee, Floyd The Locsmif, DJ Spinna, Nicolay and DJ Numark from Jurassic Five.” Guest rappers include Plug One AKA Posdnuos from De La Soul and Chali 2Na from Jurassic 5, which further piques my interest.

Then What Happened? drops on May 27th, so circle your calendars. I have a feeling this one’s gonna be a CLASSIC.

There’s no doubt about it. J-Live is one of my 5 favorite emcees, and I pity da fool who doesn’t agree!

PEACE.

No related posts.