(Click Here To Download Mixtape)
Follow J-Key
About J-Key
J-Key has been dedicated to music since his early days of life. His mother and brothers were very much music people and you could say that the bug rubbed off in a major way. He used to write rhymes with his older brothers and their friends. While always being a fanatic young J never quite realized that he could actually become a music star until one late night in 1997. “It was New Years Eve and I was watching “More Money, More Problems” by Biggie on MTV. I remember watching the whole video thinking, I’ve GOT to do THAT with my life.” He says in reminiscence. Telling me that he had spouted off every lyric to the song without stumbling on one word and that when he finished the song everyone in the house was staring in awe. He laughs then continues to tell me that throughout his grade school career his parents would constantly nag him by saying “If you could remember your school work like you remember those songs you would have straight A’s.”
J-Key is originally from Mount Vernon, NY but moved to Washington at the age of 6. He says the diversity in background and ethnic groups contributes a lot to his hybrid sound and ability to capture many walks of life while making music. He also comes from a low-income background and pays much homage to his mother and father for both working two jobs in the same household to keep food on the table for him and his two brothers. Claiming that watching this growing up plays a major factor in his work ethic to this day. Hard work is a slogan that J-Key lives by and believes that great things only come to those who work for it.
J had been writing full songs since that New Years Eve in ’97 but his first encounter with a microphone was at the age of 14. Recording a two verse song named [Dead Wrong] about the place he comes from and the rough conditions of the streets. The distinction in which he captured his environment combined with the concrete punchlines, and rainbow vocabulary automatically captures ears of many on the local scene. This especially captured his older brother’s attention, who pushed him to pursue his dreams.
After going through trouble in his adolescent life and a couple of bad deals in the NW music industry that held him until the age of 18 he released himself of all other obligations and went full force at his career. Only to drop his first mixtpate “The Spark” locally and under his new movement called “Bottom Line” records. “Bottom Line means we are the BOTTOM LINE, the only thing that matters” he states with a cocky undertone as if I was expected to know. J in J-Key stands for his first name, John. The second part, Key, stands for ultimate power. “If anything is on lock it’s unobtainable right? But if you have the [KEY] then you hold the power, there are no boundaries.”
After releasing “The Spark”, 10 months later J-Key released “The Potential” his first all original project. Followed by two other mixtapes, and a series of music videos. After all of this work he has been flooded with appearances on Hip-Hop magazines and websites such as World Star, Alwayz Therro, 24HourHipHop, and even his “I’m Wassup” music video being played on MTV. “It’s crazy. . .that video being on MTV. I like “Hello World” more. And in regular hours too! Not like three in the morning. 7 or 8am eastern time. I wake up and everyone is telling me that they seen my video on MTV. I didn’t even catch it. [Laughter]”
Ever since then, J-Key has been working harder than ever to remain buzzing like he has been and to expand his market further than it already stretches. With plans to take his career higher in life than any of us can imagine. We will be seeing a lot more of J-Key in the media and on our iPods in the near future, as we get to watch him grow on his journey.
