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Emcee of the Month: Joell Ortiz

Man, I need some hard-hittin' hip hop like this today. This is "Battle Cry" by Joell Ortiz.



There are some days in the lives of hip hoppers when we need to hear the livest, rawest, grimmiest, gulliest, most aggressive tracks we can find. For me, today was one of those days. I was actually worried about doing my post tonight because I didn't know if I'd be filled with too much of the energy from my day to really be constructive. But this record is like therapy for me.

I absolutely love these long form rap tracks. Canibus has a great one called "100 Bars", The Roots did the incredible track titled "The Web", and Busta Rhymes has a fantastic one named "Rhymes Galore." Sometimes I don't want to hear any hooks or r&b cameos or clever sample tricks; simply 'one-plus-one is two' type cuts. One rhyme plus one beat equals two to four minutes of pure head-nodding and teeth gritting, and many times that's all I need.

Joell is a masterful rap lyricist and I am grateful to have found this video tonight. It allowed me to rediscover a clear sense of thought that was clouded by the events of my day. I'm a bit disheartened that this is our last day with him. This has been a fantastic month of music for me.

Joell Ortiz is dope.

peace.

Emcee of the Month: Joell Ortiz

So I'm here at Mariana's crib in Brooklyn and the party's been over for about an hour now. And as I'm doing a quick glance through the youtubes(!) for Joell Ortiz material, I came upon this.

Man, this cat is the realest.

The somber and unapologetic reality of this track is one of the most unique and invaluable aspects of hip hop music. This music has always been about voicing the stories of the less fortunate and down-trodden; perhaps more so than any other musical form in history. Joell's commitment to exposing the immediacy of addiction is both refreshing and disturbing, especially considering the relative complacency of more popular hip hop artists when tackling these matters. His choice to use the instrumental from Kanye West's "Devil in a New Dress" is especially fitting for the subject as it undulates underneath the verse with soaring melancholy.

Joell can't be judged by his freestyles. He's actually way doper than that. This track is a real gem.

peace.

Emcee of the Month: Joell Ortiz

I watched quite a few Joell interviews, and I was trying to find something that was as recent as possible. But the thing about Joell is that he's very good at "shifting his code" to appeal to the given interview environment, much better than his outward show may appear. That's a good thing. It means he's aware of his audience and has learned how to make himself and his work available to them. However, due to interviewers hastily making their way to requests for Joell to rhyme, I feel we miss a lot of who Mr. Ortiz actually is.

So it took me a while to find a clip of him speaking that felt like I was seeing and hearing the purest story about who he is and what have been the important events and influences during his career.

I finally found an interview from a documentary television series called Mr. Dante Luna. Now, maybe I haven't searched enough, but I haven't found much information about this series; when it was made, its length, or its intention. Nevertheless, this interview with Joell is wonderful. There's no interviewer, no gang of dudes wallflowering the recording, and no pressure for a freestyle. Joell simply tells us about his life and career in very honest, simple terms. From what I can tell, he's quite an individual. Have a look.

peace.

Emcee of the Month: Joell Ortiz

This cat's freestyles are so dope I had to post another one. This one went down with Funkmaster Flex on Hot 97.

You gotta love Flex's growl ad-libs.

Honestly, I haven't heard anybody this aggressive on the microphone since Canibus. And quite frankly, Joell seems to be much more stable than 'Bis ever was, especially before he went to the Army. Furthermore, 'Bis never really had a sense of humor, so he would never come up with something as silly and fun-loving as "YAOWA!"

I think the most telling aspect of this clip, however, is Joell's message at the end.

"From here on out, let's start rhyming again New York...Rhyme...Ya'll need to rhyme from here on out."

I hope those emcees in question heard this. This is what rhyming sounds like.

peace.

Emcee of the Month: Joell Ortiz

Way back in September of last year, Joell Ortiz was the seed from which the idea of this blog grew. I was on one of my usual youtube cruises when I came upon this:

Immediately I copied the link and stuck it in an email to my homie Marcel. My exact message to him was, "[Joell Ortiz is] my rap hero for the month of September." His reply was, "Yes, [Ortiz] is in the no-wack-verses club." (So far, the club consists of Joell and Black Thought. We'll get into that soon.)

Joell's combination of pure joy and unapologetic aggression is undeniably engaging. He rhymes like he's having the time of life. So now that Emcee of the Month is up and running it's only right I revisit Joell and his astonishing sense of hip hop. I can't wait to share some of the wonderfully provocative gems he's given to the culture.

peace.