Jet Swag Publishing
True Identity
www.TheMusicPlug.com
Don’t be fooled, Durham has talent meet one of the biggest
The Music Plug’s mission is to bring more notoriety to North Carolina’s independent artists who are grinding; trying to make a name for themselves. The industry is a vast field of unproven, underrate and overrated images. Some authentic, some a façade, but Jozeemo knows his true identity. In the rap biz for a little over a decade, Jozee hit the Plug with info on his personal journey on the rough road to stardom. A winding road that has led him through many uphill battles, yet he stayed true to himself and his vision. Keeping it real and humble, he spoke about ushering in a new era of hip-hop for the lyricist street rapper and how he came to the realization that music is his purpose. “Hip-hop goes thru cycles and phases,” said Jozee. “Everybody, every zone of hip-hop gets its chance and now it seems like it’s coming back to the time of the lyricists again. Look at my n*gga Drake and my man J. Cole from Fayetteville, so its rap for the lyricists again. The new era that I plan on ushering in is the lyrical street rapper.” The rapper from east Durham is working with several other lyrical street artists some of whom are signed with The Hall of Justus; a local independent label spotlighting artists and teaching them about the business. “Before I was signed with
(Hall of Justus), back in 2003 I was doing shows with a local crew I rock with called 21st Records; I had a big buzz and as an unsigned artist I was bringing in like 80 to 100 people at local shows and pretty much in North Carolina that was really unheard of,” said Jozee. “Nobody understood how I was packing shows like that. Ninth Wonder came to a couple of shows; unfortunately I had a little federal vacation to deal with and while I was away they wrote me letters to say they were really impressed and wanted to do a deal with me when I get home. That was a blessing; I came home in 2006 and they signed me.” That signature moment should have been the beginning of his happily ever after, but as usual life scratched that record; throwing Jozee into an offbeat situation. Following a near death experience, he realized that divine intervention aided in his survival; giving him more determination to succeed and help others along the way. “It gave me a new outlook on life, he said. “We were on a tour bus in Vermont and got hit by an eighteen wheeler; totaled the van and everybody could have lost their lives but God willing we didn’t. It’s just the fuel to my fire; it makes me go a little harder. I’m here for a purpose to do this music; you know, because I didn’t die in that accident. So,
now I really try to reach out and work with any artist that I can. It’s not all about money anymore; it’s about music at the end of the day. Sure it’s about money don’t get me wrong, but it’s not strictly about money. I do it for the love of it.” Not strictly about money but money is still a big part of the equation. Jozee has been vibe-ing with local artists and producers in the studio; hoping one of them will get that big break. He dreams of the days when they will be stomping with the big dogs; doing collaborations with his idols Jay Z, Jeezy, and Drake. In the meantime he speaks on the thrill of knowing when the joints are hard enough to turn a track into a project that’s straight fire. “I listen to the beats and if I like it, I write to it,” said Jozee. “After the song is recorded then I can really see the chemistry that we had together; either we had something or we didn’t. After I record the jam, I listen to it and listen to it and that’s how I judge if it’s one of my real jams that I can put projects on; that’s
TheMusicPlug.com basically how it goes down.” “I do collabs with all kinds of local artists, you know cause my thing is just trying to get NC on the map and I really don’t care who does it first,” he said. “I just want our city, our state to get its well deserved shot because we have been looked over far too long. This is nothing but a movement, and nothing is above the movement, not even myself.” Part of the movement consists of local producers and artists like label mates Chaundon, Joe Scuttle, and Rapper Pooh of Little Brother; who joined Jozee for the Reservoir Dogs mixtape featured on his face book page. These guys spit to jacked beats, spicing it up with a little twist in the lyrical content; each adding an original jam for a fresh street mix. The facebook site also features a TV Land mixtape and True Identity album due to be released in September. “Ok, for TV Land I was with a producer out of NC named Bionic,” said Jozee. “We were sitting around and he let me hear one of his beats of a chopped up sample of the Cheers theme song. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s hot; can I get it?’ He said, ‘Nawh it’s for somebody else, but I can do some more of the TV Land theme songs.’ And just like that TV
Land was born with two brothers just kicking it.” “I was with super producer Black Jeruz formerly of G-Unit,” he added. “We got together, we were talking and we recorded one song. The song came out so good he was like let’s do some more. We did like two more and he said let’s do an album. We banged that out in like a couple of months so that’s how True Identity came off.”
for life.” Music is his inspiration; hopefully the plug has inspired its readers to check for Jozee. “Check for me, True Identity is coming out real Jozeemo soon,” he added. “TV Land is a great album; it has great lyrical content. If you wanna hear some good dope music check for Jozee and a new era of hip-hop.”
Jozeemo Photo by Moetography His voice was so animated as he Story by Ruth McClary spoke about the way he and his peoples came up with the concepts of CD creation. It was like a symphony of sounds and excitement as he re-canted the steps of discovery. The father of five takes the business seriously;even though he really doesn’tsee any of his kids following inhis footsteps. This is a full time mission that is truly embedded in him; which popped off loud and clear when he was asked about his musical inspirations. “You know what, that’s a hard question to answer because music is in me,” said Jozee. “ Like I don’t have to be inspired to do anything musical because I can wake up rapping, I can wake-up trying to think of new songs and new concepts, like that’s what I do. It’s my God given gift so, you know… I guess music is my inspiration
Jozeemo
Photo by Moetography
True Identity