PERFORMER
Joey Bada$$
Joey Bada$$
As a
Brooklyn kid, earning a spot in hip-hop’s cluttered musical landscape isn’t as
simple as one might think.
“I’m
from Brooklyn, but everybody’s trying to get on,” says Joey Bada$$. “So they’ll
see your rhymes and say ‘He’s alright but get ready for my takeover … ‘Everybody’s trying to get it.”
Full biography:
As a
Brooklyn kid, earning a spot in hip-hop’s cluttered musical landscape isn’t as
simple as one might think.
“I’m from Brooklyn, but everybody’s trying to get on,” says Joey Bada$$. “So they’ll see your rhymes and say ‘He’s alright but get ready for my takeover … ‘Everybody’s trying to get it.”
Still, the MC’s natural poetic talent and penchant for channeling what many identify as the 1990’s golden era of hip-hop has made him the first from his Pro Era team to ink a label contract, get a BET Hip Hop Awards nomination, win the recognition of cultural gatekeepers like MTV, Billboard and Rolling Stone as well as acknowledgment from Brooklyn’s finest MC turned mogul, Jay-Z.
Now the 18-year-old rapper, who released his first mixtape 1999 last year, is on the verge of revealing still more of his ever-evolving skills with the new Summer Knights EP, dropping on October 29.
“On this album, people will definitely see how I’ve grown lyrically in terms of my comfort level, confidence and versatility,” Bada$$ says.
Born in Brooklyn, Jo-Vaughn “Joey” Virginie Scott is the second oldest of four children. Living in the primarily West Indian neighborhood of Flatbush with his parents, he and his siblings spent their days after school with their grandmother in another musical neighborhood, Bedford-Stuyvesant. Writing his earliest rhymes in the first grade, Joey drew on what he knew best.
“I was really into WWE,” he says, laughing. “Stone Cold Steve Austin, Jeff Hardy and The Rock were my top three favorites.”
In middle school, Joey met who would become his Pro Era rap crew including friends like Kirk Knight and Dessy Hinds before enrolling in Edward R. Murrow High School. There he hooked up with CJ Fly, NYCK Caution and producer Chuck Strangers, and after briefly fiddling with acting, Joey realized that rhyming was his gift and invested.
“We used to hang out after school at my house and spit because I had a microphone,” he says. “I sold a pair of my Nike’s and saved up the rest with my allowance from my Dad to buy it.”
Recording the Pro Era sessions on YouTube, Cinematic Group’s head Jonny Shipes saw the then-15-year-old on the web and tweeted him. Soon, Joey’s Pro Era struck a collaborative deal with Cinematic and Creative Control and began crafting the teen’s 1999 mixtape featuring the single, “Survival Tactics.” Soon after, Bada$$ gained attention not only from hip-hop fans but stars like Kendrick Lamar as well.
“I’m from Brooklyn, but everybody’s trying to get on,” says Joey Bada$$. “So they’ll see your rhymes and say ‘He’s alright but get ready for my takeover … ‘Everybody’s trying to get it.”
Still, the MC’s natural poetic talent and penchant for channeling what many identify as the 1990’s golden era of hip-hop has made him the first from his Pro Era team to ink a label contract, get a BET Hip Hop Awards nomination, win the recognition of cultural gatekeepers like MTV, Billboard and Rolling Stone as well as acknowledgment from Brooklyn’s finest MC turned mogul, Jay-Z.
Now the 18-year-old rapper, who released his first mixtape 1999 last year, is on the verge of revealing still more of his ever-evolving skills with the new Summer Knights EP, dropping on October 29.
“On this album, people will definitely see how I’ve grown lyrically in terms of my comfort level, confidence and versatility,” Bada$$ says.
Born in Brooklyn, Jo-Vaughn “Joey” Virginie Scott is the second oldest of four children. Living in the primarily West Indian neighborhood of Flatbush with his parents, he and his siblings spent their days after school with their grandmother in another musical neighborhood, Bedford-Stuyvesant. Writing his earliest rhymes in the first grade, Joey drew on what he knew best.
“I was really into WWE,” he says, laughing. “Stone Cold Steve Austin, Jeff Hardy and The Rock were my top three favorites.”
In middle school, Joey met who would become his Pro Era rap crew including friends like Kirk Knight and Dessy Hinds before enrolling in Edward R. Murrow High School. There he hooked up with CJ Fly, NYCK Caution and producer Chuck Strangers, and after briefly fiddling with acting, Joey realized that rhyming was his gift and invested.
“We used to hang out after school at my house and spit because I had a microphone,” he says. “I sold a pair of my Nike’s and saved up the rest with my allowance from my Dad to buy it.”
Recording the Pro Era sessions on YouTube, Cinematic Group’s head Jonny Shipes saw the then-15-year-old on the web and tweeted him. Soon, Joey’s Pro Era struck a collaborative deal with Cinematic and Creative Control and began crafting the teen’s 1999 mixtape featuring the single, “Survival Tactics.” Soon after, Bada$$ gained attention not only from hip-hop fans but stars like Kendrick Lamar as well.
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