The Next Big Thing (No.16) : Joey Bada$$

The start of the 21^st century was not a good year for hiphop fanatics, as hiphop’s golden age has gradually faded since the early 2000s. With new music scenes, the emergence of autotunes and harsh world of money-making music, gangster rap and hiphop was on the brink of demise. But then, like every rut has its diamond, so does every dying king has its successor, in this case, Joey Bada$$ is here to save the day.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Jo-Vaughn Scott (18) had his foot set on the entertainment industry, started out acting classes at the Edward R. Murrow High School. Rapping inevitably became a passion of his, then started to acclaim himself as JayOhVee, and later Joey Bada$$, where he stated that “the name sounded cool at the time, fit my mood”. He also fashioned a collective of young talents known as Progressive Era (ProEra) with a few high school peers.

Entering the rap scene at a peculiarly young age, he started it all with Youtube videos and got the acknowledgment he deserved from Cinematic Music Group. Being signed collectively with Pro Era, Joey and Capital STEEZ (RIP) debuted a video for Survival Tactics, that quickly became the anthem of the underground music scene, and later got featured on segments of RapFix Live and SuckerFree.Hardknock. The second video, Hardknock, entered MTV2’s rotation list. Later on the same year, Joey released his very first solo mixtape, 1999, creating the big upsurge of his musical career, named to be the 38^th best album of 2012 and the best mixtape of the year by HipHopDX.com. Despite being fresh green in the music industry, Joey proved to be one of the independent artist on the spotlight, with the authenticity he brought to the music and how he turned today’s rap into street poetry of indefinite depths. The golden age nostalgia and the notable attempt of “resurrecting boombap from the tombs” continued to invade with yet another mixtape, Rejex.

Joey Bada$$ also have contributed with well-known rappers, he was featured in Mac Miller’s song America and A$AP Rocky’s infamous 1 Train, alongside with other notorieties. After the release of the first single ‘Unorthodox’, Joey continues to gain eminence, stated as FuseTV’s 30 must-see artists at SXSW and started working with DJ Premier for his debut album, B4.Da.$$,  that will be released this fall. The future for Joey Bada$$ in the rap industry is clearly set in stone, with an outstanding reviews from his released mixtapes and the public’s notice that seems to get stronger by the day, it is inevitable for Bada$$ to become what he claims to be, the original motherfucking badass of the fucking era.