J-Kwon Biography

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Biography J-Kwon

Jarrell Jones (born March 28,1986) better known by his stage name J-Kwon, is a rapper from St. Louis.

Biography

Early life

His musical background came from viewing and observing hip-hop music videos. He engaged in freestyle rap battles. J-Kwon's path to fame included mooning Arista head L.A. Reid and mocking producer Jermaine Dupri. These events helped gain the MC a contract with the latter's So So Def, a subsidiary of the former's employer. Controversies about J-Kwon had him upset until he met up with People Magazine to settle the Article However, his life was far more turbulent before that; kicked out his mother's house at the age of 12, he took to the street, dealt crack cocaine, and had his jaw broken after defeating a fellow MC in battle. His label deal helped turn his life around.

2004-2005: Musical Beginnings

J-Kwon first got signed in a very odd way, in that he would mock what would be his main producer, Jermaine Dupri, who produced a majority of his first album, Hood Hop. Regardless, according to Dupri, J-Kwon was also signed because of his rapping skills.http://music.yahoo.com/ar-306228-bio--JKwon

J-Kwon first rose to stardom with his single "Tipsy" and his 2004 album, Hood Hop. The aforementioned album peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200. It has reached gold status, selling approximentaly 650,000 copies to date. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000828755 The first single from the album, "Tipsy", peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at #4 in the UK, becoming a success and making it his biggest single to date, and one of the biggest hip-hop records of 2004. A music video was filmed for the single, which was an obvious remake of Gin & Juice by Snoop Dogg. Strangely on the set of this music video, a shot was fired from a passing vehicle. The shot hit a window of a van, but no one was reported hurt. http://www.ballerstatus.net/news/read/id/57139787

After "Tipsy" had done its fair share on the radio, Jive parted with "You & Me", featuring Sadiyyah, as the second single. Disagreement with the record label followed, as J-Kwon wanted "Parking Lot" or "Hood Hop" to be a second single, but Jive decided "You & Me" with the fall and holiday theme in mind, considering it was a breezier, softer song. While the released single was no where near as successful as the earlier smash, the song did chart to #58 on the Billboard Hot 100 and landed a spot on the seventeenth edition of Now That's What I Call Music!. Afterwards, Jive had released third single "Hood Hop", which had little success, and failed to chart on the Hot 100 and only peaking at #52 on Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Tracks.

J-Kwon rose back to stardom in 2005 when he was given the opportunity to make the priority song on the State of the Union soundtrack. The song, "Get XXX'd", featuring Petey Pablo and Ebony Eyez, was completed soon enough and was featured on the movie's soundtrack and in the credits of the movie. Also in 2005, he promoted another part of media, this time in television, when he collabrated with comedian Andy Milonakis in "Like Dis", to promote The Andy Milonakis Show, which was played in skits on MTV during the show's first season broadcast.

2007: Louisville Slugger

Louisville Slugger is a shelved album from the St. Louis rapper J-Kwon, canceled due to being dropped from So So Def Recordings. His second album will be Man In Da Mirror on his own Hood Hop Entertainment label.

Guest appearances were to include Chingy, Nelly, Murphy Lee, Teairra Mari, Andy Milonakis, Ebony Eyez, Brandy & S.O.C.(Show Off Clique).[1][2]

Hood Hop Entertainment

J-Kwon was dropped from the So So Def lineup, the outcome, his own record label Hood Hop Entertainment.http://www.djbooth.net/index/tracks/review/j-kwon-who-u-talkin-to/