Jahzel
Chicago, Illinois, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2003 | INDIE
Music
Press
After giving himself a quick pep talk, Jahzel proceeds to go in for his latest cut, “John Stockton/Radio Raheem.” Over claps and a wobbly key riff, Jahzel pays tribute to a struggle that dates back centuries. Focus on that instead of the oddity of being the John Stockton of Chicago.
The strife of “John Stockton” gives way to the menace of “Radio Raheem,” which ends with a snippet of Radio Raheem’s famous speech in Do The Right Thing. Because it’s always important to fight the power.
Give the single a listen above. - Brian Josephs - XXL Magazine
Up and coming rapper Jahzel recently released a soulful ode to his hometown of Chicago, which is titled “Faithful”, produced by The CJ of Flawless Trackz. On the song you’ll hear a familiar DJ Rogers’ “Faithful to the End” sample. You’ll probably recall that sample from Common’s BE album, for the Kanye West produced song of the same name.
But unlike Common’s song, this record maintains the soul from the original sample but with a definite added bounce. Jahzel raps about growing up in his hometown; Born and raised, I think back some days to that summer time watching Jordan play/ they were killin’, him, Phil, and Pippen, whole city loved them, had six parades, he raps, reflecting on the Bulls dynasty of the 90’s. “Faithful” will be featured on his forthcoming album The Wake Up, which is due out in 2015. - Gedi Dabakaeri - PotholesInMyBlog.com
Directed by Asa Davis for Deep End Cinema.
Hailing from Chicago, Jahzel makes his DopeHouse debut with the world premiere of his new music video.
Releases as the second single from his upcoming album The Wake Up, "Who Is You?" finds Jahzel sharing both the hardships and triumphs of being brought up on the Northside of his hometown.
“My overall message is to show those who may be unaware of the struggles of the inner city youth, through stories of personal experience, the complex decisions that must be made on a daily basis, which are also restricted by limited options. Many of the youth and young adults like myself mean well, and desire for what we all desire for, happiness. It’s just not always that easy.”
And since we're arriving a little late to the party, check out the first and third singles, "Wake Up!" and "John Stockton" below as well. - Shake
Exclusive: Chicago rapper Jahzel launches meet and greet campaigns leading up to the release of his "The Wake Up" album.
Jahzel started this summer a promo campaign using social media to invite people out for a meet and greet, as well as free breakfast/coffee in advance of the October 7 release of his The Wake Up album. Due on The Black Key Collective, the collection features the North Side Chicago rapper's single “Wake Up,” which is produced by Flawless Tracks and is available for stream below.
Jahzel says that he launched the meet and greet initiative in an attempt to build his fanbase by utilizing his resources as effectively as possible.
"As a team, we decided to really fine tune how we acquire new fans," Jahzel says during an exclusive interview with HipHopDX. "In this day and age with the advancement in technology making it easier to spread information and contact one another, our target audience gets bombarded with new artists and new music daily. Most which may not be good quality, or even in the same interests of the receiver. As a result, many have built up this 'non-tolerance' for accepting new material, especially new music, and especially Hip Hop. As a team our first step was to identify our target audience. We first wanted to make sure that those whom we target to check out our music, are people who actually like our style of music. Once we identified who our target audience was, we took it further to determine what else they might like. Shockingly, it turns out that most people like food.
"Tying it back to our project, The Wake Up, we wanted to use ‘triggers' that are conducive to someone remembering the project and spreading info via word of mouth, so we decided to create breakfast/wake up events like Starbucks Meet & Greets, and McDonald’s breakfast Meet & Greets,” Jahzel continues. "We hope that your memory becomes triggered to remember us and the project when you see things in relation to breakfast, starbucks, or McDonald’s. We also wanted to offer a trade off, to get an immediate return on our investment. We figured instead of pouring money into another avenue to acquire new fans which may not work or have a tangible way to measure success, we could spend that same money to offer our target audience another product that we know they like, which has nothing to do with music, for free if they follow us on social media — twitter, Instagram, facebook, et cetera. This way we can accurately gage the success or failure of an event though the increase or lack of increase of our social media numbers. Most importantly, we are now connected to our target audience in a way that they prefer to be connected to, and we can now successfully introduce them to new music that we know they actually like, as they are more receptive since they've attended one of our events and we're not strangers anymore." - Soren Baker- Hiphopdx.com
Booth readers, do you know what time it us? No need to glance at your cell, because I’m gonna tell you: it’s time for you to Wake Up and start paying attention to Jahzel. Premiered via HipHopDX, this freshly-released single is a fitting introduction to the Black Key Collective rhymesayer, for those who slept through previous features Inner City Kid and Chapters. On this atmospheric jam, the Northside Chicago native chronicles his struggle to survive and thrive in a city whose dangers are all too well-known. Flawless Tracks mans the boards, backing the artist’s bars with an intricate mix of moody synths, vocal samples and sound effects. Fans will be able to find Wake Up and much more on the artist’s LP of the same name scheduled to drop October 7. - Richard-www.Djbooth.net
Draped in black and standing amongst his comrades, Jahzel spits darts through scenes of reflective symmetry in the visual for “Who Is You.” Jahzel not only shares the hardships of being brought up in the Windy City’s Northside, but also the triumphs.
“My overall message is to show those who may be unaware of the struggles of the inner city youth, through stories of personal experience, the complex decisions that must be made on a daily basis, which are also restricted by limited options”, he explains.
Now with an accompanying video, “Who Is You” was previously released as the second single from Jahzel’s album, The Wake Up, which will drop in January. - Scooby Wilson - AllHipHop.com
Jahzel been on our radar a couple times over the years, but this time around he seriously brings the heat. Upon hearing this and getting the chance to premiere this to the world, we absolutely could not say no to "Who is You," the second track coming off his second full length.
The artists delves into the world of Chicago in this piece, even down to the production, which brings influences of Chicago drill into the mix. With serious reppin for the city, the joy the artist brings is abundantly clear, and caution is completely thrown out of the window, providing with an honest and raw account of life that isn't always captured.
Check out the awesome track below, available for a free download, and make sure to snag the full length, titled The Wake Up, coming soon to see the light of day. - Artham Pierre- www.earmilk.com
Jahzel goes behind bars in the soulful new video for “Inner City Kid.”
- MTVU.com
On the heels of his new album, In God’s Image, Jahzel is on his way to carving his own lane. - XXLMag.com
Since dropping his debut mixtape First Class Jahzel has received love from outlets like Thisis50, MTV and MTV's Suckerfree Sunday, among others. - HipHopDXcom
Here’s an introductory email from Chicago’s Jahzel. The mixtape was recorded at SoundScape Studios, and is hosted by DJ Whoo Kid. That’s a pretty strong intro. Beyond that, Jet Lag is a more than solid project from yet another dude to watch from the Windy City.
- Ruby Hornet.com
Chicago artist Jahzel, dropped his new project, Jet Lag: The Mixtape, today and it’s hosted by DJ Whoo Kid. I wanted to highlight one song in particular, and that’s “Open Arms,” featuring BJ The Chicago Kid. Yep, we welcome this one with open arms. - FakeshoreDrive.com
Discography
The Wake Up (2014)
In GOD's Image (2013)
"Jet Lag" Hosted by: DJ Whoo Kidd (2012)
Photos
Bio
Only a true Chicagoan can fully understand our hustle mentality - simultaneously holding down multiple jobs, while going to school, taking care of our families, and being active in our communities, all while pursuing our dreams and goals. It’s the Chicago way.
Chicago-born musician Jahzel, eats, sleeps, and breathes that mentality: “We [Chicagoans] are hustlers in general; we get it done,” he says proudly. “I am telling the story about Chicago that needs to be told [GR1] and people can relate to it.” Jahzel has always been a proud Chicagoan, and his most recent project, The Wake Up, is an ode to the city he holds dear.
The son of Nigerian immigrants, Jahzel, grew up with an appreciation for all generes - an appreciation that is evident in his own music production. “I am influenced by a lot of genres; if it’s dope, it’s dope. When writing my music it’s all about the feel [of the music] and capturing a certain emotion. My experiences influence my music, and my music is diverse because my experiences are diverse.”
Jahzel worked in the music industry, as a music engineer, DJ manager, producer and sought-after songwriter before deciding to seriously pursue a solo career as a recording artist. In 2010, he released his first mixtape, The Arrival, which garnered an overwhelmingly positive response. Motivated by that response and his love for hip-hop, Jahzel went on to record two more mixtapes, First Class and Jet Lag, respectively.
Jahzel’s breakthrough came when the video for his single “Inner City Kid” was placed in rotation on MTV. Humbly surprised by the critical acclaim that his music was receiving, Jahzel headed back to the studio to work on his project, In God’s Image, which also saw heavy rotation on MTV, and coverage by several notable outlets like XXL magazine, The Source magazine, Hip Hop Dx, and Hot New Hip Hop to say the least; leading to a headlining spot at A3C, Atlanta’s premiere hip-hop festival.
His upcoming project “The Wake” continues to maintain his tradition of beautifully composed projects, as he seeks to provide a worldwide ‘awakening’ to the complexities of growing up in the inner city of Chicago, complete with its snares, daily moral challenges, and overall limited options. With the first track release titled “Wake Up!” Jahzel aptly sets the tone for the high quality to expect from the entire LP, displaying his handle for combining intelligently crafted lyrics with captivating story telling. He maintains such quality with soulfully touching records like ‘John Stockton,’ ‘Seedlings,’ and ‘No Tears No Tissue,’ brilliantly balancing the overall feel with commercially appealing, feel-good records like ‘The Vision,’ ‘Crazy,’ and ‘Faithful.’ “I feel Chicago has been depicted as this ultra-violent city, comprised of gun toting youth, who stand on corners, shooting at each other over the slightest disagreements. This may be true in several cases, but is not the majority situation. The real story is much more complex than what has been told, and I would like to wake the world up to those stories, and the other side of life in Chicago as well. Many of the youth and young adults like myself mean well, and desire for what we all desire for, happiness. Its just not always that easy...”
Though and overall newcomer, Jahzel is well on his way to a long career in the music industry. “The legacy that I want to leave behind is that artistry matters…. Writing lyrics that have substance and capturing real emotions matter… Music is such a powerful tool, and I want to use it the best way I possible can for people to be able to connect with me. There are many that share my experiences. I want them to know that they are not alone.” Look for “The Wake Up” to be released early October 2014.
Band Members
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