Jay Young (Rapper)

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Jay Young
Jaleel "Jay Young" Harrison
Jaleel "Jay Young" Harrison
Background information
Birth name Jaleel Saif Harrison
Also known as Xclusive
Born May 6, 1990 (1990-05-06) (age 18)
West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Origin Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Genre(s) Hip hop
Occupation(s) Music Producer, Rapper
Years active 2001 - present
Label(s) WolfGang ENT.
Associated acts JS Tone, Kaotic, Young Nick, Hazard, Yung Barz, Mark Elliott, Mark Rich
Website Jay Young MySpace

Jaleel Saif Harrison (born May 6, 1990), better known by his stage name Jay Young, resides on the west side of Philadelphia. He was introduced to the music world at the age of one, when his father sat a korg keyboard in front of him to play with. Jay has since then proved himself throughout his life, creating dope beats. He is known to be one of the youngest, hottest producers in philly.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] 1990–2004: Early life

Jaleel Saif Harrison [1] was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Andrea Gardner and Mark Elliott Harrison, and is known to be of Jamaican descent. In the summer of 1997, his mother left, leaving Jaleel and his little sister(3 years old at the time) with their father. At the age of 8, Jaleel began to explore music and decided to make his own with his small keyboard, an amp, and a tascam tape-deck he had in his room. He taught himself to play the keyboard, never knowing how to read music but yet, he began to get recognized by his father and others who heard his music. Jay never took rap seriously until he listened to DMX, who just released his first album at the time, and Jaleel's mother bought it for him. Listening to this album taught Jaleel to see thinds from another point of view. Jaleel began to write raps, just rapping at first. Then, listening to Eminem at 11, taught him how to express himself and say everything on his mind which, got him in trouble a lot. Later 2001, Jaleel was taken by his father to a studio, which his father's friend owned. Jaleel got first look on how to use other equipment that he had never seen. By the next year, he knew how to use everything which later would help him in the music world. In 2002, Jaleel attended a charter school near his home. Later in the school year, he began to gain popularity off of talent to rap, which caused him be in rap battles. He was given the name "Xclusive", by how he kept all his raps away from everybody who wanted to seem them. Though he won every battle, things at home were terrible, and began to take it out in school. He began to get into a lot of fights which led him to a daily attendance to the counselor. His last fight led him to expulsion from the school. In 2003, he attended another charter school in Center City. His first year, he began to seriously do music to the point where people began to claim he was addicted. By 2004, he never interacted with anybody his age involving music until he met Antoine Rozier, who was also into music. Antoine started a a group called "The Trilogy" and he asked Jaleel to become part of the team since he heard that he did music. At first, Jaleel thought that the whole idea was stupid and didn't want to join two corny rappers. But, he realized later on, that he and Antoine talked more and every conversation was about music. Jaleel joined the group and began his music career. The third person in "The Trilogy" left the school, and later Antoine put one of his closest friend in the group, Kaotic.

[edit] 2005–2007: WolfGang

In 2005, Jaleel decided to change his rap name. His new name would now be Jay Young [2]. He established his rap name from the first letter in his government name and "Young" came from Dr. Dre's last name, Andre Young. Jay was pleased with this name and he figured "The Trilogy" could use a good name, also. Meanwhile, the group began to record songs for their first mixtape called, "Mass Destruction". Most of the songs were finished but the mixtape was never finished and released because of the commitment issues with the new member of the group. At first, there was a pause on the tape but later it deceased. Both Jaleel and Antoine decided to do their solo mixtapes. Both began, and Jay also noticed that more people were interested in joining. But Jay noticed that it wouldn't be "The Trilogy" if more than three people were in it. Jay was reading about music geniuses when he came across Mozart. He learned a lot about him and figured he change the group's name to WolfGang. A week later, he declared it as WolfGang Entertainment, a record label and Jay was now officially the CEO. He made Antoine, now known by his rap name, JS Tone the vice-president. JS Tone appointed people to Jay who were interested in WolfGang. A young rapper by the name of Young Nick,was interested. Jay heard Nick and he wanted him to join. Nick did join, along with Mark Rich(JS Tone's brother), who is the co-producer of WolfGang Ent. Now it was five people in the record label. Even though there wasn't an official mixtape, they continued to record songs. The label recorded a song called "Ghost Rydaz", in which Kaotic, Young Nick, Jay Young, and JS Tone record verses with no hook at all. This song was supposed to be the called "WolfGang Anthem" until, Jay changed it. He decided to put it on his mixtape along with a few other songs he did. Jay paused his mixtape during 2006 to catch up in school. By that summer, three new people were signed to the record label. Hazard, Neuz, and Yaya were the newest members of the label. Jay decided to make the "WolfGang Anthem" track again but the project discontinued. Instead, everyone began to start on their own mixtape. Jay continued to his mixtape, even though he had to stop because as WolfGang began to get buzz, others began to diss them. Problems began to spread throughout WolfGang which led to Jay kicking out both of the girls, Nuez, and Yaya. Jay began battling again. Late 2007, JS Tone finished his mixtape, "J-Ville" and Jay paused his mixtape again to help Young Nick and Hazard start their mixtape. Later 2007, Jay signed their first singer, kee, who currently doesn't have a stage name.Early 2008, Jay signed two more people, first Jae Chase, a talented female rapper, and Yung Barz (hazard's brother).By May 2008, Jay finally finished his mixtape and is now giving them out to gain buzz. Young Nick and Hazard is still working on their mixtape's. Jay Young is going to release his second mixtape, "Project: RedRum MixTape" sometime this year.

[edit] 2008: Project: Blackout MixTape

Main article: Project: Blackout
Official Cover of "Project: Blackout".
Official Cover of "Project: Blackout".

Jay finished this mixtape on May 17, 2008. He has not released it yet but he soon will. The mixtape is based on personal issues, and tries to explain the difference between his alter-ego "Xclusive", which he considers his good side, and "Jay Young", who he considers his bad side (based on feelings). Throughout this mixtape, you can tell which "alter-ego" is which by how he raps in each song. The CD consists of 13 songs, the last being called "Murda Scene", in which he changes his whole flow and evolves into something much stronger, lyrically.The song leads into his next mixtape "Project: RedRum", which is stated in his last line: "set up the murda scene/ project redrum".

Most of the personal songs included are "Ruthless", which he explains how he hates two-faced people, how he is blunt and ruthless, and how he was threatened by his friend's boyfriend because both Jay and the girl were cool with each other. Another song, "Try Ya Luck", was technically not a personal song but in the second verse, Jay mentions how some boy on his old street was jumped by his friends and all of the sudden, the boy began to talk wreckless towards Jay. Another personal song, "Grimy", is about Jay's ex-girlfriend. In this song, his "ex" told him that she was pregnant. Jay later found out from the "ex's" cousin, that she lied about it because she wanted to break up with him. Turns out that the cousin liked him, which is why Jay's "ex" went with him in the first place, to get revenge on her cousin. The next song, "Get 2 Kno U", is about the cousin who Jay suddenly has feelings for. The last personal, "Leaving 4 Good", is about how Jay wants to leave from his current lifestyle and personally feels that not many people care for him.

[edit] External links

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[edit] References

Persondata
NAME Jay Young
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jay, Xclusive
SHORT DESCRIPTION Rapper; Producer
DATE OF BIRTH May 6, 1990
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Languages