Joey Badass

Joey Badass
Joey Badass at the Splash! Festival in 2013
Background information
Birth name	Jo-Vaughn Virginie Scott
Also known as	JayOhvee[1]
Born	(1995-01-20) January 20, 1995
Origin	Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
Genres	Hip hop
Occupations	Rapper
Years active	2010–present
Labels	Cinematic Music Group, Relentless Records[2]
Associated acts	Pro Era, DJ Premier, Flatbush Zombies, Statik Selektah, The Underachievers
Website	theproera.com

Jo-Vaughn Virginie Scott (born January 20, 1995),^[3] better known by his stage name Joey Badass (stylized as Joey Bada$$), is an American independent hip hop recording artist from Brooklyn, New York City, New York. He is a co-founder of the hip-hop collective Pro Era, with whom he has released two mixtapes. Joey released his debut mixtape 1999 in June 2012 to critical acclaim and recognition, followed by Rejex in September, and Summer Knights on July 1, 2013. He is currently working on completing his debut studio album, B4.Da.$$, due for release in early 2014.

Early life

Jo-Vaughn Scott was born on January 20, 1995, and was the first of his immediate Jamaican family to be born in the United States.^[4] His family originated from the small island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean.^[5] He was raised in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York City, New York, and attended the Edward R. Murrow High School. He has three brothers and one sister. He originally enrolled at Edward R. Murrow to study acting, but transitioned towards music around the time of 9th grade, with a focus on rapping.

He started rapping under the name "JayOhVee", but eventually changed it to Joey Badass. He says that the name change is due to the media's focus on rappers with more cynical names. Joey said it was "what sounded cool at the time, what fit [his] mood".^[6] Joey claims to have first started writing poetry and songs at the age of 11.^[6][7] He formed the collective known as Progressive Era, or Pro Era for short, in high school with classmates Capital Steez, CJ Fly and Powers Pleasant.^{[6][8][9][10]}

Music career

2010–2012: Signing to Cinematic Music

In October 2010, Joey uploaded a video of himself freestyling to video-sharing website YouTube. The video was re-posted on to American hip hop site World Star Hip Hop and caught the attention of Jonny Shipes, the president of Cinematic Music Group and manager of Big K.R.I.T. & Smoke DZA. Shipes contacted Joey through Twitter and shortly became his manager. The Pro Era collective have since signed with the label.^[6][7]

In early 2012, Joey and Capital Steez released a video for "Survival Tactics" via their YouTube channel "PROfckingERA", which samples the 1999 song of the same name by Styles of Beyond. In February 2012, Pro Era released their debut mixtape entitled The Seccs Tape.^[11] On March 21, 2012, MTV News featured Joey's verse from the video during a RapFix Live segment and subsequently appeared as a featured guest on Sucker Free the following month. The song was succeeded with the video premiere of "Hardknock" featuring CJ Fly on MTV2.^[12][13][14]

2012: 1999 and rise in popularity

Joey Badass performing in June 2012.

On June 12, 2012 Joey released his debut solo mixtape 1999. A video for the song "Waves" was released in June 2012. The mixtape immediately increased Badass's popularity in the underground scene.^[15][16] The mixtape was named the 38th best album of 2012 by Complex Magazine^[17] and the best mixtape of 2012 by HipHopDX.com.^[18] On September 6 of the same year, he released another mixtape titled Rejex, which featured all the tracks that did not make it on the 1999 mixtape.^[19]

Subsequently, American rapper Mac Miller reached out to Joey Badass through Twitter to collaborate. Joey appeared on the song "America" and opened for Miller at the Roseland Ballroom in April 2012.^[6] Along with headliner Juicy J, Joey and Pro Era performed on The Smoker's Club's One Hazy Summer Tour, presented by Ecko Unltd. and livemixtapes.com. The 30-date tour began in July 2012.^[20] He was featured on the posse cut track "1 Train" off ASAP Rocky's album Long.Live.ASAP (2013) which also features Action Bronson, Kendrick Lamar, Yelawolf, Big K.R.I.T., and Danny Brown.

In December 2012 it was rumored that Joey Badass would be signing to Jay-Z's Roc Nation record label.^[21][22] However in January 2013, Joey dispelled the rumors saying he would rather stay independent than sign to a major label for the time being.^[23] On December 21, 2012, Pro Era released the P.E.E.P: The aPROcalypse mixtape.^[24] On December 24, 2012, it was announced that Capital STEEZ, a close friend of Joey's and member of Pro Era, had died due to a suspected suicide.^[25]

2013–present: Summer Knights and B4.Da.$$

Joey Badass performing in July 2013.

On November 9, 2012, Joey released a track with Ab-Soul produced by Lee Bannon called "Enter the Void" along with "Waves". These songs were his first official releases to retail. On January 14, 2013 Joey Badass released the first single off his debut album, "Unorthodox", which is produced by DJ Premier.^[26] On February 8, he released a music video featuring Big K.R.I.T. and Smoke DZA titled "Underground Airplay". "Underground Airplay" was featured on the Eckō Unltd. mixtape. On March 5, 2013 he released the music video for "Unorthodox".^[27] On March 21, 2013, he begun the Beast Coast concert tour with Pro Era, The Underachievers and Flatbush Zombies. On March 26, 2013, it was announced that Joey would be a part of XXL Magazine's 2013 Freshman Class.^[28]

Joey Badass recently said that his debut album is almost finished and he is considering offers on which label to release it on. He has been in the studio with DJ Premier, Pete Rock and Q-Tip to work on the album.^[29] On April 20, 2013, it was announced via his Twitter that Joey would title his debut album B4.Da.$$ with a release date during early 2014.^[30] On April 21, it was announced that Joey would appear alongside his Pro Era crew as an opening act on Wiz Khalifa & ASAP Rocky's 2013 summer "Under The Influence Tour."^[31] Other opening acts include B.o.B & Trinidad James.

On May 22, 2013 Joey Bada$$ announced the official release date of his next solo project, Summer Knights EP, as June 12, release to mark the 1 year anniversary of his breakthrough mixtape, 1999. On May 28, 2013, Joey Bada$$ announced Summer Knights would no longer be an EP, but rather a full-length mixtape. Production was handled by The Alchemist, MF Doom, Oddisee, Statik Selektah, Lee Bannon, Chuck Strangers and Kirk Knight, among others.^[32][33] However on the announced release date, Badass revealed on Twitter that the mixtape was pushed back until July 1, 2013.^[34]

On October 15, 2013, it was revealed that Joey Badass would release his first commercial project on October 29, 2013 via Cinematic Music Group, Relentless Records and RED Distribution. The project was a seven track EP, the Summer Knights EP. It featured four songs from the mixtape of the same name, and three new songs including a remix.^[35] Upon release, the EP debuted at number 48 on the US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.^[36]

Discography

• 1999 (2012)
• Summer Knights (2013)
• B4.Da.$$ (2014)

Awards and nominations

BET Hip Hop Awards

The BET Hip Hop Awards were established in 2013 by the Black Entertainment Television network to celebrate hip-hop performers, producers and music video directors.

References