iTemas - Joell Ortiz
Twenty-seven year old Joell Ortiz is a breath of "Fresh Air" in today's hip-hop hoopla. His resume includes everything from hustler to philanthropist. His picturesque lyrics, honest depictions and sharp delivery are sure to secure Ortiz a place in the future of hip-hop history. But it is his humility, sincerity and deep-rooted connection to the plight of the streets that secures him a place in the much needed revolution of hip-hop music today. The Puerto Rican Brooklynite has the whole world saying his name after the release of The Brick: Bodega Chronicles and his recent sign to Aftermath Records. But it's the Cooper Projects youth that are singing his praises after having their community center stocked with brand new computers thanks to Joell's signing bonus and generosity. He wanted them to, "see that there is a world outside of their reality" and have the opportunities that he lacked. Urban Latino had a chance to catch up with Ortiz and discuss music and life:
How do you feel about hip-hop right now?
Hip-hop is great right now. for me. I am kind of glad that its taken the course that its taken because it makes artists like me even more important. The music that I was inspired by, is not getting as much love as
it should. I'm here to restore that love. I'm here to make people press the rewind button again. I'm here to make people, "ooh" and "aah," like they used to...again. I love the dance records. But I just think that dance records should be dance records, and that hardcore hip-hop should have a place also on radios and in iPods. I make the music that I'm a fan of...that's why I have songs like "Fresh Air," where I'm just rhyming - where I'm just like, "let's get back to this fellas," where are all my dudes that think deep. I know we want to dance in the clubs or whatever, but where are my songs that I'm ironing my clothes to?
What makes you different from anything else that's out there right now?
I get a lot of nicknames like "The Savior of Hip-Hop" and "Mr. Fresh Air," but at the end of the day, all I'm really trying to do is rap. I just want to rip a beat. I just like ripping beats. When the lights go on, I'm Joell and when the lights go off I'm Joell. I don't have a stage name because I'm not a stage guy. So Joell Ortiz might just be a dose of reality right now, in a community of hip-hop that's filled with a lot of gimmicks. Gimmicks will fade because they're only trendy. Real has been real since the beginning of
time. So if you are a real person and you make real music, you're going to get a really good run with it. If you're trendy, it's going to fade because then your white sunglasses get corny because everybody's wearing purple ones.
What inspires your art?
I came from a single-parent household. My mom had an addiction to drugs. My father left when I was about two years old. I don't remember him outside of pictures. And that's a story that a lot of people can relate to. I think it's my thought process - the way that I address real issues - that makes my fans root for me. I'm an underdog. I'm the voice of underdogs. A lot of my songs are pain driven because of the struggles that I've had in my life - from my mom being addicted to drugs to me not going away to school to stay home
and try to save her life; and at the same time I ended up hustling the very things that she was addicted to. So I sold my soul to make ends meet and that's why I don't praise them. I don't praise hustling; I don't praise drugs; because I come from that. I'm a product of that. I'm a product of what dudes sold my
mother - and of mistakes that I ended up making for myself. So, I may not make the happiest records, but I make the realest. That's why I gain the realest fans.
What legacy do you want to leave behind?
Me being Latino, there's still a wall up that I want to chip away at - and that's the "nice for a Spanish rapper" wall. I'm tired of that title. I'm tired of being pinned down by my ethnicity. I need people to
understand that Latinos were here in the beginning of hip-hop also. If you look at all of the old footage, we were there rhyming, break-dancing, embracing the culture. So why do I have to be categorized? Why do I have to be the hottest Latin rapper to then slide into the category with the rest of the rappers? I don't
like that. My goal is to be the dude they name when they talk about who abolished the title of a Latin Hip-Hop artist.
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