Unsigned Hype: J Rock

Before Jay Rock and J. Rocc came J Rock, the fourth artist to appear in The Source magazine's Unsigned Hype column. Appearing in the December 1990 issue, J Rock was "one of the best unsigned MCs" that The Source had "heard in a while" with his "tape jam packed with dope rhymes". Even with his lyrics being "simple, straightforward boasting", "attitude is 90% of the sound" and "combines a confident Lord Finesse style of rhyme with solid production". The Source summarise their opinion on J Rock's tape by saying that "this is the type of shit you'd hear at a battle in the playground, and this is the type of MC that might walk away with the belt."

Although not mentioned in the Unsigned Hype column, J Rock had already released a single titled "Chosen One" in 1990 on Ghetto Groovz Records. The following year, J Rock released his debut album Streetwize again on Ghetto Groovz. Two songs were released as singles with music videos: "Drug Dealer" and "Save the Children". The album would be his only full-length release.

Streetwize is nineteen tracks long and almost completely produced by J Rock himself. This makes Streetwize one of the first hip hop solo albums to be predominantly produced by the artist themselves. However, perhaps the most interesting thing about the album is in regards to the tracks not produced by J, which are instead produced by Easy Mo Bee and DJ Premier. Easy Mo Bee, who produces "Let Me Introduce Myself" and "Get Rek", was early in his career but had already produced for Big Daddy Kane, GZA (then The Genius) and RZA (then Prince Rakeem). Premier was even earlier in his career. Only one year removed from Step in the Arena, Premier had not become one of hip hop's heavyweight producers and had only produced for Lord Finesse, Branford Marsalis Quartet, Cookie Crew, Kool DJ Red Alert, Wendy & Lisa and Gang Starr prior to his involvement on Streetwize (a resume that would grow to a much larger size in only a few years). He produces the songs "Brutality", "The Pimp", "Ghetto Law" and "The Real One". A 2007 repressing of the album is released with a booklet that states J Rock learned how to produce by watching Premier.

Streetwize has become somewhat of a gem in the underground hip hop world recently. It was the subject of a 2006 Wax Poetics article and received a CD repressing by Ghetto Groovz in 2007. According to the comment section in a Cocaine Blunts article on J Rock, people had apparently forgotten about this album until it was uncovered again by CB. The Big Sleep posted a huge collection of J Rock resources on the Philaflava forums in 2010, but every link on it except to Discogs comes up dead. J Rock's website, which existed up until 2011, seemed to be the most comprehensive source of information on him, but all of its articles no longer exist except for its main page that can be accessed through Wayback Machine. I cannot find any information on J Rock's career after 1991, but I am thinking that the Wax Poetics article and the website contents had some clues. If anybody has any information or pictures on J Rock, hit me up.

Discography
J Rock - Streetwize (1991)
1. "Let Me Introduce Myself"
2. "Segment One: Under Arrest"
3. "Streetwize"
4. "Brutality"
5. "The Pimp"
6. "The Shakedown"
7. "Neighborhood Drug Dealer"
8. "Don't Sleep on Me"
9. "Root of All Evil"
10. "The Messiah"
11. "Ghetto Law"
12. "Segment Two: Street Scene"
13. "Around My Way"
14. "The Real One"
15. "Another Tough Guy"
16. "Segment Three: Dead"
17. "Save the Children"
18. "Cazanova"
19. "Let's Get It Together"