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| J.Nolan- 19 year-old Jamar Nolan is a hip-hop artist and currently resides in Stone Mountain, Georgia. He is originally from New Haven, Connecticut and moved to Georgia for the first time at age 4 and left for California shortly after that. Issues between J's parents had him and his mother moving back and forth between Atlanta and Cali up until around the age of 9 when they finally settled in the College Park area of Atlanta. His CT. roots introduced him to hip-hop at a very young age in a region that was running the culture at the time. J.Nolan's time spent in California was the precedent for his preppy-type style that he implements into his music. He's always been an avid reader. Once he moved to Atlanta, he always had the feeling that he was a bit more advanced than his peers....And rightfully so. J.Nolan wrote his first "rap verse" in the 4th grade. His older brother who was 5 years older had been rapping at the time and encouraged him to try his hand at writing lyrics. That would be the first and last verse he'd write for the next 4 years. Right before Nolan started high school he suffered a broken leg while playing basketball where he was tripped out of mid-air while attempting a layup. He would be out of commission for 3 months of summer and the video games were beginning to bore him. The only alternative was music. J started writing lyrics to the beats of his favorite songs and noticed that it came to him naturally. When school came back around, he surprised everyone with a full notebook with nothing but lyrics in it. That was in 2003. It wasn't until 2005 that he would start taking the music seriously and creating a vision for his future. Freestyling around the way with fellow MC's in the area had already become a daily routine and it was time to get focused on making some actual recordings. Nolan and his best friend(Osiris>The Prophet) linked up and created the name Manifest as their group. They would download instrumentals and lay down their ideas on a tape recorder everyday after school just to let family and friends hear them. Later on that year, J.Nolan's cousin Yung B Da Producer was added into the group and they began recording at a friend's home recording studio which was really a closet, but they treated it like it was a top of the line setup. After a while of recording numerous songs on his own as well, Nolan decided to drop a solo mixtape entitled "Files of a Young Pharoah" for the people in his local area at the time.(Riverdale, GA.) In December of '06 the group recieved a call from someone at Def Jam Records who seemed to be showing interest in them. Unfortunately, nothing ever transpired from it. By 2007, J.Nolan had already done 6 mixtapes and was still working on more material. After graduating high school J.Nolan and Yung B decided that they would officially go all out with the music for better or worse. Alongside fellow MC and long-time friend Mac Morrison,they would go to Downtown Atlanta everyday and pass out their mixtapes to anyone who would take them. On Saturdays they would visit the studios of Hot 107.9 FM where they would end up meeting DJ Drama and Don Cannon(The Apphiliates). The 2 already had a successful "Gangsta Grillz Radio" show that was generating a buzz in the city so he passed them both a copy of his [Great Expectations] mixtape that was out at the time. He recieved a call from Don Cannon the next day looking for more material. For a month straight J.Nolan, Yung B, and Mac Morrison would go back in hopes of landing a placement on the show with no luck. Eventually, J.Nolan grew weary of the situation and went back to feeding the streets with new music on his own. He released another 5 mixtapes and put them online to capitalize off of the emergence of digital media. The titles of the mixtapes are " Soul Caliber", "Soul Caliber vol.2" , "Most Anticipated", "J.Nolan, The Investor", and "Soul Circuit". They can all be found on datpiff.com just type in J.Nolan in the search portion...He also did a myspace exclusive project with Yung B Da Producer called "The Up-Bringing". It was looked upon as a mini-Blueprint and the fan response has them in talks of doing a part 2 some time this year. One particular song from the project, "Soul Brother Number 1" was played many times on the Young Fresh and Mike B "The Cool" Radio Show on 107.3 WICB in Chicago. The online broadcast was held on beonair.com every Thursday from 8pm to 10pm. J.Nolan's song "Saturday Night Fever" was an instant favorite on the station and became the number 1 song on their unsigned artist countdown for 3 weeks straight. It was dethroned on the 4th week but the following week it was number 1 once again. "Saturday Night Fever" is featured on J.Nolan's newest mixtape [Fresh Produce]. It was released on June 10th, 2008. It is his first real studio project and is hosted by D.Jae Roots. [Fresh Produce] is 100% original, featuring production from various underground producers that provide a very soulful backdrop to Nolan's witty and heartfelt lyrics. J.Nolan plans to take his music and artistry to the next level with the [Fresh Produce] mixtape with hopes of gaining some major recognition from industry reps for that deal he's always dreamed of. His main goal is to take the hip-hop culture and put it on his back as the leader of the next generation and try to bring a more positive outlook to those that are less familiar with more well-rounded rap music. His vision is lightyears ahead of his peers that are in the same age range. Nolan would like people to recognize that there are intelligent young people and plans to bridge the generational gap between adolescents of today and those of an older crowd as well. His true to life lyrics and blue collar persona are tailor-made for anyone that listens to music for more than a cheap thrill. Life experiences are the inspiration to his words, which makes it very easy to relate with him regardless of age. It's evident that J.Nolan is in it for longevity and plans to be around as long as there is an audience to cater to. |
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Good music:
Jay-Z, Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, MF Doom, Little Brother and many others
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