Biography
There’s a long list of Hip-Hop artist coming out of California, but none quite have the lyricism, work ethic, musicality and ability to tell a story like Hawdwerk and Jansport J. With fitting stage names, the duo coming out of West Covina, California consist of an emcee-Hawdwerk and Producer Jansport J.
Both discovered music at a young age---Hawdwerk, was raised on soul and R&B music initially but after hearing DJ Quik’s “Tonight,” hip-hop captured his interest. Hawdwerk began rapping at the young age of 9, where he wrote his first song about forest animals, had his first concert at Outdoor Science Camp and freestyled about a kid who he didn’t like.
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Jansport J, discovered hip-hop music, when he was younger, listening to: NWA, EPMD, A Tribe Called Quest and Luke with his older sister. The straightforward, realistic representation of the artist’s words and views inspired him to begin his life of hip-hop. First, Jansport J was an emcee, writing rhymes in his high school class, citing Jay-Z’s The Blueprint and Jurassic 5’s Quality Control, as his lyrical inspiration. Through his days of rhyming with a friend who acquired production programs, Jansport J, started producing---a dream of his after hearing the 1997 release of Timbaland’s Life in Da Bassment album.
After doing several tracks together, the duo decided that doing an album together would be dope, birthing High Power Moves ---which will be dropping November 10th. With the positive reception from released songs, “High Power Moves,” “Wow” “That Spliff “ ft Poetick Force and El Prez, and “She Smiles” featuring J7, the project has high expectations. Being a collaborative album featuring Hawdwerk as lead emcee and Jansport J as lead producer, the album is a refreshingly different sound then the current music today. Keeping to form, the album will feature what makes the duo stand out, and that’s an original West Coast sound, that was overshadowed by Gangster Rap of the 90’s ---meaning dope bars from Hawdwerk, and an unique production sound from Jansport J.
The duo plans to work on more music in the future; this is just an opener, and stay tuned to the musical journey that they plan to lay out in the future.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.