Jay-Von
Houston, Texas, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2015 | INDIE | AFM
Music
Press
Jay-Von has spent the last year or so eating other people’s beats with a certain finesse and panache. Anyone can make a “jackin’ for beats”-type tape. The Mo. City emcee took it one step further, dropping not one but TWO tapes under the “F*ck A Freestyle” banner as a pre-cursor of sorts to his upcoming F*ck A EP project. But when you’re from Houston, you know everything sounds better slowed down.
A month and some change removed from his sit-down interview with Day & A Dream EIC Brandon Caldwell, Jay-Von has enlisted the help of DJ AudiTory – aka that Chop Theory guy aka the guy whose C&S version of A Seat At The Table got spotlighted by the Houston Chronicle – to chop up his recent tape. As Vonzilla himself put it, AudiTory “poured a Texas-size cup of lean” over F*ck A Freestyle.” The result? Screw A Freestyle, which adds an entire new dimension to Relli and DJ MoSama’s beats. The mixtape is the two’s second collaboration for the year, following Vonzilla and Tory’s LuvItMane LIVE! project.
Yes, of course, Houston natives will immediately rush to play the C&S “Whoa Freestyle” and “C&S Oochie Wally Freestyle,” neither of which will let you down (DJ AudiTory’s slowed-down version of the former seems to channel the instrumental of Z-Ro’s “In My City” as a nice bonus). But there are other reasons to enjoy Screw A Freestyle, too. The chopped & screwed kick-off track “Who Shot Ya Freestyle” kicks in the door even more than the “C&S Kick N Da Doe Freestyle” does. The purple version of “Comedy Central Freestyle” is an absolute trunk thumper; the C&S “What Happened to That Boy” makes the beat even smoother and, as a result, Von’s voice even more raw; and “Grand Theft AudiTory” slowed-down would make DJ Screw smile down from heaven. Von even tucks a C&S version of his take on the “So Gone Challenge” social media phenomenon into the tracklist. - Bradford J. Howard
Jay-Von, “Swangin N Bangin”
Every Friday (or Saturday, in some cases), Jay-Von has dug into the vault of beats that he hasn’t already rapped on, from high school to now, and flexed on them. “Swangin N Bangin” is one of three recent tracks that have lifted E.S.G.’s 1995 seminal classic. Unlike the other two, Von name-drops the Dead End Alliance and mimics the original’s voice. It even earned a co-sign from Cedric Sosa himself. - Brandon Caldwell
JUST BEFORE OPENING UP THE HOUSTON TREND COLD SUMMER JAM WITH A MEAN SET, JAY-VON RELEASED HIS FUCK A FREESTYLE MIXTAPE. THE MIXTAPE IS A COLLECTIVE OF FREESTYLES HE DROPPED DURING HIS FUCK A FREESTYLE FRIDAY SERIES. MURDERING CLASSIC BEAT AFTER BEAT EVERY WEEK JAY-VON HAD THE INTERNET BUZZING. DESTROYING EVERYTHING TOTAL'S CAN'T YOU SEE(MY FAVORITE ONE BY THE WAY) TO E.S.G.'S SWANGIN AND BANGIN. TO TOP IT OFF HE GRABS SOME OF HOUSTON COLDEST UP AND COMERS TO PERFORM A LYRICAL EXERCISE ON I SHOT YA. CHECK OUT THE MIXTAPE NOW AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE FREE DOWNLOAD LINK!!! - DJ Wilson
Discography
11 P.M. (Mixtape) 2010
Hooked On Vonxix w/Yphoenxix (Album) 2012
FYSMDALA (Mixtape) 2012
Fuck a Freestyle (Mixtape) 2016
Fuck U II (Mixtape) 2016
Photos
Bio
During middle school, like most, Jay-Von went through several phases in his life. Throughout these phases the one thing that stood the test of time was music. The many things that didn't were stage names, from Optimus Prime to B.K. (which many thought stood for its origin Brooklyn but really stood for Battle Kat) no name really stuck. The name B.K. was given to him by someone in an AOL Chatroom for rappers due to his then battle style of rapping. So intrigued with the Internet, Jay-Von at age 12 would go on to create his own website, "Flame Flows". It was a forum that attracted rappers from Pittsburgh to New York, Chicago, California, and even his hometown Texas. Sharpening his skills online against people twice his age made him a force to be reckoned with at school. By the time he was in the eighth grade he was becoming a household name. This warranted the young lad to change his name to something more broad. This type of thinking was also brought on by an older battle rapper that gave a young Jovon great advice, "yo son, you one of da illest cats on here (the internet) but yo you never gon get beyond here if you can't make songs and I done seen you post songs and they still sound like you battlin." This made Jovon practice more on choruses and song structure and along with that came a name change. After watching a Jay-Z interview and hearing the story of how Jay-Z's name derives from fellow Brooklyn rapper Jaz-O, Jovon looking towards Jay-Z as a mentor, (similar to how Jay-Z saw Jaz-O) decided to put the same spin on his birth name. The first letter of his name was spelled out, the O was taken out and replaced with a hyphen. Jovon at that moment became Jay-Von. All throughout high school in Missouri City, Jay-Von would battle, cypher at lunches, and perform in the school's talent shows. During this time, Jay-Von had a war of words with now platinum producer, Chill. This situation got so heated that it went beyond a normal face to face battle and diss records were actually recorded at the same studio, "Tha Chamber". After his mild success in high school, Jay-Von continued to make music and in 2010 he released his first independent mixtape, "11 P.M."
Band Members
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