J Soulja

One Liner: Local rapper with a great flow and an excellent attitude about growing rap in the city.

Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but rap and hip hop
Home:  Austin

Poster Position: not on the poster
Weekend Two Only. Saturday.

Thoughts:  When I read the man's name on the poster, I literally said out loud "this'll be terrible."  It is better than expected, even if his rap name is lame.  And on top of that, he seems to be a legitimately good dude trying to make the Austin hip hop scene better.

"If you weren't paying attention, you might not grasp the degree of difficulty in J Soulja's sacrificial juggling act, striving to progress his own rap career while also carving out opportunities for his peers in a town still lacking a solid hip-hop infrastructure. The impassioned creative's monthly Pre-Roll open mic showcase at Flamingo Cantina has been running since July. The Smoke Out, his main concert series that's become his signature as a promoter, finally makes its return on March 19 as an official South by Southwest 2022 showcase. His 32-artist, March Madness-style, single elimination contest: the Smoke Out ATX Tournament – culminating in a local hip-hop act getting a SXSW slot – reemerges next month, COVID permitting. And Six Square, an organization working to preserve the Eastside's cultural legacy, made him its director of cultural and artistic liberation last year."

But check out the other wild story in this Chronicle piece.  He was a janitor at some Austin Community College campuses, working all day and then heading to the studio at night, while raising a son on his own.  And a friend suggested that he apply to be a Swisher Sweets ambassador.  He got the spot and received a big check and a flight out to L.A.  he then used the funds he got from that relationship to start his local showcases and try to benefit the rap community overall.  Very cool.  He's also brash, saying that he can outrap anyone, because he has put in his 10,000 hours.

Good number of albums - 2018's IIISzn, 2019's Sumthin' Light, 2020's From the Soul, 2020's This Ain't Shxt, 2021's Soulja Szn, and 2021's More Than Nothing.  Not much in the way of Spotify streams, but he honestly has a really good flow.  Top track is "ROOF" from this newest album.

First off, check that beat that has some originality and musicianship.  Not just a straight free track from a website, that has some funk sample flavor.  "NEED MINE" kind of has J Cole vibes.  "Rare Form" has some ominous darkness to it.  All of his top ten songs are from that most recent disc (even when eight of the ten have no recorded stream numbers), but 2019's Sumthin' Light has a track with 2k streams called "CC," so I'll chow you that one.  This video, inexplicably, claimed to have zero views before I just fired it up and gave it 1 view.  Which is really odd.  Even the person who uploaded it didn't watch one time to make sure it loaded?

I'm digging this guy.  I still think his rapper name is jenky, but he takes solid beats and rolls over the top of them.  I kept listening to these tunes over the weekend long after I needed to, and while he's not the next coming of Biggie or anything, he's nice.  Sure as hell better than the Lil Durk guy who somehow is on the top of the poster.