Jayo Felony

In The Trenches
Treacherous / Universal

July 12, 2005

As hip-hop continues expanding across the globe, it has moved away from its birthplace: the streets. Lyrical visionary Jayo Felony has seen this shift and with In The Trenches, his eagerly anticipated fourth album and his first on upstart Treacherous Records, the San Diego rap legend returns rap to the streets.
"I'm talking about being in the hood," Jayo explains of his new album. "I'm giving it up for the real ones and representing where they're from. There's trenches and hoods all across the world, so it's something that everybody can relate to and get into. It's about the trenches that you represent and I'm letting you know what trenches I represent."

With innovative bone-crushing production from Mobb Deep?s Havoc, Jellyroll (Snoop Dogg), long-time Jayo Felony collaborator DJ Silk (of "Whatcha Gonna Do" and "Hotter Than Fish Grease" fame) and others, In The Trenches delivers a relentless onslaught of lyric and sonic fury.

Jayo Felony delivers an imaginative flow on the rapid-paced "1, 2, 3." The future club smash showcases Jayo rhyming over a catchy beat about his lyrical proficiency. "It's an up-tempo record and you wouldn't know where I was from when you hear that record," he says. "You can't tie me down to one region. It?s a record that everybody can get into. The beat, it's a way-out track. The pattern that I'm rapping in complements the track. I'm rapping with the keys, so it's a nice combination. It's kind of different, not the average song. Everybody kind of sounds the same out here on the West, so it's just coming out with something different, a different feel and look."

Jayo then returns to his hard-core roots on the blistering "Cops Ain't Shit." The searing song features Jayo talking about the stress many Americans feel when dealing with the police. "I'm talking about being on probation or parole and the powers that be don't understand what a person goes through in day-to-day living in that type of world," he says. "You can just smoke weed and they'll want you to be in a halfway house with crackheads, heroin addicts and shit, motherfuckers you really can't relate to. I'm talking about something that people really feel on a day-to-day basis. No matter what type of life you lead, you always run into some asshole cops here and there."

Elsewhere, Jayo shows his comedic side on the hilarious "Fake Pimps," a cut in which he blasts fraudulent players. He then delivers a strip club anthem with "Can't Sit All The Way Down On It" and offers a Dirty South banger with "Wide Awake." But it is Jayo's stunning lyrical ability that separates him from other rappers. For fans of Jayo Felony the lyrical sniper, "Rap Scrap Blast" displays his uncanny rhyming ability and "100 Bars" features Jayo flowing for five minutes straight.

Indeed, In The Trenches marks a tremendous creative growth since Jayo's most recent album, 2001's explosive Crip Hop. It was an album that featured Jayo dissing several prominent rappers, including Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z. "When I made the Crip Hop album, I was getting a lot off my chest," Jayo explains. "I wasn?t even tripping on who I was pleasing. It was just letting it be known how I'm feeling. Now, I'm past that, having fun with it and making good music. I?m real happy about In The Trenches. I've got a lot of hot records on this one album. You ain't going to have to fast-forward or none of that. It's an all-the-way-through type of album."

Jayo Felony has been building up to the masterful artistry he achieves on In The Trenches for his entire career. Signed by the late Jam Master Jay to his JMJ Records (which had a deal with industry powerhouse Def Jam), Jayo landed spots on the critically acclaimed Jason's Lyric soundtrack in 1994 and on the platinum-plus The Show soundtrack less than a year later. Not bad for an artist without his own album.

Jayo's first two albums, 1995's Take A Ride and 1998's Whatcha Gonna Do, became West Coast favorites and his smash "Whatcha Gonna Do" single also featured Jayo's Def Jam labelmates DMX and Method Man. As an in-demand guest, Jayo appeared on albums from LL Cool J, Scarface, Ja Rule, Above The Law, E-40 and Snoop Dogg Presents Tha Eastsidaz.
After falling out with Def Jam, Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z, Jayo went the independent route and in 2001 released Crip Hop. He wanted to get things off his chest and keep his name in the marketplace. The album sold more than 40,000 units, impressive numbers for an independent release.

"Since then, I've just been out here hustling, doing my thing, getting on people's projects, making it happen, working and staying in the studio making new music," he says. "I never stopped working and making new music. I was just waiting for the right opportunity to come along, not rushing into nothing knowing that my lyrics weren't going anywhere and that I was just going to get better and better as I study and practice. I knew I was going to get better with my craft. It was just waiting for the right opportunity to come along where people weren't scared to deal with me and thinking I'm some hot head that just disses everybody, which ain't true. I feel anybody I dissed, I had reason and logic to it. Everybody else can say otherwise, but I know the truth. I was just waiting for the right opportunity to come along and I feel it has."

With Treacherous Records fully committed to making Jayo Felony a rap superstar, In The Trenches is shaping up to be one of the best and the most popular rap albums of 2005.

"I've got a mission to prove myself to the people about how talented I really am," Jayo says.  "Not just about music, but with the movies I'm about to start doing and the business things I'm putting together.  I will prove that I'm one of the best rappers that ever lived.  I know for a fact that before it's all said and done, I will be up in the Hip-Hop Hall Of Fame as one of the best. Period."

For now, you can find Jayo Felony In The Trenches.


Fore more info visit www.treacherousrecords.com