9th Ward
Album : I Ain’t Looking Back
Release Date : TBA, 2009

review :

Time to change the game.

Time to put 9th Ward on the map.

The game is street hip hop and the artist is 9th Ward : a ghetto-hustling poet, a Mardi Gras party-starter, a junkyard ladies man and a post-modern gangsta for a new era.

"My New Orleans roots are all over me," the artist himself drawls. "New Orleans is an artistic town, from the music to the food to the way we walk the streets. I want my words to expose that. Like the big albums from Pac and Jay.it’s not about the beats or the samples or who’s guestin’. It’s about the truth. It’s about being myself. My lyrics are my true testimony, my life. The album is the true reflection of the way it is in 9th Ward."

While some will compare his debut to Tupac’s All Eyez on Me or Jay-Z’s The Blueprint, it’s perhaps Biggie’s Ready To Die and Illmatic from Nas that ring truest. This is an album that comes along once every decade where an instant classic is born—not just for the music, but for the artist who creates it.

"I don’t just think the album’s gonna change the game," states So So Def chief and 9th Ward mentor Jermaine Dupri, "I know it is." That’s how much faith the legendary producer has in Jamaal Williams aka 9th Ward.

Born and raised in the under-city New Orleans parish that is his namesake, 9th Ward is the trouble-making middle child of two musical parents struggling to get by. "It was just one of those 70’s houses growin’ up," the artist remembers. "Drinkin’ and smokin’ and partyin’ every weekend. Listening to Frankie Beverly and Maze like a music-head. Riding around town in my daddy’s VW bug with the Rolls Royce grill, listening to old school joints by the Temps and EWF on the 8-track. That’s what I knew."

Then came hip-hop.

"What really hit me first was NWA and them Easy-E bootlegs. I identified with the message inside the music.the message that not everything was parties and bullshit. They were talkin’ ’bout America in the streets.what I was seein’ where I came up."

By 1997, senior year of high school, Gucci-the street name given to 9th Ward by his best friend Kaper-knew academics weren’t his thing. However he was going to make it, he wasn’t going the square route. "My older brother was a star drum major and my younger sister an honor student. Where that left me, I don’t know. I had a 0.33 GPA. I knew I was smart, but I just couldn’t get with school."

Instead, 9th Ward went on the grind. "I worked square jobs. I rolled dough at a cookie shop at the mall and could always get paid ’cause I was good at it. But eight times outta ten, I was in the street, workin’ all the angles to pay the bills. Wasn’t no rap back then, just hustlin’. I had my own place, bought a whip off the showroom floor and was poppin’ bottles in the clubs. I was Gucci from 9th Ward. Life was good."

Fate stepped in 2002 when his best friend Kaper, after being shot, was left in a wheelchair.

"Kaper was my partner. I looked up to him. Whatever he could do, I could do. When he wanted to spit, I wanted to spit. When he wanted to jack, I wanted to jack. I don’t claim to be a born rapper. I wasn’t some industry playa who woke up every day writing rhymes and pushing demos. I woke up every day saying, ’How I’m gonna get this money ?’

"But when Kaper changed, I changed. He knew he had a choice-he could go on a negative revenge trip or take his truth and go positive. When he started writing and laying tracks, I started writing and laying tracks. But when you’re in the streets with a day job, you’re just playin’ with the music. If you’re not paying bills, rap’s just a hobby. But it turned out that I was extremely good at puttin’ it down. So me and my little homie Joe bought a studio and started on a mission. At first, it was just a place to lollygag and get faded while we expressed what we were livin’ in the ’hood. Back then I was just clownin’ and droppin’ inside jokes that only made sense if you knew me. But after Katrina, all that changed."

Katrina turned an underclass neighborhood into the same wasteland that was the Bronx of the 1970’s. In the painful process, Katrina forged an important new artist.

After spending two months on the floor of a Red Cross shelter in Baton Rouge, 9th Ward saw the writing on the wall. "I was just sittin’ around, waiting for someone to give me some clean drawers and socks. Wasn’t nothin’ to do.and was no tellin’ when we could get back home."

With a carload of studio equipment, a handful of demos and a name, 9th Ward headed east to get back on his feet.

"I just went straight to Atlanta. The minute I arrived, it was black Hollywood in my eyes."

After several months on the Atlanta scene and more than a little positive word-of-mouth as a talented rhymer, 9th Ward met Chadron Moore, better known as super-producer Nitti, whose instrumental work on Yung Joc’s "It’s Goin’ Down" earned the beatmaker A-list status.

"When I’d tell people I was from New Orleans," says 9th, "they’d feel sorry for me. But I didn’t need their pity. My demo spoke for itself. It was real easy reachin’ out to Nitti who kept an open ear to my songs, but I didn’t expect much. Seven months later I was trying to back on my feet down in New Orleans when I saw Nitti on BET, sayin’ he’s working with a new rapper named 9th Ward. I said, ’Wow, that’s me !’

"I jumped up and ran back to Atlanta. When Nitti asked me for a couple more songs, I knocked out fifteen. He was like, ’Damn, this dude work that fast ?’ Then J.D. and Def Jam stepped up, and it was on."

When asked how he would characterize himself as an artist, 9th Ward doesn’t hesitate :

"The rhymes I write are 100% gangsta, but not like Fifty or Snoop or Game. In this post-Katrina day and age, ’gangsta’ to me means finding a strategy for survival. Means finding a way to get in where you fit in, even when you lose everything."

It’s the essence of how 9th Ward expresses his musical identity :

A rugged individualist who writes his own music and sees himself as a new school G with a cultural heritage and an artistic edge.

"All the major people down here are from uptown New Orleans," 9th explains. "Ain’t nobody comin’ from where I’m comin’ from. If you’re a real 9th Ward dude, you’re thorough.

"And just like my ’hood, the album is thorough. If I drop ten tracks, ten gonna connect. I’m not playin’ to be a one-hit wonder, I’m in the game to release an album full of hits, something everybody can eat."

"That’s how it’s gonna change the game," Dupri concludes. "An album like this makes everyone else rethink that they gotta have solid joints from beginning to end."

The promise is kept with the swaggering high-life anthem "Add Me Up," just one of the tracks that seamlessly blends 9th Ward’s fresh lyrical talents with his seasoned playmakers’ skills.

"Whether we telling a story with joints like ’Walk With Me’ or layin’ down the drums and chants like we do down here with ’Make-a-Way,’" says 9th, "the whole thing’s gonna have an east coast style, a west coast style and of course, a New Orleans style."

"The point is, the album’s gonna be bangin’. I don’t know how else to say it. Anything beyond that, I’ll just let the music tell the story by itself. That’s how it’s always been with the 9th Ward. And it’ll never change."

Track listing

1. Intro
2. You Can’t Compare Me
3. Big Chief
4. Chopper
5. I Got Money Now
6. Supermodel
7. Grindmode
8. Don’t Make Me None
9. Secret Lovers
10. The Streets
11. U Ain’t Gangsta
12. Add Me Up featuring Jermaine Dupri & Nitti
13. Drown My City
14. Like Me featuring Nitti
15. I Ain’t Looking Back

No profanity, or inaproppriate remarks.

9th Ward I Ain’t Looking Back, by youth nfl jerseys [2009-11-03 01:40:50]

nfl jersey nfl youth jerseys mark sanchez nfl nfl football rolex oyster rolex replica best rolex air king youth nfl jerseys Houston Texans newborn nfl jerseys top 10 swiss watches mens watches quartz watches new jersey mlb throwback jerseys women watches rolex replica best throwback football gold watches iwc watches

9th Ward I Ain’t Looking Back, by Jwill [2009-10-30 19:02:11]

your music is always banging.Keep School G alive. Peace !! Playtime2yk

9th Ward I Ain’t Looking Back, by Mini GHD [2009-10-21 23:23:12]

buy ghd hair straighteners,you can go to a specialGHD sale site,there you will find many kinds of hair straighteners,such as ghd,chi,and Mini GHD.

9th Ward I Ain’t Looking Back, by timberland shoes [2009-10-21 23:22:49]

Are you considering buying a ugg boots ? Admittedly, the most popular items UGG Boots is everyone’s wish list on this Christmas shopping season. This means that UGG Australia are selling crazy. Many shops in the operation of the Internet is boots ugg. Whether its last year the style or new versions of ugg shoes, and sold out. For some ugg boots lovers, the only alternative is for the online auction site to get a Cheap UGG Cardy.UGG Boots Sale very well,you can search UGG UK in google uk site.Cheap UGG Cardy is best ugg sale on UGG UK site. timberland boots also is a hot products,many people buy timberland shoes for work,so we also call it work boots.

9th Ward I Ain’t Looking Back, by supra Shoes [2009-10-21 23:22:27]

i want to introduce some hot sale sport shoes,such as nike air max shoes,nba shoes,nike air force,Supra Shoes,Dunk Shoesbape shoes,puma shoes,these shoes are very popular in America,and the supra Shoes sale best in Uk.

9th Ward I Ain’t Looking Back, by bose headphones [2009-10-21 23:21:55]

oh,the bose headphones is a very good brand of the headphone.We also can call it Bose on ear.Use bose headphones to listen music,you will feel very well.

9th Ward I Ain’t Looking Back, by GHD Hair Straighteners [2009-10-21 23:21:33]

the other shoes, timberland boots also sale well,Timberland boots is a work waterproof boots.and the girls always have many colors of GHD Hair Straighteners,GHD straigteners can make different hairstyle.So many boyfriend buy the GHD Hair Straighteners send to the girl as the gift.

9th Ward I Ain’t Looking Back, by Ugg Australia [2009-10-21 23:21:05]

Ugg Australia is more popular now,many website sale the Ugg shoes,and they often says : Discount Ugg Boots,ugg sale,Uggs On sale,Ugg Australia,this word all can attract the customers. In ugg uk,the Ugg Boots UK is as popular as Ugg Australia.

9th Ward I Ain’t Looking Back, by Adicolor Shoes [2009-10-21 23:20:39]

Nowadays,with the vigorous development of Internet, e-commerce is also rapidly emerging.Network more and more variety of Internet Direct Sale,such as the UGG Boots, Bose Headphones,Nike Air Max,Adicolor Shoes,Lacoste Shoes,ipod bose and so on.