J Stalin is an artist, rapper, entertainer who was born in raised in the streets of West Oakland, and has single handedly built a name for himself through his own Livewire Records Label.He was scouted by Richie Rich, a gold selling rapper who appeared on songs with Tupac. He released young Stalin on his mixtape and major release nixon pryor roundtree. From there he released The Early Morning Shift with Bay Area Mixtape Kings Demolition Men. He garnered much attention from local rap fans, DJ's, and has since then released his debut album On Behalf of The Streets.On Behalf of The Streets garnered much radio success with Clearchannel radio 106.1 kmel which put songs 808, thats my name, and banga dance on the regular radio rotation. After much shows and a remix to the hit single banga dance which includes Bay Area veterens San Quinn and King of Hyphy Keak Da Sneak. He has remained on rasputins top 50 albums of the year.
J. Stalin, real name Jovan Smith, is a rap musician from the Cypress Village housing projects in West Oakland. In 2007, he signed to Zoo Entertainment Production Company run by artist Mekanix, who described his style as a variant of Hyphy known as "Go". He is also the Owner of Livewire Records, President of Town Thizzness ENT, which is a sub-division of the late Mac Dre's Thizz ENT.
J. Stalin claims in an interview that he was born into poverty and earned money as a child by selling candy bars on the BART trains. Around age 13, he began recording and selling rap music. A member of Oakland's hyphy culture, he is described by a local magazine as a "rapper and sideshow participant".
Although young and boyish-looking, J. Stalin adopted a tough rapper persona. He references Joseph Stalin in his stage name because they shared the same initials, and "he was short like me, but he was always smashin' on everybody." In a recent interview he remarked about his home and lifestyle, "This is West Oakland, man. This is the bottoms right here." He went on to say that the crime rate in his neighborhood was so high, the city had remodeled the housing units in his housing project to remove the back doors so that criminals could not escape from home raids by the police.
J. Stalin's first widely released performances arose when a DJ Daryl, a local recording studio owner, placed him on a track he was recording. A colleague of Daryl's, Richie Rich, was impressed enough to put J. Stalin on three tracks in his 2002 album Nixon Pryor Roundtree album and two more as a member of Rich's group, the Replacement Killers. He later recorded and performed with artists such as G-Stack, Beeda Weeda of the Hieroglyphics collective, Keak Da Sneak and San Quinn, E-40, The Luniz, The Team, The Frontline, Mob Figaz, Yukmouth, Numskull, Shock G, and others. As of 2006 he had released roughly 7 mixtapes and had four releases scheduled for 2007.[1] Mekanix and Zoo Entertainment released "On Behalf of the Streets" in early May 2007. J. Stalin is the President of Town Thizzness, and the owner of Livewire Records. He is also the front man in his group, Livewire Da Gang. The Livewire Gang consists of many artists from various neighborhoods in North, East, and West Oakland. Some of these artists include, Shady Nate, Jay Jonah, Philthy Rich, Stevie Joe, Lil Rue, Lil Blood, Ruben Stunner, R.O.B., Ronald Mack, Kiwi, HD, Major D, and Mayback.