Brooklyn-born rapper Joell Ortiz has earned much respect throughout the hip-hop scene, receiving critical acclaim with his many albums and mixtapes in addition to achieving mainstream success as part of the supergroup Slaughterhouse. He is renowned for his tireless work ethic, and his strong narrative skills and freestyling abilities. Making his proper debut with The Brick: Bodega Chronicles (2007) following years of underground buzz, his commercial visibility increased when he co-founded Slaughterhouse; their album Welcome To: Our House (2012) reached number two on the Billboard 200. Ortiz continued putting out well-received solo material, including House Slippers (2014), Monday (2019), and Autograph (2021). Concurrent duo projects such as Human (with !llmind) and Mona Lisa (with Apollo Brown) have further reinforced his high underground standing. He has recorded several albums with former Slaughterhouse bandmate Kxng Crooked, including Rise & Fall of Slaughterhouse (2022) and Prosper (2023). A dedicated and accomplished student in his early years, and always a person to whom language came easily, Ortiz was an impressive rapper by his early teens. As he reached high school, family strife and his urban environment took his attention from his studies and rap career to street life and the drug trade. After a short time, however, Ortiz turned his attentions back to his life-affirming pursuit of excellence in his music. Thanks to his natural talent and serious work ethics, opportunity soon found Ortiz, and he started to gain recognition. An appearance in The Source magazine and winning Chairman's Choice from XXL magazine earned Ortiz credibility and buzz that resulted in his appearance on the NBA Live 2005 soundtrack. Jermaine Dupri's So So Def label offered Ortiz a contract that year, a deal which quickly went sour, creating bad blood between Ortiz and one of the industry's most powerful players. He then signed with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment, but didn't end up releasing anything on it. Instead, his 2007 debut, The Brick: Bodega Chronicles, appeared on Koch Records, and he left Aftermath a year later. In 2008, Ortiz collaborated with Crooked I, Royce da 5'9", and Joe Budden on a song called "Slaughterhouse," which appeared on Budden's Halfway House. The four MCs then decided to form a group called Slaughterhouse, and their self-titled 2009 debut became a breakout success, hitting number 25 on the Billboard 200. Following label disputes, Slaughterhouse released a self-titled EP in February of 2011; Ortiz also released a solo effort, Free Agent, the same month. Slaughterhouse then signed to Eminem's Shady Records, and sophomore album Welcome To: Our House appeared in 2012, topping the Rap and R&B album charts and reaching the runner-up spot on the Billboard 200. While Slaughterhouse worked on a third album, Ortiz continued his solo career. 2014's House Slippers became his biggest solo success, reaching number 45 on the Billboard 200. Human (with !llmind) appeared in 2015, and solo effort That's Hip Hop followed in 2016. In 2017, Budden announced that Slaughterhouse's third album would never be released, and the group officially disbanded in 2018. Ortiz quickly brushed off the matter with Mona Lisa -- made with Detroit beatsmith Apollo Brown -- which appeared later in the year through Mello Music Group, his new label home. From 2019 onward, Ortiz was behind the solo albums Monday and Autograph, and remained a busy collaborator with additional full-length projects Gorilla Glue (with Fred the Godson and Heatmakerz) and several releases with Kxng Crooked (formerly Crooked I). These included H.A.R.D., the Billboard 200-charting Rise & Fall of Slaughterhouse, and 2023's Prosper. Additionally, L'Orange remixed tracks from Autograph for the release Signature, and Mona Lisa was re-released in a fifth anniversary edition. ~ Evan C. Gutierrez, Rovi

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Joell Ortiz

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