J57

James Victor Heinz (born February 6, 1983 in Long Island, U.S.A), better known by his stage name J57 is an American rapper, songwriter and record producer. J57 began his music career doing underground freestyle battles in 1997 before he proceeded to produce and record his first recordings with his crew in 2003. In 2012, he released two solo EPs titled 2057 and The Ports EP which did well to gain him grounds and further made him to be peaked at #20 in AllHipHop`s list of "Top 50 in Underground Hip-Hop". He is a member of the Brown Bag AllStars, a group of emcees he joined while working at Fat Beats in 2004. J57 is also part of DJ Eclipse's SIRIUS/XM Radio Show Rap is Outta Control.

Early beginnings

Born and raised on Long Island in New York, J57 started his music career freestyling, battle rapping and beatboxing in high school under the stage name JLOG1C with a group of friends. His first foray in the world of entertainment was a leading role in the movie Ninja Cop. In 2003, he started producing and went on to record his first recording with his crew. In 2004, JLOG1C started working at Fat Beats, a popular record store in New York where he met the Brown Bag AllStars and went on to record songs with the group at Jesse Shatkin's record studio. He cites DJ Eclipse and DJ Premier as his music influences.

2008–2013: 2057 and The Ports

In 2008, JLOG1C changed his name to J57 before Brown Bag AllStars released their first mixtape titled The Brown Tape which was exclusively released at Fat Beats. On 14 May 2010, he released a mixtape titled Digital Society through Balanced Records. The mixtape featured vocals from Homeboy Sandman, the Brown Bag AllStars, Soul Khan, Andrew Reid, DJ Brace and many notable acts. After overseeing projects for Koncept, Soul Khan, Sene and other artistes including Homeboy Sandman's fourth studio album titled First of a Living Breed, J57 released two 10-track solo EPs on 22 May 2012 titled 2057 and The Ports EP and his DJ Concept-promoted mixtape titled The J57 Collection before he went on to release Walk In The Sun, a collaborative album he did with Blame One which was released in 2013.

2014–present: The Fuel and I'm the J57

In 2014, J57 was featured in DJ Rhettmatic's single titled "Louis Vuitton Wallets" and made vocal appearance and record production credits in the 2014 release of the annual Brown Bag AllStars A Year In Review mixtapes. On 20 November 2015, J57 teamed up with Koncept to release a joint EP titled The Fuel which was positively received among music critics.

On January 19, 2016, J57 released his first solo album titled I'm the J57 to positive reviews. It was released through his imprint FiveSeven Music.

Upcoming projects

J57 is currently working on his solo projects which includes a collaborative EP with Homeboy Sandman and a solo rap album titled We Can Be Kings as well as a joint LP with Koncept titled Flight scheduled to be released in 2016.

Studio albums

EPs