Joell Ortiz: The RAPstation Spotlight

Joell Ortiz was born on July 6th, 1980 to Puerto Rican parents in the East Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York and was formerly signed to Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment label. Ortiz was featured in the Unsigned Hype column in the March 2004 of The Source Magazine and was even selected as Chairman’s Choice in XXL Magazine. Around that time Ortiz also went on to win the 2004 EA Sports battle, which earned his song “Mean Business” a spot on the NBA Live 2005 soundtrack. In that same year, Ortiz was offered a contract to Jermaine Dupri’s So So Def Label. Ortiz released his debut album The Brick: Bodega Chronicles, in 2007 before going on to release Free Agent (2011) and House Slippers (2014). Joell Ortiz is one fourth of the supergroup Slaughterhouse who released their self-titled debut EP on February 11, 2011. The second album from Slaughterhouse, Welcome To: Our House, dropped on August 28, 2012. Slaughterhouse consists of Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Kxng Crooked, and Royce Da 5’9” with the group being currently signed to Shady Records under Interscope. Their first album was released independently, while their second album was backed by Shady Records. Slaughterhouse is expected to release their album Glass House at some point during 2016. By Devon Pyne for RAPstation.com