His Own Self: J-Live Juggles It All
New York City native Justice Allah Cadet, better known as J-Live, has a laundry list of collaborations, albums and EPs he’s done since emerging in the mid-90s. He’s worked with everyone from Handsome Boy Modeling School and DJ Rob Swift to DJ Nu-Mark of Jurassic 5 and Oddisse. Prince Paul, who had his hands in De La Soul, Stetsasonic, Gravediggaz and, of course, Handsome Boy Modeling School, really took J-Live under his wing. Being from Long Island, Prince Paul was easily accessible to J-Live at an early age. Their first collaboration was on Rawkus Records’ now infamous compilation album, Soundbombing II. From there, they did J-Live’s album 2001’s The Best Part and formed a tight-knit friendship along the way. Eventually, J-Live popped up on a Handsome Boy Modeling School album and ended up contributing vocals to one of the strongest tracks on the record, “The Truth.”