Jaz-O

Jonathan Allen Burks Sr. (born October 4, 1964), better known by his stage name Jaz-O (formerly The Jaz and Big Jaz), is an American rapper and record producer. Active in the late 1980s through the 1990s, he became known in retrospect as the mentor of fellow Brooklyn rapper Jay-Z. Burks, nicknamed "the Originator", debuted the artist on his 1986 single "H. P. Gets Busy". Burks signed with EMI to release three studio albums: Word to the Jaz (1989), To Your Soul (1990) and Kingz Kounty (2002). His debut extended play (EP), The Warmup (2021) was the first release from the Roc Nation subsidiary, Equity Distribution. He has also been credited with production work for other artists including Puff Daddy, Rakim, Usual Suspects, GZA, Kool G Rap, Queen Latifah, M.O.P., and Group Home, among others.
Jonathan Burks was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City and raised in Marcy Houses, a housing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Originally attending college to become an accountant, he followed a friend's advice to become a rapper after hearing Grandmaster Caz, and being inspired by UTFO's "Roxanne, Roxanne".
Raised in the same projects as Jay-Z, the two would meet and become friends, with Jaz-O being a rhyme mentor to Jay-Z. Sometime during the year of 1986, the two lyricists would soon form a rap group by the name of High Potent. Despite the group being short-lived, the two recorded and released several songs throughout 1986, before Jaz-O would go on to get a record deal with EMI USA. In regards to the signing, he stated:
Several months after signing with EMI USA, Jaz-O visited London, where he would record his debut album. Joining him on the trip was Jay-Z, as well as future Murder Inc Records CEO and producer Irv Gotti, who was Jaz-O's DJ at the time. After completion, Jaz-O released his debut album Word to the Jaz. The album was produced by Bryan "Chuck" New, Pete Q. Harris, and Jaz-O himself. The album peaked at number 87 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. It featured a guest appearance from Jay-Z on the song "Hawaiian Sophie", which peaked at number 18 on the Hot Rap Songs chart. The single "Let's Play House"/"Buss the Speaker" peaked at number 26 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. During this time, Jaz-O also made a guest appearance on The O'Jays's "Have You Had Your Love Today", which was a single released from their 1989 album Serious.
Jaz-O released his second album To Your Soul on July 16, 1990. Despite the album not reaching the Billboard charts, its two singles, "The Originators" and "A Groove (This Is What U Rap 2)", peaked at No. 13 and No. 18, respectively, on the Hot Rap Songs chart. Similar to his debut album, Jay-Z was the only guest, being featured on two songs.
Sometime after the album was released, Jaz-O was dropped from his record label and began to spend time working behind the scenes as a producer. At some point, Jaz-O connected with The Lox, and produced a demo tape for the group, which would become instrumental to the start of their successful career. Fellow Yonkers native Mary J. Blige, would receive the tape from a cousin who did music with the trio. Becoming a supporter of the group, Blige would pass the demo tape on to Bad Boy CEO Sean "Puffy" Combs while on a tour with Jodeci. Liking what he heard, Puff shortly signed The Lox to a deal.
Throughout the late 1990s, Jaz-O had quite a hand in Jay-Z's early solo success. Jaz-O produced, and was featured on "Ain't No Nigga," the second single from Jay-Z's 1996 debut album, Reasonable Doubt. The song is cited as playing a significant role in securing Jay-Z's record with Def Jam.
Jaz-O then produced "Rap Game / Crack Game," a track that appeared on Jay's second album In My Lifetime, Vol. 1, released in 1997.
Jaz-O also produced two tracks for Jay-Z's Streets Is Watching. The album fared well commercially reaching #3 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and was released on May 12, 1998, by Roc-A-Fella Records and Def Jam Recordings.
In 1999, Jaz-O appeared on Jay-Z's "Nigga What, Nigga Who (Originator 99)", a single that was released from Jay-Z's third album Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life. The song became a big hit in Jaz-O's career at the time. However, this would be one of the last times the two would work together on music, for their friendship soured shortly afterwards.
The long-standing feud between him and Jay-Z started when Jay-Z started Roc-A-Fella Records and tried to convince Jaz-O and fellow rapper Sauce Money to sign with the label. They both refused. It is rumored that they did not trust Roc-A-Fella Records CEO Damon Dash and label co-founder Kareem "Biggs" Burke. In addition, they were not satisfied with what they were to receive had they signed the contract ($300,000 in Jaz-O's case). Jay-Z confirmed this event on the song "What We Talkin' About" from the Blueprint 3 album where he raps "Dame made millions, even Jaz made some scraps, he could've made more but he ain't sign his contract".
Instead of signing with Roc-A-Fella Records, Jaz-O signed a deal with Rancore Records, and formed the hip-hop group Immobilarie. With the group, he released a collaboration album titled Jaz-O & The Immobilarie Family Present: Kingz Kounty.
Jay-Z went on to diss Jaz first on a track titled "Fuck Jaz-O AKA Jaz Ho", released by DJ Kayslay and featuring Freeway, Geda K, Young Chris, and Memphis Bleek. On the song, in which they rapped over Styles P's "Good Times" instrumental, and later on his album The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse, Jay-Z states: "I'ma let karma catch up to Jaz-O." Jaz then responded with a record titled "Ova" on a DJ Kayslay mixtape, and after the response from Jay-Z and the members of Roc-A-Fella, he released the diss record response known as "Ova Part 2" in which he raps over N.O.R.E.'s "Nothin'" instrumental.
During the long-standing feud between mentor and protégé, Jay-Z would still give Jaz-O credit for his success (while dissing him at the same time) as heard in the song "I Do It For Hip Hop" on Ludacris's Theater of the Mind album, where Jay-Z says "Shout out to Grand Master Flash and to Caz and even Jaz's bum ass".
Soon after the "I Do It For Hip Hop" diss from Jay-Z, Jaz-O responded with his own diss record titled "Go Harder" which starts with Jaz-O rapping over his protege's "Brooklyn Go Hard" beat before the beat changes.
In late August 2009, Jaz-O was featured on another song dissing Jay-Z, titled "Gangstas Ride" with West Coast rapper, The Game. Jaz references "Ether" with the line, "Jaz-O, stupid motherfucker, not Shawn, never been bashed on a Tupac song". The song was fueled by beef between Game and Jay-Z at the time.
In December 2017, Jaz-O and Jay-Z reunited at Jay-Z's 4:44 concert, seemingly ending their feud. In 2019, it was reported that the two had worked out a music deal for Jaz-O's Kingz Kounty Media Group to be distributed through Roc Nation's Equity Distribution.
On February 7, 2020, Jaz-O released an extended play (EP) titled The Warmup, on Kingz Kounty Media Group. It was distributed by Roc Nation's Equity Distribution.
Jaz-O has since moved his 'Kingz Kounty Music Group" to Rival Distribution. He released "Lookin' Like", a collaboration single with Nipsey Hussle, on July 2, 2021. The song's music video was directed by Da Inphamus Amadeuz.
Jaz-O cites Grandmaster Caz as an early influence. Caz was the artist who made Jaz-O decide to become a rapper.
Jaz-O was the rapper to pioneer the triplet flow, which allows the rapper to flow far beyond sixteen syllables within the 4/4 time signature, being able to add extra syllables to the sixteen multiplies the syllables into twenty-fourths, which makes a triplet of an eighth. Since the 1990s, the triplet rhyme technique has become a common distinction among some of the most respected hip-hop lyricists. Several rappers who are well known for the technique include his former apprentice Jay-Z, Twista, and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, as well as Fu-Schnickens, Spice-1, and Tech N9ne.
Jaz-O was known to be a visible figure in the Nuwaubian Nation during the 1980s. Nuwaubian beliefs and symbolism were prominent in the earlier years of his music career, and Nuwaubian fashion influenced his wardrobe.
Besides being an emcee, he has produced songs for several hip hop artists other than Jay-Z, including Group Home, M.O.P, Ras Kass, Rakim, Kool G Rap, and others.