2010 Bay Area Freshmen 10 Recap: Jay Ant - the latest Bay Area rap and hip-hop music

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

4:04PM

« 2010 Bay Area Freshmen 10 Recap: Jay Ant »

With the ANNOUNCEMENT of the 2011 Bay Area Freshman 10 coming soon, I thought now would be an appropriate time to look back at our 2010 Freshman and acknowledge the grind that they put in since being included in the inaugural list. So for the next few days we’ll look at one MC at a time and highlight their careers up to this point, as well as what they have done since becoming a Bay Area Freshman. Every artist’s career plan and philosophy is unique, but no matter who you are, taking advantage of legitimate buzz can never be wrong. Because in this fickle, over saturated world that we like to call hip-hop, the second you stop releasing content and doing shows, unfortunately seems to be the second many forget that you ever existed. So let’s see how the first Freshman class performed since they were named some of The Bay’s top prospects.

Jay Ant:

Being a member of a group is a great way to start a career in hip-hop. You get to share the writing duties, and thus don’t have to worry about penning entire songs, your live shows have more going on, and as a result have the potential to be more fun and energetic than a solo act, and the responsibility to market yourself and get your music heard is shared by more bodies and therefore can be a little easier. With all of this in mind, it’s not hard to imagine that making the jump from being a group member to a solo artist can be really difficult. All the sudden, the entire responsibility for your career falls on your shoulders alone. Although, one person who has made this leap look easy has been 2010 Bay Area Freshmen Jay Anthony.

Jay Ant started in the group Diligentz, who were most known for their song “Punk Rock”, but in 2010 began to move into his own solo lane. His style is defined by his feel good nature. It’s full of punchlines and one liners, and the subject matter largely focuses on things that make us all happy: partying, spending time with the other sex, staying fresh, succeeding in the face of hate, kicking it with the homies, etc... Yet what makes Jay all the more impressive is that he produces practically the entirety of his own music as well. And it slaps.

In 2009 Jay released his first solo tape All About Being Cool, which featured him rocking over some unorthodox instrumentals (like Peter, Bjorn & John’s “Young Folks” and the song from that Geico commercial) in addition to some original production. Then in October of 2010, after being named a member of the Freshman 10, he dropped All About Being Cool: Fuck It Smile, which has been downloaded over 25,000 times, and was more like an album because it featured 100% original production, all of which was taken care of by Mr. Anthony himself. He additionally has taken charge of making himself one of the leading figures in the new, New Bay movement. This has led to him linking up and doing work with a lot of other MC’s involved in the movement including features with SU!, Roach Gigz, Mike Dash-E and Big Rich (who is more like an OG ambassador for them), inclusion on Mike Dash-E’s acclaimed Clap City compilation series, and production for ST Spitten and Young Bari. He also spit a verse, and produced a track for TeamBackPack.

According to a video interview Jay Ant did of himself, fans can expect All About Being Cool: Mackin’ and Hangin’ some time in the near future. An older interview with The Based Update, from February 2010 also mentioned a collaborative mixtape with Bobby Brackins and Young L in the works. So hopefully, when life and rap gets too serious, Jay will keep pushing that product that’ll make you forget about the bull and want to stay smiling.

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