SEV'RD NERVEZ MUSIC: Press

The J. Hexx Project - Twitch Of The Deadz Nervez [REVIEW]

01 - Intro
Interesting intro, short and sweet.

02 - Twitch
Haha, wow.
He came strong and really surprised me.
His delivery is excellent and powerfull,
and while his voice may not appeal to everyone, it certainly does to me.
The vocal quality isn't the best, but it just makes the whole track sound real raw.
I got no complaints about this, it's a solid track, perfect length and great verses!

03 - Tecato (feat. M3)
Hm, the ol' "roll it up, smoke it up" song, makes its appearence.
Being as how I don't smoke weed myself, I have no idea what tecato means,
but their verses are real interesting, and its a good song from beginning to start.
The vocal quality is very trebled, it's not really appealing,
but it's not enough to make this song bad or anything.
It's another solid track.

04 - Katz Eyez
Haha, I don't know what it is, but Hexx's voice really cracks me up.
Great hook, great verses, dope beat!

05 - Nobody Likes Me
Not feeling the hook, but it's not terrible.
Hexx really got some rhymes, he's a lyricist, plain and simple.

06 - Meet Your Maker
I got a Necro vibe from this track for some reason,
it's raw and dope, and being as how J Hexx got a dope flow,
I can't do anything else than too dig this track.
Great hook, hot verses, I don't have anything else to add!
A great track!

07 - Understand me (Feat. Grayson)
Uninteresting beat, but they still manage to bring it!
Great hook, hyping as fuck.
If they had chose a better beat, I would of felt this song alot more.
Nice song, though.

08 - New York Ripper Strikes (skit)
Hahaha!
What the fuck, this skit is crazy!
I'm not a hundred percent sure of what is going on, but I'm still cracking up!

09 - What The ****?
Average beat, but J Hexx has switched his flow,
which you gotta give it up to him for doing.
I was not really feeling this one, it's not terrible, but it's not great either.

10 - Crazy (Feat. M3)
An alright hook, but the verses make up for it.
I'm real impressed by J Hexx's lyrical ability.
M3 does a good job at his verse, they both spit some hot shit.
A solid track!

11 - Sadistic (Feat. Sticky Twiz, Laze & Gage)
Yeah!
Got a serious thug feeling from this song,
never heard of anyone featured on this track,
but they do their thing, and they do it good!
The headbopper of the album, I'm loving it.
Hexx really killed it, he brought it and slaughtered it.
Great track!
12 - Dear Son
When the song started, I had no idea if he was being real,
or just acting scary, haha.
The "real talk" song of the album,
I can't say I was feeling it, but I respect him for making place on the album
for some real shit.
13 - The Get Em' (skit)
I thought this was gonna be a skit, but as it turns out, it's a song.
I don't really know what to say, it's weird but I think I'm feeling it.
It's one of those songs where you just don't know if you're feeling it or not.
14 - Mistakes
Let's get into some hiphop shit,
I've never been a fan of these kind of songs,
but I can't hate on him for wanting to get in some more real shit.
I can't really speak my mind on this, but his flow is as good as always.
15 - Things Change (feat. M3)
Seems like he wanted to switch things up with the last songs.
Another hiphop track, with a real message.
They both did well on their verses, but the hook was not appealing at all though,
I was feeling the message though, and a good choice for a last song.
Solid track.

16 - The New York Ripper Strikes Again (skit)
I still have no idea what these are about, but I'm cracking up again.
Funny ending to the album, I gotta admit.

Overall:
A real solid release, J Hexx got the skills and the lyrical ability.
It's a great mix of hiphop & horrorcore,
even though it's a lighter type of horrorcore, I still dug it.

You should really pick this up and step into the world of J Hexx.

RAPPED AND TAGGED: One-on-One With J.HEXX
Writen by Matt Molgaard

After reviewing (and becoming truly impressed by) The J. Hexx Project's latest release a couple of weeks back (read it here), FANGORIA MUSICK's Matt Molgaard had to track down Hexx for more on what makes him tick. Read on for more about the music, along with Hexx' massive affinity for the world of Italian horror!

Be sure to check out the complete unedited interview as an MP3 via the FANGORIA ENTERTAINMENT Podcast! Simply search FANGORIA in the iTunes music store, where you'll find this and hundreds(!) of 100% FREE audio from the world of Fango!

Fangoria: Just for those unfamiliar with your music, define your sound, and your message.

J.Hexx: If I had to define the music, I would say it’s kind of like an amalgamation of darkness and light, intertwining into one. It’s kind of like, when you wake up in the morning, you see the sunlight, and it makes you arise with energy, but yet - it gets dark at night, which allows you to see the world in a different way. So I would say my music is the perfect contrast between dark and light, good and evil - in the aspect of how I view the world that I create through the music.

Fango: What inspired you to pursue music?

JH: Honestly, it was hip hop music in general. But going before that, I remember being a kid, growing up with my father who used to play a lot of jazz music, and a lot of Earth, Wind, And Fire and stuff like that. So as I was growing up I was really into a lot of the emotional aspects of music as far as storytelling, which actually extends a lot from my love of horror films, as well as anime and things of that manner.

Fango: Name some of your personal musical influences.

JH: I would say another deep one, would be the group Goblin who had actually collaborated with Dario Argento on the film DEEP RED. Goblin had a very big influence on me as far as the musical style that I’ve developed.

Fango: Now, give me a rundown on your musical history: how long have you been at this, how many albums have you released…fill us in.

JH: I’ve been doing this since I was 14. But I didn’t take on the J.Hexx persona until about 2001. To date I’ve released about 3-4 albums. Two were reissues, Seven Doorz Of Death was originally a 7 track EP which was self produced and self made. Then I created Twitch of The Deadz Nervez which was about a year and a half after I completed that [Seven Doorz]. I re-released those albums actually as one CD. Right now I’m in production on three others, two of which are for myself, and one is a gigantic group project.

Fango: How’s the reception been for the Seven Doorz To Death album?

JH: It was bigger than what I thought it would be, honestly. Since I was re-releasing it, the big difference was the artwork, and putting together the package and making it feel complete. Having Gus Cervantes do the artwork was one of the best ideas that ever came to light. I didn’t think people would be so open to something so different. I have to say I’m blessed that people that are into this music have actually taken it in and regarded it as a new classic for today’s age and time.

Fango: What’s your goal? Sell a million records, change a life? What do you really want to achieve that you haven’t yet?

JH: I really would like to see the genre grow into a larger beast than what it is. I do what I do, but I’m only part of an entire movement. And I think that it’s coming to the point where I’m starting to feel that it’s bigger than what I am, it’s bigger than anything - I just would like to see the horror genre, as far as music is concerned get more into the mainstream.

Fango: So it’s safe to say that you do this for the fans.

JH: Yeah, honestly - you know, I could be a liar and say I make millions of dollars doing this, but I don’t. I actually get more satisfaction out of doing something that people enjoy, that are true horror fans as well as true music fans. I’m hoping that by the things that I’m doing it will encourage other people to take those wild and different directions. To be themselves, and create their own characters and create their own worlds, so we can make the genre much more interesting and more lifelike to people.

Fango: Now, everybody who reads or listens to the interviews I conduct knows I like to talk movies, so let’s talk movies. Your favorite horror flick of the year thus far?

JH: There’s been a lot of really good movies, but I have to say the remake of MY BLOODY VALENTINE was actually something I really enjoyed. I would say that movie so far.

Fango: All time favorite?

JH: There’s so many…but I would have to say Argento’s DEEP RED.

Fango: You clearly have an affinity for Dario Argento (as do I). Is it safe to say that he’s your favorite director?

JH: He’s one of my favorite. I actually have about 4 or 5 of them. If I had to put it on a top to bottom list, I would say George Romero is number one, number two would be Argento, three would be Fulci, four would be Joe D’Amato, and five I would say would be Andrea Bianchi.

Fango: You like a lot of the Italian stuff then?

JH: Yeah, and the reason why I like it is because how visual it was, especially Argento and Fulci‘s work. Not only that, but a lot of it has a lot of social commentary content. A lot of the younger people now don’t understand, looking at these mainstream films. These mainstream films, they scare you, they gore you out, but they don’t really have the substance that a lot of these older films have. For example DAWN OF THE DEAD was about consumerism, if you look at Joe D’Amato’s BEYOND THE DARKNESS it was about the obsession of love that goes beyond life. There’s a lot of good messages within these older gory horror films that people don’t realize unless people look between the lines.

Fango: What do you say to those who have been supporting the J.Hexx Project?

JH: I say that J.Hexx may hate himself, but he loves all the people that have been supporting him. I do all this music for you, I try to be the voice of people that have a hard time expressing those dark thoughts and motives within their hearts. I’m just being a voice for the people who feel like they don’t have an outlet to express that type of thought or content.

THE SEVEN DOORZ TO DEATH/TWITCH OF THE DEADZ NERVEZ album is available digitally via CDbaby.com, Amazon.com, Itunes, Rhapsody.com, lala.com, and tradebit.com. If you'd like to obtain a hard copy of the album hit up any of the following retailors: SevrdNervezMusic.com, Official3SE.com, CdBaby.com, Target.com, Amazon.com, RedrumMedia.com, CdUniverse.com, CdConnection.com or
O-Level.net (of Japan).

Here is a music review for THE SEVEN DOORZ TO DEATH/ TWITCH OF THE DEADZ NERVEZ lp..click the title below to access the site!

 The J.Hexx Project’s unique double album offering (on one disc) THE SEVEN DOORZ TO DEATH/TWITCH OF THE DEADZ NERVEZ is a complex album filled with grotesque visuals, which in plenty of cases act as sinister metaphors for some of life’s less physically savage (but significant, regardless) abuse. The album has a vibe that conjures visions of The Gravediggaz, meeting up with Necro to compile an excellent piece of work (note that I personally extend that as a compliment). There’s a unique embraceable quality about the album that is clearly fueled by strong hooks, discreet, yet insanely deep lyrics, excellent production with some sampling that really makes the album feel more like a sadistic Tarantino film than a standard horror album.
J.Hexx flexes some wild personality(’s) and the constant fluctuations within the mood of the music keeps the album quite refreshing. Aside from personality alone, Hexx keeps his rhyme structures constantly evolving, providing a stimulating contrast from one song to the next. Hexx is clearly an intelligent musician, who proves his worth and then-some with this latest release. While I’ve been so busy praising Hexx’s talents, and verbal diversity - I think it’s important to extend some serious praise to those involved with producing the album. Understanding, AWOL & Tino, Whitebeats, and J. Hexx all step up to paint a background portrait layered with dark, energetic tones that pack legit replay value. The total package is really quite impressive.

A few personal notes I’d like to include briefly… It’s great to hear modern beats, rhymes and schemes that  somehow manage to conjure some strange form of nostalgia. The more I explore the album, the more I find myself reminiscing, traveling back to the mid 90’s. My younger years, which I, admittedly miss quite a bit (can you say arrested development). Hmmm… maybe that’s the main reason I’ve taken such a liking to this album… One final note: Gus Cervantes has crafted two of the best album covers (all genres included) I’ve ever seen. Hats off to you sir for some fabulous work!

3 & 1/2 SKULLS OUT OF FOUR

J.hexx Is Winner Of The New Times Best Of Reader's Poll 2009!
You read the topic correctly, i am the winner of THE NEW TIMES READER'S CHOICE AWARDS for BEST LOCAL ALBUM OF 2009 for THE SEVEN DOORZ TO DEATH/ TWITCH OF THE DEADZ NERVEZ! And also i got to win THE BEST LOCAL HIP HOP ARTIST OF 2009 award as well, and the paper will be in print for BROWARD and PALM BEACH areas on June 11TH 2009!
Since i have started my label in 2008, the year was a great year for SEV'RD NERVEZ MUSIC and myself, and since i have done alot of local shows, had my music played at various internet radio stations which includes RUE MORGUE RADIO and many others. I have the support of a nice dedicated following who continues to support me and grow by the minute. Locally i am finally starting to be recoqnized as a contributor to the local music scene, and i thank everyone who voted for me, and have supported me, gave me inspirational advice and been to my shows, bought cd's and dvd's and so on forth.
Thank you , it has been a wonderful one year for the schizo, and i appreciate the respect and support you have given me!
Now here is the link for you to see for yourself in the header below.

Me, Epitaph, Sewerside and the Urban Horror Clique are in this weeks CITY LINK MAGAZINE! The pictures for our show last week are on pages 10 and 11! A big shout out to Jon Vinazza of Underlabstudios.com and Dawn Dubriel of REDAWN.TV for the wonderful show!

I found out the horror magazine, RUE MORGUE MAGAZINE, it's website has a radio section where they do interviews with some horror stars, make up artists and also play indie music geared towards horror. So it was a nice surprise to see that Tomb Dragomir, who runs the radio programming, picked up Schizo Killjoy and is playing the song for the week of MARCH 6TH -MARCH 12TH 2009!
A big thank you goes out to Tomb Dragomir and everyone at RUE MORGUE MAGAZINE and RADIO @ RUE-MORGUE.COM for helping spread the sickness, and we appreciate it! Also a thanks to Ice Pick Willie of 3SE for the props!

Champagne the prostitute got her name from a piece of paper pulled out of a hat.

It began back in 2007, when local filmmakers Jon Vinazza and Dawn Dubriel of Underlab Studios entered Fort Lauderdale's Quick and Dirty Short Film Festival. The rules called for filmmakers to finish their work in 25 days. They also had to name their flicks after whatever came out of the hat.

The resulting Champagne is a six-minute film about a prostitute/witch murdered by her pimp for withholding money. Each Halloween, a machete-wielding Champagne, played by Dubriel's sister Amber, comes back to avenge her death. Her name is explained by the movie this way: "Her johns used to call her Champagne, because that's how fine her pussy was."

If you don't take yourself too seriously, you'll most likely recognize there's at least entertainment value in a statement like that. This absurdity defines most of the horror films showcased February 13 for the Valentine's Eve Massacre at Cinema Paradiso in Fort Lauderdale. Local film crews brought their own examples of outlandish gore, castrated hookers, and Bible-toting psychopaths.

The event was part of the monthly Auteur Explosion, which brings together local artists, musicians, and filmmakers. Vinazza and Dubriel started Auteur Explosion to create an outlet for local creative talent, and Valentine's Eve was the third event in the series.

Unlike Los Angeles, where Dubriel went to film school, Fort Lauderdale's film community struggles from a lack of organization and local participation. Dubriel, who is a local director, writer, and producer, hoped partnering Auteur Explosion with Cinema Paradiso would encourage local involvement.

"In L.A., everyone makes films, and they're so good because of the resources," she says. "A local filmmaker scene is definitely here. It just needs to be organized."

Last Friday's event included musical performances by Marc Solomon Trio, New York singer/songwriter Craig Greenberg, and local hip-hop artists such as Sewerside and J. Hexx.

Other notable films included Vinazza's Cut Your Hand on the Good Book and Angry Pig Productions' After the Prom. Cut Your Hand is the story of a drug pusher named Free, who steals from his dealer, and his religious friend Mason, played by local spoken-word artist Renda Writer. The trouble starts when Free rips a page out of the motel Bible to smoke the weed he's supposed to be delivering. When it turns out to be laced with PCP, an inebriated Mason wastes no time killing his first victim the moment she gets topless.

"When I wrote this, I knew the locations I was going to have," Vinazza writes via email. "I knew that I could get a grimy-looking hotel for less than $50. We really, really tried not to mess it up. We respect our locations, so we did not want to bloody it up. So I went to the thrift store and bought blankets in order to prevent damage to their real sheets. However, the blood splattering got on the sheets. The next morning we went to like three different locations trying to buy sheets before checkout. When we got back the guy already changed the sheets... [But] he also told us not to worry because they buy new ones regularly. I think we all know why."

After the Prom provided the only truly tense "horror" moment of the night. A girl comes home from prom after refusing to make a night of it with her date; she claims she doesn't want to be the stereotypical girl who gets pregnant on prom night. Putting aside the wild assumption that getting pregnant on prom night occurs often enough to label it a stereotype, the protagonist makes it to her room, but not before the audience observes some indiscernible figure flash behind her. It was the only moment during the event that watching through your fingers was completely reasonable.

Champagne was one of the more successful pieces of the night. The revenge-seeking Champagne is aided by her son, played by the hilarious Hexx, who lures his friends to a warehouse near his mother's grave, where she castrates one character and stabs the film's other female character to death mid-orgasm. The boyfriend's response to his dying girlfriend's blood-soaked mouth and jerky movements? "Good one, baby."

The film came to be after Underlab Studios colleagues stumbled into the Halloween section of an art store they had entered for inspiration, Dubriel recalls.

"We bought a fake severed arm and two styrofoam skulls," she says. "We made it as bad as possible and implemented an evil book, slashing of male parts, boobies, severed arms, and Halloween spirits."

Filming wasn't without its obstacles. The martial artist whom Dubriel cast to play Champagne flaked at the last minute. And rain ruined one of her shotgun mics. But ultimately, what makes it work on this low-budget, local level is the collaboration among friends, the receptiveness of community venues, and the completion of the project.

"If you are a short-film maker with a low budget, you have to rely on your own resources and your friends as resources. If you make friends with people with cool locations and you offer to promote their venue in your film, then you are good to go," Vinazza says. "Since no one is really getting paid, they at least want their creative stamp on the product. In the end, though, after all the scuffles, disagreements, mishaps, egotistical bullshit is dealt with and you see... it was all worth it."

Halloween is one of Elijah Rentas' favorite holidays. The inside of his two-bedroom Margate apartment is lined with skulls and crossbones and looks ready for trick-or-treaters to show up at any minute. The 1978 cult film Zombi is blaring through his television set and intermittent blood-curdling screams fill the air. There's an inescapably creepy feeling in the room that might cause the hairs on the back of your neck to stand up. Asked how much of the ghoulish atmosphere is related to Halloween, though, Rentas looks genuinely perplexed.

"None of it," he says with a shrug. "This stuff is always here."

To be fair, Rentas isn't the one speaking at the moment; his rapper alter-ego, J Hexx, is. The difference between the two is striking. Rentas, 31, works by day as a credit counselor, and he's one of the most soft-spoken and polite individuals you'll ever meet. But when he starts rapping, he takes on the persona of a horror character from the 18th Century.

As a Gemini, Rentas is comfortable being a split personality.

He dresses the historic horror part as well. Tonight, he's sporting a long black gothic overcoat, black shoes and pants, a decorative vest with gold embroidery, a Renaissance shirt, and a black hood over his head that makes him look like a serial killer circa the French Revolution. He's also sporting an impressive make-up job, done by his make-up artist/fiancée, that took over an hour to complete. All of this for a late-night interview with New Times.

"Hey, I figure if you're going to interview me about my music, you might as well see me in character," he says.

Rentas puts a lot of effort and energy into his J. Hexx persona, as it's his main outlet for music and creativity.

Whenever he performs in public (at venues like Brass Monkey in Coral Springs or the Kevro Art Bar in Delray Beach), he's dressed in outfits like this, and he raps more violently than Freddie Krueger on a rampage. A big part of his fetishism comes from Rentas' horror film fanaticism. He's enthralled with low budget, grindhouse-style films of the '70s and mentions directors like Wes Craven, George Romero, and Dario Argento as huge inspirations. In fact, he says he gets a good portion of his motivation and style from the Italian band Goblin, which scored the film Dawn of the Dead.

"The first horror movie I saw was The Exorcist when I was 3 years old," Rentas says. "I'm sure you can imagine what it did to me. At first, it horrified me, but it had a huge impact and eventually changed my life."

That merger of horror-core and hip-hop can be heard on his debut album, The Seven Doorz to Death, a 23-track disc that begs for a parental advisory label and features J. Hexx killing as many imaginary characters as possible. It's a smart merger of late '90s Eminem and the Gravediggaz. While some of the songs may test your gag reflex, it's a healthy way for Hexx to get his aggression out creatively.

"There's millions of people, especially now, who feel lots of anger based on the way things are," Rentas says. "People are often afraid to go to that dark part of their minds and express how they really feel. I make music to help people go there."

On the deranged, "I Hate You," his rap veers into a wild, necrophiliac rant: "I love to fuck a bitch after death so she won't argue about how bad the sex sucks and how she hates to suck cock, after I jizz in her twat. I strangled the whore, hung her with a belt off the floor." That's one of the tamer verses on the album. Songs like this will remind listeners of what early Slim Shady sounded like, raging against his baby mama, Kim Mathers. Much like Eminem, Rentas found his truest rap voice because of beef with his son's mother.

As a New York transplant, Rentas spent the first 26 years of his life in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, living with his Dominican and Puerto Rican parents. He ran into relationship troubles with his ol' lady at the age of 22 and wound up in jail because of it.

"I was having a very dark period in my life, going through trouble with my son's mother," he says. "She wasn't allowing me to see my son. She did a lot of things to me like getting me locked up and she was just vindictive." After doing a three-month bid in jail on a domestic violence charge for an incident he denies ever happened, Rentas claimed he wanted to die. But hip-hop helped save his life.

His early rapping style was more on par with golden-era New York vets from the mid '90s.

"I was really deep into Gangstarr, KRS-One, and De La Soul coming up," he says. "I built my style of how to write a verse off of those cats. Even though my music is morbid, it's conscious too. I get that from watching Leaders of the New School, Native Tongues Blackstar, and Company Flow, and it helped me figure out where I wanted to fit myself."

But something about their rapping styles didn't fit his. The missing link was horror. He says he didn't get bored with rapping like a Rawkus Records artist (the go-to label for conscious rappers of the '90s). But he discovered he needed to add blood and gore to his sound to feel complete.

"I just found that this horror thing, since its embedded in me, was the best way to describe myself and feel that I had all my integrity. It helps me be true to what I'm speaking about... it feels more like home."

He's versed in scary movies and raps about the analogies between horror and reality.

"Zombies, for example. You think, OK, they're flesh-eating people. But I look at them as people who wander around without a purpose in life... like dead carcasses trying to feed off people to survive. There are also vampires, people who suck the life force out of you, then move on and leech onto the next person."

That's what makes his music so captivating. Just when you're disgusted enough to turn it off, he drops some piece of stop-you-in-your-tracks wittiness into a few verses, making you hit rewind and compelling you to continue listening.

It is partly why prominent horrorcore label 3rd Shift Entertainment signed him to a record deal last week.

Asked how far he plans to take his style of horror-core rapping, Rentas says: "I want to take it as far as I can take it without the censors coming after me. How often do you see someone dressed like me get on stage and rap with this type of passion? At least I'm not copying everybody else."

The Seven Doorz to Death
The J.Hexx Project (Myspace.com/thejhexxproject)

J.Hexx is the meanest, goriest rapper to hail from the green streets of Coral Springs. His lyrics and beats are shockingly original — if you've never heard of Eminem. While more professional-sounding than most locally produced CDs, The Seven Doorz to Death is still just a mesh of pre-paparazzi Marshall Mathers and 1960s-horror-movie subject matter. That said, J.Hexx skillfully re-creates that turn-of-the-century sound, and the CD will appeal to fans of the type of back-and-forth, inner-turmoil lyrics that made Eminem and the Insane Clown Posse famous.

This Mic's Open for Business
There's plenty of rhymin' and rockin' at Java D' Lites.
By Jason Budjinski
published: May 25, 2006
Before he got down to the rhyme-spitting, J. Hexx had a little request for the audience. "I need your energy so I can get into character and take you to a far-out place," he said, proudly displaying a T-shirt that read "Weapon of Mass Destruction." Moving about in a semicircular motion, the Coral Springs-based MC gradually worked himself into a frenzy. The crowd followed, cackling and giving Hexx the bird (at his own request). But then, just like that, the set was over; it was time for the next performer — that is, after Hexx felt the love from his fans.
"Say, 'Fuck you, J. Hexx!'" he demanded of the crowd, which gladly obeyed. "Now go home and watch cannibal films while eating ham sandwiches!"
But they didn't go anywhere. Sure, it was getting near midnight on a Monday, but there was still another name or two left on the sign-up sheet.

On the SEVEN DOORZ TO DEATH EP: This joint is very different from most things i get a hold of. Different can be a good thing sometimes. The J.Hexx CD has no cross over appeal at all which is cool for the listener with an open mind. J.Hexx shows here he's not afraid to express himself and do something different.

#2 out of 3 on the list.
J.HEXX -If you never caught his live show, he has alot of energy when he rocks. He is definitely on the rise as far as M.C's go in NYC (and there are few of them these days). His style is very reminiscent of some early GRAVEDIGGERS shit! Very fresh!!!!