CJ Fly

Active since the early 2010s, CJ Fly didn’t take long to outgrow myriad inspirations from his native New York — A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, and Jay-Z among them — to forge his own path in hip-hop. Since starting in his late teens as a founding member of Pro Era, the casually commanding Brooklynite has built a deep catalog of solo output that starts with the mixtape Thee Way Eye See It (2013) and has continued with albums Flytrap (2016), the Statik Selektah-produced Rudebwoy (2020), and Not What You’re Expecting (2021), a set that followed through on the promise of its title by confounding expectations. A brief EP and numerous singles have followed since the arrival of the latter.
Born Chaine Downer, Jr., Bedford-Stuyvesant native CJ Fly transformed a childhood love of poetry into a focus on rap in the seventh grade. In high school, he formed the group Pro Era with classmates Joey Bada$$, Powers Pleasant, and Capital Steez. His early career dovetailed with the crew’s development as he made notable appearances on Pro Era’s P.E.E.P.: The aPROcalypse, as well as Bada$$′ mixtape 1999, both of which were issued in 2012. The next year, CJ joined tours with the likes of Flatbush Zombies, Wiz Khalifa, and A$AP Rocky before releasing his first mixtape, Thee Way Eye See It. The collection featured appearances by Ab-Soul and Phife Dawg, as well as production by Statik Selektah and Cookin’ Soul. Second Pro Era mixtape Secc$ TaP.E. and the Shift EP arrived in 2014 before CJ returned to his own work. His official solo debut, Flytrap, was issued at the end of 2016. The album included the single “Now You Know,” as well as appearances by Devontée and Eryn Allen Kane. Hopping back to his duties with Pro Era, he joined the crew for single “King to a God” and later teamed with Flatbush Zombies and the Underachievers to form the hip-hop supergroup Beast Coast. They issued a 2019 album, Escape from New York, and embarked on a U.S. tour. At the end of the year, CJ returned to his solo work with the singles “Bird” and “Rudebwoy” with Joey Bada$$.
CJ stepped into the next decade with his second solo album. Produced entirely by Statik Selektah, Rudebwoy featured verses from most of CJ’s Pro Era affiliates, while the likes of Conway the Machine and Oshun also made contributions. The set was released in early 2020. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, CJ diversified by teaching himself production, and returned in January 2021 with The Way I H(ear) It, Vol. 1, his first set of instrumentals. Only eight months later, he released his third proper album, Not What You’re Expecting. Although he delegated most of the production load — INF produced many cuts including the highlight “Medicine” — CJ left room for only three featured appearances, none of which were made by Pro Era members. A four-track EP entitled The Pharoah’s Return, along with singles such as “Hand2Hand” and “Speechless,” followed in 2022 and 2023. ~ Andy Kellman & Neil Z. Yeung