J-Hood

Rapper J-Hood followed the LOX and DMX out of Yonkers with a hard-headed style that has sustained him since the early 2000s with numerous underground mixtapes and dozens of featured assists, most notably Sheek Louch’s “Mighty D-Block” (2003), a number 65 R&B/hip-hop hit. Originally from Newport, North Carolina, the rapper born Joshua Hood moved to Yonkers, New York during early childhood and as an adolescent fell hard for hip-hop, inspired most by 2Pac, Nas, and Jay-Z. Through DMX, Hood connected with Sheek Louch, instigating a period of several years in which he recorded extensively with the LOX members as part of D-Block. After Hood jumped on the charting single “Mighty D-Block (2 Guns Up)” and reached a nationwide audience, he released a mixtape, Hood Stripes (2004), on the D-Block label. Hood regularly appeared on affiliate mixtapes across the next few years but left D-Block acrimoniously, frustrated with shortcomings of the label’s distribution deal with Universal. The rapper established himself outside D-Block with The Hood Is Back (2007) and Judgement Day (2008), which led to a few independent titles the following decade, including Fair Warning (2011) and Fair Warning 2 (2013), 4th Lok (2017), and the Yukmouth collaboration Savages (2018). ~ Andy Kellman