boom bap beats from the likes of J Dilla, MF Doom and Lord Finesse. In the two years since, Joey’s gone from freestyling in the hallways of his high school to headlining national tours with his rap crew, Pro Era and appearing on magazine covers as part of the 2013 XXL Freshmen Class. In many ways, Joey embodies the current feel of Brooklyn itself: holding onto history while updating its infrastructure for a new generation.

Born and bred in Brooklyn, Joey was drawn to hip-hop since he was a toddler, running to catch The Notorious B.I.G. music videos any time they came on TV. As a lone kid growing up in a single-parent home in Flatbush—his father left his mother when Joey was five, though they’ve maintained a goodrelationship—he was often alone while his mom worked to support them.

It was during these periods, before and after school, that a young Joey began to rap, recording videos of himself spitting bars and hoping something would catch. A childhood hobby began to turn into a serious enterprise when he enrolled at Edward R. Murrow High School in Midwood in 2009. That year, the young upstart uploaded a video of himself rapping to YouTube, titling it, “15-Year-Old Kid Freestyles For Worldstar” in the hopes of catching the eye of the viral video site. The clip eventually did make its way to WorldStarHipHop, but not before Shipes caught it and became intrigued by the youngster’s vitality. “You could see the star power oozing out of him,” Shipes says about that