NEW YORK, NY. (Top40 Charts/ Capitol Records) - The buzz on the street is solid and building for J. Holiday, the newest signing to the
Music Line Group/Capitol Records roster, whose new single "Bed" is picking up true believers at Urban radio formats everywhere, setting the scene for the October 2nd release of J's hotly anticipated debut album, BACK OF MY 'LAC.
"Bed" (written by The Dream and produced by Carlos McKinney) was No 1 Most-Added at Mediabase Urban and No 2 Most-Added at BDS Urban last week, gathering top spins across the U.S., from J's hometown of Washington, DC, to New York, Atlanta (No 1 phones and No 1 ranked at WVEE), Detroit, Chicago, and beyond. After being added to the AOL Radio stream a couple of weeks ago, "Bed" became the highest-testing new Urban song, with a user rating average of 9.3 to 9.7 out of 10. "I will say one thing," confirmed the Music Editor at Concreteloop.com, "he has people talking with this song."
J Holiday was named BET's Rated Next - a moniker given to only a select few that the channel believes will be the "next big thing. The video premiered on BET's 106 & Park last week as "New Joint Of the Day," and immediately went into Medium Rotation on the cable channel. Starting next week, "Bed" is added to the rotation at MTV Jams. The video can also be seen at J's MySpace website, https://www.myspace.com/jholiday, which is now previewing four songs from the album - "Bed," "Be With Me" (whose video is also up at the site), and the title tune, "Back Of My 'Lac." The three songs have accumulated over 490,000 plays at the site, which is filled with everything-you-always-wanted-to-know about J. Holiday. It has become a blogger's delight with more than 1,000 comments and photos from fans posted to-date.
One listen to "Bed" is all it takes to get right to the heart of the musical world occupied by 22-year-old singer/songwriter J. Holiday. A classic rhythm and blues storyteller in the tradition of Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Donny Hathaway, and Al Green - the foundations of J's soul when he was a teenager in DC - he was also caught up in the hip-hop rhymes of Jay-Z and OutKast. Add to that his fascination with '90s R&B vocal groups Boyz II Men, H-Town, and Jodeci, and a portrait emerges of the artist as a young man.
J's musical craft was tempered by life on the mean streets as a preachers' son, raised up in the church by a hardworking mother. "I can say that I've lived that street life," he testifies of his time growing up in DC. "The streets are not anything to glamorize. I'm trying to let my people back home know that I'm with them. DC has a lot of talent and I'm just trying to show people that we are here."
A giant step came J's way when he hooked up with Corey Green and A&R veteran Anthony "T.A." Tate of Music Line Group (Ciara, Teairra Marie) which led straight to a deal at the Capitol Tower in Holly wood. J's talents as a singer and songwriter and the autobiographic flav of his tunes found sympathetic support from the album's producers, who include hitmaker Rodney 'Darkchild' Jerkins, Carlos 'L.O.S.' McKinney (Faith, Chris Brown, Whitney Houston, Usher), and Music Line's Ciara and Teairra Mari. "You just have to stay true to yourself," J. says of his journey. "There are a lot of different stories out here and people just need to listen to them."
