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Biography
It’s no longer a rare thing to hear people admit that boredom and monotony have become common in the music industry. However, these are the ingredients which lead musicians to imagine and reshape their artform. Out of the lack of others’ creativity came Jay Criss ’s inspiration and desire to begin thinking outside the box. Jay Criss has always been a fan of a wide range of musical genres so inevitably he would fuse these genres together to create a new and invigorating sound. This sound was dubbed Fresh Fusion. With this new sound Jay Criss began his campaign to breathe new life into an old industry.
Jason Christopher Wilkins, better known as Jay Criss, is a singer, producer, and songwritern from the United States. His stage name comes from the shortened version of his name Jason Christopher. In mid 2008, Criss signed with international promotions agency Go Large Records and in October 2008 was featured in their east coast tour for the remainder of the year traveling throughout the northeast. His first album, The Crissening, was completed in one month and distributed for free as a promotional album which led to the artist creating a fanbase in his home state of New Jersey.
In early 2009 Jay Criss left Go Large Records to start his own company Monopoly Media Group. This start up coincided with the release of Jay Criss’s second album, Ear Candy, in February 2009. Ear Candy recieved great reviews from its fanbase for its originality and distinctness from what was being created in mainstream hip-hop at the time.
In April 2009 Jay Criss began experimenting and creating the Fresh Fuzion sound. It started with the song Dream Girl, a mixed style of pop synths, alternative rock guitar riffs, R&B harmonies and hip-hop flow. This marked Jay Criss’s first turn from rapping and into a new foreign territory. Armed with a new style and a growing fanbase Jay put together his tour band, Radio Republic, in late 2009. The band features the talents of Elisha Quarles (keyboards), Dobbs (base), Lonnie Baldwin (drums), Ant Battle (electric drums, programming), and Kenny Pisa (guitar).
Early career
Jay Criss began his career in music in 1997 at the age of 12 when he realized he had an ear for music. He began with the stage name Tuga, his family nickname, and soon changed it to Jay Cristal. Soon after, he began taking pi
ano lessons and putting his talent to use in the form of production for local artists and shortened his name to Jay Criss. In the meantime he began studying musical art styles such as jazz, blues, and European classical. The result of Jay Criss’s production and collaboration with his friends and rap artists created an opportunity that soon blossomed into them creating a group called Imperial. In 2001 Imperial released their first full length mixtape entitled “Da Starting Lineup Mixtape Vol. 1″ and went on to distribute 2,000 copies of the cd locally, generating a large local buzz.
In early 2003 Traxx Trigga and former Screwface Music Group CEO Raziq Salam heard Jay Criss’s production and immediately signed him to their new label. Screwface started out as a fledgling production company whose main focus was selling music to established, as well as, up and coming hip hop and R&B Artist. The company went on to create beats for several hip hop artist including: Scarface, Kurupt, Killer Mike, Capone, MOP, Dayton Family to name a few. Over the next year SFMG’s producers would step up to work with almost every major music label and music outlet including MTV and VH-1.
