Artist Profile - J Rilla
Name: J RillA
Genre: Hip-Hop/R&B
Hometown: Flint, MI
Current City: Sheboygan, WI
(photo credit: Fuzz Martin Media)
Joe Ryan III (J Rilla) is a hip-hop and R&B artist who currently resides in Sheboygan. He was born and raised in Flint, Michigan and eventually moved to the suburbs of Detroit. As a child, he says he was a "mellow, polite kid," who taught himself to play the organ and piano by ear at his father's church.
When J wasn't at the church, he was playing basketball. He eventually became an All-State / All-American player, and even landed a partial scholarship at Tiffin University in Tiffin, Ohio.
J met a woman from Sheboygan, whom he eventually married. The couple became the proud parents of twin boys. However, the marriage ended and his ex-wife moved from Michigan to Sheboygan. J sold everything he owned - including his studio equipment - and moved to Sheboygan to be closer to his boys.
Over the next few months, J was homeless. He spent a lot of time listening to the radio and writing songs in his car. When he heard about the Kiss Icon contest on 103.7 WXSS in Milwaukee, J decided that it would be his chance to make a name for himself. He was able to record and produce, "No Longer Mine," one of the songs that he wrote in his car. He submitted it to WXSS via a Sheboygan library computer just two days prior to the deadline.
There was something unique about "No Longer Mine," as all of the tracks and vocals were created and performed by J, himself. The song sounds like a mashup of L.L. Cool J and T-Pain.
The song was a hit, and it survived the initial screening process, as well as the head-to-head combat stages of the contest. For the final stage of the contest, J had to pull out all of the stops to become the Kiss Icon. Since he was from out of state and did not have many friends or family in Sheboygan, J Rilla turned to social media and old-fashioned marketing tactics to promote his song. He promoted himself heavily on MySpace (http://myspace.com/iamjrilla) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/iamjrilla), and he placed "Vote for J Rilla" fliers on the windshields of cars throughout Sheboygan.
A great song, along with relentless social and grassroots marketing, gave J Rilla the push he needed to become the 2009 Kiss Icon.
After his Icon success, things kept moving up for J. He was asked to perform a Fourth of July set at Milwaukee's Summerfest, and he played to a sold-out audience at Sheboygan's Weill Center.
Now J Rilla is teaching recording and production skills to at-risk teens in Sheboygan. He says that he wants to provide the teens with a positive message and, "show them how I used music as an outlet when I was at the lowest point in my life." J's music will also be featured on the soundtrack for an upcoming movie called, "Eight Year Theory."
You can buy J Rilla's tracks at LaLa.com, Amazon.com, and his music is coming soon to iTunes. He plans to continue pushing his music to radio stations throughout the state and to keep working his way up the ladder.
