J.Alexander birth name Jessie Alexander was born in Philadelphia on October 8th 1980. Since the young tender age of three, Jessie was intrigued by the way music sounded to her young ears. When Jessie was four, she was given a piano from her mother for christmas and that's when music started to be a daily focus on her life. By the age of ten, J.Alexander had already written and composed over thirty songs and was invited to be on the Philadelphia district choir in which she gladly accepted. Not knowing how to read music she was still able to play back pieces that she heard and continued to play well through her early teenage years. After spending almost ten years on the choir and performing through out the philadelphia area, she decided that singing wasn't something that she wanted to do anymore. That's when she turned her attention to rap music. Fast forwarding to the age of sixteen, Jessie had a best friend name Kevin who also enjoyed writting rap music. Kevin was extremely good at his craft and said to Jessie "Jay, I promise you that I'm going to blow up, and I'm taking you with me". Unfortunately, Kevin was viciously murdered a month later after that promise was made. J.Alexander was distraught about the lost of her bestfriend and knew she had to do something to keep his dream alive. One day, J.Alexander was listening to a popular radio station back in 1997 known as Phillys 103.9 the beat. The segment called "Zulu and The Family" was known to allow local talent on the radio to compete against each other in which they called "The Cypher". That day, Nas was up at the radio station doing a interview when they decided to start the popular segment. After hearing a couple females come across the airwaves, she told herself that she knew she could beat them. She then called the station to challange these females in which she won that particular competition using the name "Big Jess". J.Alexander continue to call every friday and kept winning each week. She even got the opportunity to battle a well known male rap artist in philly who used the name " The Bull B" who is know known as "Cassidy", She beat him also. After being asked to do a promo for the radio station, she decided to take her young rap career to bigger heights. She continued to write on a daily basis and began recording music in the studio. After recording and working with the label "Ruff Nation" a back then popular label that was the other half of "Ruff House" who had artist such as Lauryn Hill and Kriss Kross, she thought that finally her dream was going to happen. Not being able to lock down a good deal with the label she still continue on with her music. Now having over sixty songs recorded, she decided that maybe the only way to get herself out there was to do it herself. After performing in almost every well known club in Philadelphia, she decided that it was time to work on an album and to drop it herself. The Album "Black Pearl" is due to be released this summer in hopes of gaining a major distribution deal. Now at the age of 27, she feels that she still has the kick and drive she had as a teenager and even more since she's financially doing the album on her own. " I can't get mad at the struggle I been through with this music. I've been propositioned, spun and lied to." she says. " I'm going to do this album on my own and appreciate the cards that was dealt to me. I doing this album from the muscle and my people will appreciate it too."
