I am going to kill two birds with one stone and release my latest blog post and update my site with my artist bio at the same time. An artist bio is an overview of who I am as an artist, what my genre and style is, what I’m working on currently, and what my goals are. You can also find is here.

My name is Jaime “J-Xile” Landers and I am an up and coming rap/hip hop artist and producer from Portland Oregon. My sound could best be described as “Bangin’ west coast beats, with skilled lyricism.” I make beats, produce, engineer, rap, write, and freestyle as well. On top of my musical talents, I am also a talented web designer, graphic artists, and photographer. I built and maintain my own website and own my own indie music company as well, J LAND Entertainment.
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I just wanted to let everyone know that I am making changes to the site this week. I am taking out all static html pages and making everything under word press to make the site more consistent and efficient. I will be also adding new features, and updating everything to optimize for search engines.

I have 7 of the 13 beats for my album done, they are absolutely nuts. I am showing off my versatility big time on this album, and can’t wait for it to drop. In the mean time, check out my latest music and let your friends know about J-Xile. Peace! Northwest

Sorry it has been so long since my last post, I have been extremely busy. I am getting my studio ready to start work on my debut album, and in the meantime I though I would upload all of my favorite song from my back catalog. Most are freestyle that I have done at different points of my career, and others are written song that never made it on an album. There are some Vintage songs that some of my earliest fans will remember, such as Dayz of Our Livez, these songs were recorded on extremely bad equipment ($20 Radio shack mic I still have as a trophy to this day). There are also some of my best collaborations in the mix now as well. It’s crazy to see how far I have come since I started back in 2005. Drop me a comment and let me know what you think.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am adding my flickr sets to my Pictures page. I am also adding my YouTube playlist to the Video page. As some of you have seen, I haven’t had any pics or videos of myself up yet, and I do now. I will soon be adding more videos and pictures, so there is much more to come. Thanks for checking out my site and reading this. J-Xile

www.flickr.com J-Xile’s Pics in old studio (2008) photoset

The purpose of this site is to share with the world my music.  If you didn’t see the line under my logo, my music is Rap music combining life’s stories with bangin’ beats and skilled lyricism.  I would like to think of it as a mix between elements of hip hop, and elements of rap mixed together. I always felt when I listed to rap music that the beats were tight, but the lyrics were always about the same topics; sex, the rich lifestyle, hustlin’, gang banging, murder, etc.  While hip hop always appealed to me because of the emphasis on lyrical content, and rhymes.  Often I didn’t like the beats associated with hip hop, though this wasn’t always the case.  I can think of a lot of dope hip hop beats, but I like the rap sound more when it’s time to get my speakers bangin’.  Most would agree that my music combines both, the tight and hard bangin’ beats of rap, with the thought out lyrics and rhymes of hip hop.

I have been making music since late 2004, and started out free-styling over instrumentals through a $20 Radio Shack mic.  Soon I got bored and decided to start making my own beats.   I tried everything from the MPC + Keyboard, Reason (software), and Acid.  I soon fell in love with FL Studio aka Fruity Loops.  Many people have there own opinions about FL, but in my opinion it is the most powerful music creation tool available.  Once you get past the built in plug-ins and samples and get yor own VST’s and sample packs, there is nothing better. I feel like I can get any sound I want out of FL, and a combo of my favorite plug-ins and drum packs.  FL does have it’s limitations though, mainly multi-track audio recording.

I started out using Cubase SX3, which is a great program, but never felt like I was using the best tool available.  By far the most popular out there is Pro Tools, and for good reason.  It sounds amazing to me, my mix downs always sound exactly how they did in Pro Tools.  Plus I love the fact that I can take my files in any studio in the world and get to work, and take my work back home with me.  The combo of FL and Pro Tools is a match made in heaven.  Any way’s I wanted to share with you what I make my music with. I will share my list of favorite plug-ins and sample packs later on.   I am planning on using this site for multiple purposes, of course to share my music, but also to help people learn how to make great rap themselves through the great tools we have today.  I always wished when I was a kid bumping The Chronic and Doggystyle that I could make music myself.  Thanks to technology making great music no longer takes a record deal and millions of dollars in production costs.  Thanks for reading this and listening to my music. J-Xile