Juelz Santana Biography

news-details Having his second solo piece, �What the Game's Been Missing!� hit the streets in November 2005, Juelz Santana later happily celebrated the set success in securing the 9th place at Billboard 200. Adding his another success, during the same year the rapper also was featured on Chris Brown's hit album �Run It!� which was ranked #1 for three weeks on Billboard Hot 100 and placed #2 on US R&B/Hip Hop charts for two weeks as well as ranked #24 in US Rap charts. Amidst the glorious year, Juelz shockingly announced that he's 23 years old and has a 2-year-old son. In fact, instead of creating a buzz, the statement indeed tend to assist him in getting more media and public attention that at last brought positive impacts on his music career.

A Harlem, New York, USA born native, Juelz is a half African American and half Honduran. He was born on February 18, 1982 carried out the name of LaRon Louis James. Living his life as a teen, the 12 years old boy firstly started his rap career with his long time friend, Malik, as a rap duo called "Draft Pick." The twosome had several gigs around New York City while performing together, including Amateur Night at the world famous Apollo Theatre, where they won two weeks in a row. The duo was then picked up by Priority Records, but it wasn't long until Juelz was introduced through his cousin to fellow Harlem rapper Cam'ron mainly because of the believe that the time has come for Juelz's unique style to be heard. Despite the group inexistence, Juelz still remains good friend with Malik, while at the same time continued to believe in himself and his unique style. And so Juelz's cousin had him rhyme for Cam. "Cam didn't even know he was gonna meet me," Juelz recalled. "He was sleeping. So we wake him up and do the introductions and Cam tells me to spit for him and his reaction wasn't like it was hot. He was sleeping."

To his surprise, only a week later Cam called and asked him to the studio, recording a verse for the cut, "Double Up" off of Cam's second album "SDE" stands for Sex, Drugs and Entertainment. Things started getting better when Cam next signed to Roc-A-Fella Records and subsequently had his group The Diplomats, whose members include Jim Jones, 40 Cal, Hell Rell, Jha-Jha, SAS, and Freekey Zeekey, landed under the same label. Penned a seven-figure label deal with them all, The Roc creating Diplomat Records with Juelz as vice president. This was quite a good beginning for Juelz career, signing that he could do much better in the future. Approvingly, he afterwards was billed to make guest appearances on Cam's 2002 smash hit singles �Oh Boy� and �Hey Ma� off of his �Come Home With Me� LP, which led to a starring role on The Diplomats group album �Diplomatic Immunity� and its hit �Dip Set Anthem.�

In the meantime, Juelz kept sharpening his singing skills, preparing his way to start a solo career and release his own album. And as his level of creativity for rhyming has continued to rise over the past year, he released his full-length debut, �From Me To You,� on August 19th, 2003, featuring the single "Santana's Town" which features infectious hook from Cam. Also the set consists of another touching track, �Raindrops� which is about his grandmother. It's obvious to everyone that this solo debut reflects the things Juelz has experienced by that time, about which he said "I want people to see who I am, who Juelz is. Hip-hop wants a change right now. The same people have been doing it for six or seven years. It's not that it's not hot music it's just that it's too common. It needs to be resurrected. I can resurrect it."

Prior to releasing his follow-up, Juelz remained actively involved with The Diplomats' popular mixtapes and finally had his second album, �What the Game's Been Missing!� released in November 2005. Did greater that its predecessor, the set gloriously sold 141,000 copies only weeks after the release date. Previously released the album's two singles, namely "Mic Check" and "There It Go (The Whistle)," the latter of which once successfully entered the Billboard Hot 100 charts, rounding out its Top 10 by December 22, while was ranked #11 in US R&B/Hip Hop and #10 in US Rap charts as well.