About

Jonwayne came onto the Los Angeles music scene by way of the East Los Angeles club Low End Theory circa 2008-09, then emerging as the epicenter of a new generation of hip-hop beat makers: Flying Lotus, Gaslamp Killer, Nosaj Thing, Kutmah, Daedelus. Fresh out of high school, Jonwayne jumped in with homemade rap mixtapes and immersed himself in the scene. "It felt like a golden age," he says, "it was very inspiring."



He first became known as a producer, releasing the instrumental album Bowser (2011)—but it was his over-sized skill on the mic that caught the attention of Stones Throw's Peanut Butter Wolf, who signed him to record an album as an MC.  



As Jon set to work on his debut rap project, he let his presence be known with a series of tapes: Cassette, Cassette 2 and Cassette 3. Each was unplanned, the releases prompted by Jon’s prolific output. And by this time even lawyers for the tobacco conglomerate Phillip Morris took notice of Jonwayne, serving him with a cease & desist notice for a cassette that looked like a pack of Marlboros.



Jon Wayne is the MC/producer's birth name. The Hollywood cowboy, John Wayne (real name Marion Morrison) took his famous screen name from Jonwayne's great-great-great-great-great uncle, General "Mad Anthony" Wayne, a player in the American Revolutionary War. True story. Now Jonwayne's taking back the name—what goes around comes around. – Stones Throw Records

“Pretty much everything about Jonwayne's approach to rap can be summed up in his lines from "You Can Love Me When I'm Dead", in which he explains, "this is rap shit, recite banter with high standards/ cold-blooded art like a salamander on fine canvas." His lyrics are clever and exactingly written, full of dense internal rhymes, and carefully thought-out punchlines… The upside to Wayne's exacting approach throughout is that the production sounds fantastic, a clear indication of where his roots lie as an artist. His sound is minimal, in many cases relying on just piano and subdued drum pattern—live he uses just a sampler and a mic—which works to vivid effect. "Sandals", for instance, relies almost entirely on hi-hats, a perfectly calm match for Wayne's low-key style.” – Pitchfork

“Rap Album One is, in the opinion of this critic, one of the best rap albums of 2013, and will no doubt bring more fans and followers.

Made over the course of a year in a makeshift studio-cum-bedroom set up at the Stones Throw offices, the work emerged from dusk to dawn recording sessions. (He produced most of the tracks himself.) The work showcases his almost Shakespearean ability to shift from dark to light, from the morbid to the comic. Its beats and bars are forward thinking, but the subject is Wayne himself -- here and now. "This is the first album that fully encompasses what I want to do and all the parts of who I am," he says.” – LA Weekly

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