{"id":100370,"date":"2016-01-20T16:45:50","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T15:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blackouthiphop.com\/?p=100370"},"modified":"2016-01-20T16:45:50","modified_gmt":"2016-01-20T15:45:50","slug":"dig-of-the-day-johnny-j-better-off-1994","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/dig-of-the-day-johnny-j-better-off-1994\/","title":{"rendered":"Dig Of The Day: Johnny J &#8211; Better Off (1994)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"344\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SQwt-lN7VfY\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Familiar? This is the original version , two years before <strong>2pac<\/strong>&#8216;s <em>Picture Me Rollin<\/em>&#8216;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Johnny J<\/strong>, a Mexican American multi-platinum songwriter, rapper and brilliant producer active from &#8217;89 &#8211; &#8217;08, known for his early career with <strong>Death Row Records<\/strong> and for his work with <strong>2Pac<\/strong> for <em>Me Against the World<\/em>, <em>All Eyez on Me<\/em> as well as his posthumous albums. <strong>2Pac<\/strong> and <strong>Johhny J<\/strong> hooked up on a serious tip in the studio which resulted in more than a hundred songs they recorded together. <em>Better Off<\/em> is from his debut and only album <em>I Gotta Be Me<\/em>, released on <strong>Shade Tree Records<\/strong> in &#8217;94.<\/p>\n<p>The beat for <em>Better Off<\/em> would later be recycled for <strong>2Pac<\/strong>&#8216;s <em>Picture Me Rollin<\/em>&#8216; on his 1996 album <em>All Eyez On Me<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p> <strong>Johnny J<\/strong> co-wrote and helped produce 11 songs on <em>All Eyez on M<\/em>e and was never paid the $100,000 advance or the per song royalties of 3% he was supposed to receive. This financial dispute has led some to believe <strong>Death Row<\/strong> was somehow responsible for his death; preferring to have him killed (he apparently died by jumping from a tier in L.A. county jail) than to pay royalties which would number in the millions because of the commercial success of <strong>2pac<\/strong> albums he helped produce.<\/p>\n<p>Produced by <strong>Charlie Macc<\/strong> &#038; <strong>Johnny J<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>RIP <strong>Johnny J<\/strong> (August 28, 1969 &#8211; October 3, 2008)<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"100371\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/dig-of-the-day-johnny-j-better-off-1994\/johnny-j\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/johnny-j.jpg?fit=600%2C459&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"600,459\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"johnny j\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/johnny-j.jpg?fit=600%2C459&amp;ssl=1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/johnny-j.jpg?fit=640%2C413&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"johnny j\" width=\"640\" height=\"413\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-100371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/johnny-j.jpg?resize=540%2C413&amp;ssl=1 540w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/johnny-j.jpg?w=600&amp;ssl=1 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Familiar? This is the original version , two years before 2pac&#8216;s Picture Me Rollin&#8216;. Johnny&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pG6fW-q6S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}