Bravehearts are an

East Coast hip hop East Coast hip hop is a regional subgenre of hip hop music that originated in New York City during the 1970s. Hip hop is recognized to have originated and evolved first in the Bronx, New York City. In contrast to other styles, East Coast hip ...

group from

New York, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

. The group's roster originally included Jungle (born Jabari Jones, son of jazz trumpeter

Olu Dara Olu Dara Jones (born Charles Jones III, January 12, 1941) is an American cornetist, guitarist, and singer. He is the father of rapper Nas. Early life Olu Dara was born Charles Jones III on January 12, 1941 in Natchez, Mississippi. His mother, El ...

, and younger brother of hip hop star

Nas Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air ( ...

), Wiz (born Mike Epps), and Horse (born E. Gray). Horse left the group in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, and Jungle and Wiz carried on as a duo. Wiz was in turn replaced by Nashawn, Nas's cousin.

Biography

Signed to

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

as part of

Ill Will Records Ill Will Records was an American vanity record label founded by Nasir "Nas" Jones. The label was named after Willie "Ill Will" Graham, Nas' childhood neighbor and best friend, who was shot dead on May 23, 1992, when both were teenagers. Nas fo ...

imprint, Bravehearts first emerged in 1998, collaborating with Nas,

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

, and

Trackmasters The Trackmasters are an American hip hop production duo composed of music producers Poke (Jean-Claude Olivier) and Tone (Samuel Barnes), best known for their commercial hit records in the mid-late 1990s and early 2000s. Frank "Nitty" Pimentel joi ...

on "I Wanna Live," a song on the soundtrack to the

Hype Williams Harold Williams (born August 1, 1970) is an American music video director, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. Early life Williams was born in Queens, New York. He is of mixed African-American and Honduran descent. He attended Adel ...

film ''

Belly Belly may refer to: Anatomy * The abdomen, the part of the body between the pelvis and the thorax; or the stomach ** A beer belly, an overhang of fat above the waist, presumed to be caused by regular beer drinking ** Belly dance * The fleshy, cen ...

''. From there, the Nas protégés moved on to the ''

Nas & Ill Will Records Presents QB's Finest ''Nas & Ill Will Records Presents QB's Finest'', commonly known as simply ''QB's Finest'', is a compilation album released on November 21, 2000 and the second release from rapper Nas' new Ill Will Records imprint, distributed by Columbia Reco ...

'' compilation album, and saw their track "

Oochie Wally Oochie Wally is a collaborative single by American rapper Nas and East Coast hip hop group Bravehearts. It was released on January 6, 2001, by Ill Will Records and Columbia Records as the second single for the compilation album ''Nas & Ill Will R ...

" go gold. Jungle and Wiz then began working on their full-length debut for Columbia Records. In the meantime, they appeared on

50 Cent Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, and businessman. Born in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 2000, when he produced ...

's mixtape-style compilation ''Guess Who's Back?'', supporting 50 Cent and Nas on the track "Who U Rep With." The group's debut full-length album ''

Bravehearted ''Bravehearted'' is the debut studio album by the American duo the Bravehearts. A group consisting of Nas' brother Jungle and fellow friend Wiz. Commercial performance The album, however, did not sell well due to little promotion, it only cam ...

'' was released in December 2003 with Jungle and Wiz making up the core group. The album featured guest appearances from Nas, Nashawn,

Lil Jon Jonathan H. Smith (born January 17, 1971) better known by his stage name Lil Jon, is an American rapper, producer and former frontman of the rap group Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz. He was instrumental in the emergence of the hip hop subgenre cru ...

, Jully Black and

Teedra Moses Teedra Shenita Moses (born December 17, 1976) is an American R&B and soul singer. Early life Moses was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. She later moved to Los Angeles with her mother and three siblings after her parents separated. ...

, and the group scored a hit single with the Lil Jon-produced track "Quick to Back Down". There may also have been a slight diss at 50 Cent on track 5 called "Bravehearted" on their album and Jungle also takes a shot at

Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one of ...

. Jungle states in his verse: "Jungle will live by the morals of the street, not like snitch C.J. or bitch Jay-Z." Recently Jungle was featured on a diss track on

G-Unit G-Unit (short for Guerilla Unit) was an American hip hop group formed by longtime friends and East Coast rappers 50 Cent, Tony Yayo, and Lloyd Banks. After amassing a string of self-released mixtapes in the early 2000s, the group released th ...

and

The Diplomats The Diplomats (also known as Dipset) is an American hip hop collective formed in 1997 by childhood friends Cam'ron and Jim Jones in Harlem, New York. The group was originally composed of Cam'ron, Jim Jones and Freekey Zekey, all of whom grew u ...

with rapper Q-Butta called "Gun On Me." In 2009, Nashawn appeared twice on Memphis rapper C-Rock's album "Tha Weight Is Over". He was featured on the track "Street Niggaz", which is a diss to Juelz Santana/Jim Jones, and on the track "We Dons". In 2008, they released their second album, ''

Bravehearted 2 ''Bravehearted 2'' is the second studio album by American hip hop duo Bravehearts from the Queensbridge, New York, who have served as New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United ...

'', with Jungle and Nashawn making up the core group.

Ventures

In 2019, Jungle started his own record label; Street Dreams Record, following in his brothers Nas' footsteps with

Mass Appeal Records Mass Appeal Records is an American independent record label founded in 2014. The label is the music division of the Mass Appeal Media Group. In May 2014, it was announced that American rapper Nas was launching an indie label with Mass Appeal wi ...

. The first artist signed to the label was Kiing Shooter.

Discography

;Studio albums *2003: ''

'' *2008: ''

'' ;Collaboration albums *2000: ''

'' ;Soundtrack Appearances *1998: ''

'' ("I Wanna Live") *2000: ''

Baller Blockin' ''Baller Blockin'' is a 2000 drama film set in New Orleans' Magnolia Projects. It stars Bryan “Birdman” Williams, Ronald "Slim" Williams, Juvenile, Manuel Vazquez, B.G., Lil Wayne, Turk, and Mannie Fresh with cameos by comedians Anthony ...

'' ("What You Gonna Do")

References

External links

Bravehearts
at

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

* {{Authority control African-American musical groups Hip hop groups from New York City Musical groups from Queens, New York Nas