The Life and Times of Jonny Valiant
| The Life and Times of Jonny Valiant | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Studio album by Rittz | ||||
| Released | April 30, 2013 | |||
| Recorded | 2012-2013 | |||
| Genre | Hip hop | |||
| Length | 59:38 | |||
| Label | Strange Music | |||
| Producer | Track Bangas, Coop Take Off On Em, Five Points Music Group, Matic Lee, Jonathan McCollum, Kasper Brightside, L. David McCollum, Mike Posner, M. Stacks, Lifted, Bunson & Beaker Beats | |||
| Rittz chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Singles from The Life and Times of Jonny Valiant | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| DJBooth |   |
| Exclaim! | 5/10 |
| HipHopDX | |
| XXL |
(XL) |
The Life and Times of Jonny Valiant is the debut studio album by American rapper Rittz. The album was released on April 30, 2013, by Strange Music. The album features guest appearances from Big K.R.I.T., Mike Posner, Suga Free, Tech N9ne, Krizz Kaliko and Yelawolf.
In August 2012, Rittz signed to Tech N9ne's Strange Music record label. In November 2012, in an interview with HipHopDX, Rittz explained that he was 11 songs into his debut album, saying: "With the 11 songs that I got already, the way I work is that I get the base set. If I can get the base set of the overall sound I’m looking for - the vibe of the album - then I can sprinkle in the other types of records. Story song, insert here. Girl song, insert here. But the music; the production; the beats actually set the tone. I think I’ve gotten that. So, as long as I’ve gotten that - I was a little worried at first because I wasn’t set on the beats. But now I got it. Now it’s just time to put in the spices and make it a complete thing." In April 2013, in an interview with HipHopDX Rittz explained why he chose The Life and Times of Jonny Valiant as the album title, saying:
"When Yelawolf came out with “White Jesus,” I was rapping with another group of people, and my album was going to be called Jonny Valiant Volume Zero. Jonny Valiant is like a nickname of mine...like an alias. It was something back in the day when I was coming up with aliases and shit. Mine was Rittz aka Jonny Valiant, and my real name is Jonny. So the album is real personal. This is the life of Jonny Valiant. It’s a personal look into my life. With White Jesus, it is what it is, and now let’s move on to a more mature stage and really let people in and show who the fuck I am."
He also explained that he took a different approach from his previous mixtapes, saying: "It’s different because I was in a huge time crunch. I was on the Slumerican tour, and I knew I had to write the album...so it’s really hard to write on the bus. I might’ve wrote five songs on the bus. I had a deadline to get an album done on January 31, with recording and everything. I had to come back from the tour in late November and really write it all so fast. The good thing is I knew it was coming, so I got with DJ Burn One about the type of production I wanted. Once I got the backbone of the production, I can put the different spices in different tastes of flavors on top of that. But I needed that backbone. Luckily, Burn One already had those beats sitting in my e-mail to give it that sound, and then I really took the words to it. The difference from this and other projects is really being in a time crunch. I really had to just not over-critique myself and wake up every morning and say, “Look, no matter what happens today, you gotta get at least a song or two done. And you got to present it until this thing’s done.” I never had to do that before."
...
Wikipedia