Joey Badass Gives Lecture at New York University About His Rise in the Music Industry

At 21, Brooklyn MC Joey Bada$$ is building a hip-hop empire and using his talent as a rapper to begin a new career venture as a lecturer. On Friday, Feb. 19, Bada$$ spoke in front of 300 New York University students. During his talk, Joey shared insight into how he has worked his way up the ranks in the music industry by remaining independent and previewed a new song with an a cappella verse. Finally, the rapper took part in a Q+A with the students in attendance and gave advice to the many aspiring artists in the crowd.

Next week, the Pro Era member will hit the road and head up to Cambridge, Mass. to give a lecture at Harvard.

Tonight (Feb. 22) on Beats 1 Radio, Ebro will premiere new music from the B4.DA.$$ rapper on his daily show. The song will play around 7 P.M. EST per his Twitter account.

Signed to Cinematic Music Group, Joey turned heads when his debut album charted at No. 5 on the Billboard Top 200 chart with 58,000 records sold in its first week. Bada$$ and Cinematic founder Johnny Shipes have developed quite the working relationship and the two have their sights set on even bigger goals as their careers progress.

“We wanna be like...[Dr.] Dre and Jimmy [Iovine] if you will,” Shipes told Billboard. “But Johnny and Joey on our own shit in our own way…it feels good to just know that I’m in business with someone where all my time and energy can go and it’s appreciated.”

With a top-5 charting album, involvement in a Calvin Klein ad campaign and a worldwide tour under his belt, Joey is well on his way to reaching his goals.

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