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      10.21.08 - Martini Dreams available now through all your favorite digital outlets, including iTunes & Amazon!

About J.J. Sinatra:
           After another evening of difficult feats performed with casual mastery, J.J. Sinatra signs his bar tab as Paxil Rose and heads for the door. He's had enough elbow rubbing with notable personalities, at least for one night. Though the lobby is dimly lit, his complexion glows and shimmers as if just returning from a sunbath on the sea drenched rocks of Sicily. On his way out the door he catches a waitress' eyes, their brains simmering with lustful remembrance. Averting her lingering gaze, he loosens the Windsor knot on his imported Periwinkle silk tie and saunters off the premises.

     

      Arriving home he unbuttons his whalebone studded cufflinks and deadbolts the front door behind him. Awaiting him on the kitchen table is his usual dry martini, gently stirred and garnished with fresh marinated capers. As a distant jazz tune echoes through the hallway, the thick aroma of imported oils begins to lace his senses, beckoning him towards the bedroom suite.

     

      Upon entrance, he first notices the steaming Chinese herbal bath, then the luscious female silhouette projecting towards him through the Persian Rosewood and Saffron dressing screen near his closet. Lighting up a Newport he grins, silently celebrating one victory while patiently awaiting his next.

     

      Flashback to 1996: The nation's radio waves are still rich with plenty of Golden Era of hip hop, the downloading craze has yet to decimate album sales and the public is still camping outside local record stores for the latest 2-Pac release. The music business doesn't yet know it, but it's on the verge of a great fundamental change.

     

      Enter teenage Justin Joseph Monastero, a wily young Sicilian whose days and nights were filled with truant officers, relentless underage drinking and excessive promiscuous activity. Now the girls on his block were fine and all, but ultimately Justin desired to meet the type of woman that his old beat-up Omni Horizon just couldn't score him on it's own. In an effort to meet some more sophisticated ladies he began to spin records as a local DJ, a hobby that eventually led him towards the microphone.

     

      Though his lyrical skills were far from mature, J.J. took to rapping instantly; something inside told him he had found his future. Designing his rap persona like a head chef would create a trademark dish, Jay imagined himself as the distant Sicilian cousin of Raekwon, Nas or Jay-Z. He spent the next two years writing verses and sitting in on studio sessions, training efforts that he punctuated with intense live battles on the street corners of South Philly. Though he soon developed the ability to melt anyone in the cipher, there was still one thing that stood between him and performing live on stage: an arsenal of unforgettable songs. Feeling he was surely destined for stardom, Jay shook off the doubters and haters and began to write records.

     

      With the help of Q-Ball, DJ for the international act "The Bloodhound Gang", J.J. wrote and recorded "Martini Dreams", his debut full-length LP. Weaving tales of thick chicks, custom boots and fly foreign suits overtop of classic hip-hop beats, Justin Joseph's efforts quickly earned him his first label deal, a multi-record contract with Universal Recordings. Feeling as if his loafers were laced with platinum linguini, J soon found himself wearing aardvark-skin hoodies and tanned octopus leather jackets, rocking stages and dropping rhymes on a level and scope he had only dreamt about.

     

      His first tour took him across the Atlantic and into Eastern Europe where screaming Yugoslavians in sweat soaked extra-medium undershirts cheered him on in husky foreign dialects. Though Jay was having the time of his life, the challenges that face every touring musician soon began to take their toll on him: while overseas his drinking became daily and profuse and to complicate matters, he was beginning to develop a drugography that could rival any original member of Mötley Crüe.

     

      Upon his return to the states, Justin found himself broke, burnt-out and despondent, spending most of his nights slumming on friends' couches. He spent the majority of his days in the streets around Philly, bumming cash to pay for forged prescriptions and then subsequently, bumming rides to go pick them up. Drama followed drama until one day he finally hit rock bottom and decided to enter rehab. Thinking about all the great opportunities that lay in front of him he vowed to fulfill his potential, cut off all his drug connections and focus on his rhyming like he never had before. It was during this extended period of self-examination that he began his transformation into the stone cold Italian playboy that you all smell today......Mr. J.J. Sinatra, the original Vinny Velvet.