J. Monty 212

J. Monty (born September 9, 1991) is a hip-hop artist, specialized in Christian faith-driven music, raised in South Atlanta and currently based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Taking an interest in creating music at an early age, he was heavily inspired by hip-hop growing up and sought to join the rap scene. His first big opportunity to shine came in 2014, when he entered the “16 Bar Challenge” contest, hosted by CHH portal Rapzilla.com, eventually making it through the finals. The following year saw Monty take his new-found recognition to the next level: he was selected by Rapzilla to feature in their yearly Freshmen list, and then released independently both his debut mixtape Level 54 and his debut album Second Born.

The convincing response surrounding his works gained Monty an even bigger opportunity, as he signed with Sony Music’s first Christian Rap label ever, named Sony Essential (now Provident Label Group). However, the six years spent by Monty being under contract with PLG proved to be pretty controversial: continuous disputes with the staff made him largely unable to release new material, as his output reduced to a handful of singles and features with the likes of Ty Brasel, Koryn Hawthorne and Jude Barclay over the years; meanwhile, Monty experienced an unprecedented collapse in his personal life, losing almost everything he had, from family ties to his own house and car.

The most significant major output of this troubled period came in 2019 as, alongside the fourth chapter of his “100 Bars” series, Monty also published the compilation Testify: Season 1, which collected the musical content he would release every Tuesday for free on all of his social platforms, to “testify to the existence of God.” Even this project was affected by the artist’s label issues, though, as it got removed from streaming services shortly after its release.

In 2021, Monty finally broke out of his contract with PLG and became independent again, immediately releasing a “mini-album,” titled Free Me.