Jovan Smith (J. Stalin)

- Jovan Smith (born 1976) better known by his stage name J. Stalin, is a rapper from the Cypress Village housing projects in west Oakland. In 2007he signed too the Zoo Entertainment Production Company run. J-Stalin adopted a tough rapper persona he reference Joseph Stalin as his stage name because they shared the initials and he was short like me but he was always smashing on everyone (rapping) everytimes he raps hes always rapping bout his lifestyle.

- J. Stalin's first widely released performances arose when a DJ Daryl, a local recording studio owner, placed him on a track he was recording. A colleague of Daryl's, Richie Rich and YoungDeezie, was impressed enough to put J. Stalin on three tracks in his 2002 album Nixon Pryor Roundtree album and two more as a member of Rich's group, the Replacement Killers. Mekanix and Zoo Entertainment released "On Behalf of the Streets" in early May 2007 J. Stalin is the President of the Town Thizzness, and owner of Livewire Records. The Livewire Gang consists of many artists from various neighborhoods in East, North and West Oakland some of these rappers have also recored albums like Shady Nate, Jay Jonah, Philthy Rich, Stevie Joe, Lil Blood.