Joell Ortiz

When Dr. Dre hears your mixtape, calls you at home and asks if you'd like to meet, you do two things: you say "hell yeah" and hop on the first flight to California. That's precisely what 26-year-old Brooklyn MC Joell Ortiz did. Two days after meeting the West Coast legend, he returned to his native New York as the first Latino rapper signed to Dre's Aftermath Entertainment imprint. Although the heavy-set lyricist's razor-sharp delivery and full-bodied flow have earned him comparisons to fellow Boricua Big Pun, hardcore fans are heaping even greater praise on Ortiz: he's being touted as the MC who can bring that long-lost New York swagger back to mainstream hip hop.

The six-foot-two Ortiz claims he was a high school basketball star with a jaw-dropping SAT score of 1400 when he decided to turn his part-time music hobby into a full-time career. Despite receiving academic and athletic scholarship offers from various colleges, Ortiz would decide to stay home, to both work on his rhymes and take care of his drug-addicted mother. Magazines like The Source and XXL began to take notice of his blue-collar hustle. A victory in the 2004 EA Sports Battle secured his song "Mean Business" a place on video game NBA Live 2005 and record contract with rapper-producer Jermaine Dupri. In a bizarre twist, that contract fell through when the So So Def label head reneged on the deal – according to Ortiz, because the label didn't think it could market a chubby Puerto Rican.

Instead, the occasional street hustler and self-proclaimed "voice of the underdogs" released a well-recieved mixtape, Who the F**k is Joell Ortiz, which eventually found its way to the hands of Dr. Dre's assistant. The good doctor, who provided a shot in the arm to the careers of Eminem and 50 Cent, was instantly impressed, flying Ortiz out to Los Angeles. After a 10 minute meeting, Dre offered Ortiz a two-album contract. Ortiz, however, had already agreed to put out an album with the indie label Koch. Where another artist might have broken his word, Ortiz took the high road.

Last month, Ortiz released The Brick: Bodega Chronicles. The album features guest appearances from La Bruja, Akon, Ras Kass, Big Daddy Kane and The Alchemist as well as Ortiz' own rugged, self-effacing, realer-than-most rhymes. With his mother now clean and sober, a legendary producer in his corner and a new gym membership, the confident yet humble Ortiz could well become the next king of hip hop.