Joell Ortiz

Joell Christopher Ortiz (born July 6, 1980) is an American rapper and former member of the group Slaughterhouse. Raised in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn's Cooper Park Houses, he first gained recognition after appearing in the Unsigned Hype column of The Source Magazine, as well as on the Chairman's Choice list on XXL Magazine.

During this time, Ortiz also competed in and won the 2004 EA Sports Battle, which earned his song "Mean Business" a spot on the NBA Live 2005 soundtrack. He was offered a recording contract to Jermaine Dupri's So So Def Recordings, but signed with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment, an imprint of Interscope Records in 2006. Despite this, his debut studio album, The Brick: Bodega Chronicles (2007), was released independently, along with his subsequent albums Free Agent (2011), House Slippers (2014) and Monday (2019). In 2016 he formed the group No Panty, with Bodega Bamz and Nitty Scott, and released the mixtape Westside Highway Story, produced by Salaam Remi. In 2022, he formed the rap duo Crook and Joell with former Slaughterhouse bandmate Kxng Crooked; they have released three studio albums.