J-Ax

A life-long resident of Milan and its suburbs, J-Ax (short for "Joker Alex") was born Alessandro Aleotti on August 5, 1972. Beginning in 1990, he spent nearly 15 years as the frontman for the hip-hop duo Articolo 31, whose first album, Strade di Città, came out in 1993. With partner DJ Jad, J-Ax helped define Italian rap, mixing deft rhymes with both American and Italian rock influences. In fact, by the time Articolo got to their sixth album, 2002's Domani Smetto, they had practically turned completely to pop and rock -- also perhaps because J-Ax worked on this album almost co...