Artist: Ms. Jade(Chevon Young)
Reppin`: Philly (Nicetown section)
Influences: Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Notorious BIG
Breakthrough Single: "Feel The Girl"
Producer(s): Timbaland
Album: "Girl, Interrupted" (Guest Appearances by: Jay-Z, Nelly Furtado, Petey Pablo)

She`s different than Foxy, different than Lil` Kim, different than Trina. Different than Eve. Unlike many of today’s young female music stars — from rap to pop to R&B — Ms. Jade doesn’t have to use sex talk to draw people to her music. She hypnotizes you with her true MC skills: a menacing delivery for supercharged street lyrics that penetrate and explode when they hit your ear.

Ms. Jade was born Chevon Young on Aug. 3, 1979. Her mother is a dietary assistant, while her father works in a tile and rug factory. Her parents struggled financially at times, but they never let their only child want for anything. Ms. Jade grew up in a section of Philly called Nicetown, which incidentally didn’t live up to its name. “No, it wasn’t a nice town at all,” Ms. Jade said of the area, which actually wasn’t as bad as its reputation. “It was a small little neighborhood where everybody knew everybody. Everyone went to the same school. I lived there all my life. I never moved.”

As a youngster, Ms. Jade got into the work of rocker Pat Benetar and would memorize theme songs from her favorite television commercials. By the time she was 9, however, she fell in love with Ja net Jackson’s music, particularly the dance-pop diva’s 1986 “Control” album. Soon after her mother bought her Jackson’s cassette, Ms. Jade memorized the lyrics and sang her favorite songs in school talent shows.

Three years later, Ms. Jade heard female rappers MC Lyte and Queen Latifah on the radio. It was, in effect, her introduction to rap music. And she loved it. “I remember I memorized Queen Latifah’s song ‘Ladies First’ before it even came out,” Ms. Jade recalled. “I would sing it the whole lunch period. People would come up to me to ask me to sing it and I would be gloating like I wrote it.” When her mother bought her an MC Lyte tape for Christmas, Ms. Jade played it often, rewinding it until she had written all the words down. “I was totally into it,” she said. “I just wanted to learn every word, word for word. I wanted to learn the ‘uhs’ and the ‘ahs’ — everything.”

During her years at Abraham Lincoln High School in Northeast Philadelphia, Ms. Jade found English and music to be her favorite subjects. As a junior, she won first place in the school’s talent show for her rendition of “How Could You Call Her Baby” from the “Waiting to Exhale” soundtrack. Although she had only written a handful of raps by the time she graduated in 1997, Ms. Jade listened to Lil’ Kim, Foxy Brown, Mase and the Notorious B.I.G.

While studying to become a hair stylist at Gordon Phillips Beauty School in downtown Philly’s Center City, Ms. Jade earned a side job recording background vocals for then-local rapper Meek Mills in an area studio. Ms. Jade eventually wrote a rap of her own and read it to producer Dean Murda, who liked what he heard and encouraged her to write more. “After that, I would write more every day because I had a lot to say,” said Ms. Jade, whose rap name comes from a female fighter from the “Mortal Kombat” movie. “I didn’t tell anybody I was writing raps. I just did it. It wasn’t hard. It just came naturally, so that’s why I wrote more. Stuff kept popping into my head, so I’d write it down.”

Ms. Jade wrote raps at work and, on five occasions, took bus trips to New York City to meet with Craig King, who had a production deal with Atlantic Records. King featured Ms. Jade on his artists’ albums, but none of the material ended up being released. Ms. Jade kept on writing raps, even after she graduated from beauty school in 1999. By that time, she was working with her current manager, Terrance Glasgow. Ms. Jade recorded four solo tracks, including “Take it on the Chin,” a song that was later revamped to appear on Ms. Jade’s Interscope release as “Why U Tell Me.”

Looking to increase her street credibility, Ms. Jade joined ciphers – groups of neighborhood rappers who battle each other rhyme-for-rhyme. Ms. Jade would rap for people on the spot with her aggressive no holds bar lyrics like, “I hate a jo jo bitch, a no doe bitch, a try to test my skills, now that’s a no no bitch, a fake brag bitch, a switch tag bitch…” from her most popular freestyle rhyme “The Bitch Rap.”

After recording eight or nine tracks with Philly producer Staxx, Ms. Jade landed a meeting with Jay Brown of Elektra Entertainment at his New York office. After she spit a pair of raps for Brown, he brought her upstairs to meet rapper Missy Elliott, who listened and immediately got Timbaland on the speakerphone. “She was like, ‘What did y’all come up here for?’ ” Ms. Jade said. “I was like, ‘For a deal.’ She was like, ‘You’ve got it.’ ”

Elliott called Ms. Jade the next week to record some material. One song, the Timbaland-produced “Slap! Slap! Slap!” appeared on Elliott’s 2001 album, “Miss E ... So Addictive.” Ms. Jade also rapped on a remix for Lil’ Mo’s song “Superwoman.” “My head was going crazy because I was really nervous and happy,” said Ms. Jade, who writes all of her own lyrics. “I was nervous most of all, though. The whole Missy-Timbaland thing was throwing me off. But then I was real happy because everything I did came out real good.”

From there, Ms. Jade went to Los Angeles for three weeks and recorded the song “In Time” for the 2001 Timbaland & Magoo album Indecent Proposal. Ms. Jade also began recording tracks for her own album while out in L.A., putting in a 12-hour session that lasted until 6 o’clock in the morning. “She’s a very aggressive strong woman” reveals Timbaland. Learning to flow to Timbaland’s patented style of beats wasn’t easy at first, but Tim and rapper Petey Pablo helped Ms. Jade get her timing down pat.

Ms. Jade, who officially signed to Timbaland’s new Beat Club label in August 2000, was part of the package when Interscope signed Beat Club. She spent 2001 putting the finishing touches on her album, as well as rapping on Timbaland’s remixes of Nelly Furtado’s song “Turn Off the Light” and Beat Club labelmate Bubba Sparxxx’s hit “Ugly.”

Ms. Jade wants to set another example of how, through hard work, people can get whatever they want out of life. “I’ve never been the type of person to fit in,” Ms. Jade added. “I’m not into the sexual bandwagon. I want somebody to listen to my music because they like it, not because they think I’ve got nice breasts and a big butt. I want them to like my music because I’m nice. It’s as simple as that. I’m not a copycat. There’s not another female rapper like me. I’m nice, so respect it.”