2025 has already been a pretty good year for great Hip-Hop releases and Joell Ortiz looks to throw his hat into the ring now too. By releasing his very introspective and reflective new single, PTSD. Where over the very soulfully cinematic Heatmakerz production Ortiz shows once again why he is one of the greatest emcees and lyricist’s to ever touch a mic. Especially when it comes to inspiring and introspectively reflective Hip-Hop so many who grew up in many of the same hoods and neighborhoods that Joell Ortiz did can relate to. With such standout bars as, “Milk crates, benches, car-hoods, chain-linked fences. (Uh-huh) Have a seat in my hood, you in the trenches. (Woo) Barbells in a park, we bench lift, monkey bar henchman. (Uh) Pull-up, push-ups, and dip-off through the back entrance. (Yeah). One of us drop, we retaliate with extreme vengeance. (Brr). One of my boys couldn’t read, they gave him a mean sentence. (Damn). Trauma, don’t get picked off by the lama bean. Been in so many problems, you dizzy. Yeah, the drama mean. (Oh) Picture this kind of scene. Daddy gone, mom a fiend. I’m a teen, peace shoot with lama beans. What I have seen with my two eyes is obscene. It crept inside my dreams. Jumping out my sleep, I screamed till I was 19. (Oh). And that’s only the stuff I share. There’s a behind the scenes that only me and God know well. May the choir sing. (Amen)” Showing so and some of the traumas and PTSD that Joell and so many others who grew up in the environments like he and so many other Hip-Hop greats grew up in went through.
Joell Ortiz also along with the introspectively reflective single, debuting a just as introspective and reflective Cisco-directed accompanying video for the track. That sees Joell going through many of the streets, train stations, cemeteries and parks at or near the Brooklyn neighborhoods he grew up in. As he spits his introspectively and reflective bars that can maybe help others get through some of those same traumas and bouts of PTSD. That are brought even more to life by the introspectively cinematic and perfectly captured shots of those areas. Which Joell Ortiz raps about.
Along with the new single and video also comes the news that Joell Ortiz will be one of the latest great Hip-Hop emcees and lyricist’s to drop new music this year. With his newest solo album, Love Peace and Trauma, that is set to drop in a week and a half on, Sept. 19th. Another sure to be highly-anticipated Hip-Hop release that years down the line could be among many great and stellar Hip-Hop releases that came to be remembered for being released here in 2025.
