Influenced by the likes of the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac, Joey began to take rapping seriously as he got older. Now he is the stand-out among his Progressive Era crew, a collective of 18 rappers, producers, graphic designers and studio engineers. The young man’s buzz even caught the attention of Mac Miller, who featured Joey on “America,” a track off of his recently released Macadelic mixtape.

All this and Joey hasn’t even dropped his first mixtape, though he estimates that 1999 will come shortly. The recent attention has him ready to step up. “Now I feel like I gotta give them something greater,” he said. “I’m just stressing myself out trying to do something amazing.”