In a recent interview in issue #2 of STASH magazine, he remarked about his home and lifestyle, “This is West Oakland, man. This is the bottom right here.” He remarked that the crime rate was so high, that the city had remodeled the housing units to remove all of the back doors. This way, potential criminals couldn’t escape from home raids by the police.

J Stalin has since recorded and performed with artists such as E-40, The Luniz, Keak Da Sneak, The Team, The Frontline, Mob Figaz, Yukmouth, Numskull, Shock G, and others.

A release entitled “On Behalf of the Streets” was released in early May 2007.

2) Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1922 - 1953, and de facto ruler of the Soviet Union from around 1928. Stalin rapidly industrialised the USSR, which was instrumental in the defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II. However, this industrialisation came at the cost of millions of lives lost in forced labour and the infamous gulags. Stalin also pushed forward with collectivism in farming and his regime saw many advances in science, although areas considered ideologically opposed to the Soviet system (such as genetics) were denied or ignored. Under Stalin, however, education and health care improved and, by Stalin's death, most Soviet citizens had access to a good education and to comprehensive health care.

Stalin's influence on Soviet culture most manifested itself in the Socialist Realist style he sanctioned and, indeed, demanded. This style married a classic, realistic form with blatant Stalinist propaganda. This manifested itself in every aspect of the arts - the paintings of the era; Russian propaganda posters; the neoclassical Soviet architecture and the re-popularisation of Russian and East European traditional musical styles being only a few examples. Stalin's most prominent musical legacy is his replacement of the Soviet national anthem - from the revolutionary Internationale to the Stalin-glorifying, one-country Socialist Hymn of the Soviet Union (written by Russian author Sergey Mikhalkov) - which is, in modified form, still the national anthem of Russia today. However, culture-wise, Stalin is perhaps most remembered for the tight rein he kept over all forms of artistic expression and the proscriptive limits kept on the arts throughout the Soviet period.