At the age of 17, Ortiz made the decision to pass on both an academic and basketball scholarship to stay in Brooklyn. He was featured in the "Unsigned Hype" column of the March 2004 issue of The Source and was also selected as Chairman's Choice in XXL. During the same time Ortiz also went on to win the 2004 EA Sports Battle which earned his song "Mean Business" a spot on the NBA Live 2005 soundtrack. The same year he was offered a contract to Jermaine Dupri's So So Def label. The deal quickly soured, resulting in bad blood between Ortiz and Dupri. In 2007 he signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath record label. Joell has since collaborated with KRS-One and Kool G. Rap.