Jipsta

John Patrick Masterson (born October 13, 1974), known professionally as Jipsta, is an American rapper, songwriter, and music producer.

Jipsta's first official live performance took place at a talent show sponsored by the institution in 1987 which he entered at the last minute on a dare.

Jipsta, only 12 years old at the time, ultimately won the contest.

In an interview, Jipsta revealed that he entered the contest using the stage name "LL Cool JP," a clever hybrid of his nickname "JP" and that of hip-hop legend LL Cool J.

The story about this event is the subject of the song "7th grade," which is the first track on the Swaggerific album.

Jipsta later earned a Bachelor's degree in Psychology at Queens College -City University of New York, and a Master's of Science degree at St. John's University.

Jipsta went on to study music at Bayside High School (New York City), in Queens, where he was the Valedictorian of the 1992 graduating class.

Other notable alumni of the performing arts high school include Olivia (singer), Action Bronson, and Mic Geronimo.

Jipsta was accepted to study at Long Island Lutheran Middle and High School, a college preparatory school in Brookville, New York.

It was here that Jipsta first discovered rap music.

Serving as an homage/re-invention to the classic Vanity 6 song "Nasty Girl," the track featured house singer Inaya Day, who herself had covered the song in 2004.

The song remains Jipsta's most recognizable single in terms of club play, longevity, and sales.

Although the song never broke into the Top 10, peaking at #13 on the Billboard Club Play chart, it spent a total of 14 weeks on the chart.

A large part of the single's widespread appeal and chart success longevity was attributed to the white label bootleg Mashup (music) by San Francisco-based Billboard reporting DJ Jamie J. Sanchez.

To gain more creative control over his debut album and future releases, Jipsta founded his own independent label, Bandoozle Beatz.

Jipsta's unique style of layering intricate lyrics over uptempo house music beats has resulted in seven consecutive appearances on the Billboard Dance Club Songs Chart since 2007 when his debut single "Don't Act Like You Don't Know" was released.

Jipsta began releasing music on MySpace in 2007, including an early demo version of what would eventually become his debut single, "Don’t Act Like You Don’t Know."

Released independently on Juiced Up records, the song quickly became a breakout and spent 4 weeks on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart in 2008, peaking at No. 42.

Its inclusion on the February 2008 issue of the Promo Only Mainstream Club disc alongside mainstream artists such as Mary J. Blige and Natasha Bedingfield was based on the positive response the track received from club play.

The success of "Don't Act" caught the attention of Ranny, a Boston-based DJ who himself has charted on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart, and DJ Mike Cruz who both contributed mixes for Jipsta's sophomore release,"Middle of the Dancefloor."

Ranny, who had established an independent label of his own, RockBerry records, signed Jipsta to the label, and "Middle of the Dancefloor" was the first official release on the RockBerry imprint.

"Middle of the Dancefloor" rapidly jumped up the Billboard chart, peaking at #6 for two weeks, making it Jipsta's first Billboard Top 10 single.

The song spent a total of 14 weeks on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart, and is also noteworthy as it is the first time an openly gay white rapper earned a Billboard Top 10 single on the Dance Club Songs chart.

The success of "Middle of the Dancefloor" paved the way for Jipsta to work with more well-established and commercially successful remixers and producers for his third single.

Jipsta's breakthrough moment came with the release of his third single, a progressive, genre-bending cover of the George Michael classic 80's single, "I Want Your Sex."

Chris Cox (DJ) (one half of the Grammy-Nominated remixing duo Thunderpuss) signed Jipsta to his Provocative Music/Interhit Records label, and "I Want Your Sex" quickly hit the Billboard Dance Club Songs Chart with a vengeance, with the song entering the chart as the Hot Shot Debut at #43, and then jumping to the #21 spot as the Power Pick in its first three weeks of release.

Jipsta is also widely known for his genre-bending cover songs; the most popular of which is his cover version of "I Want Your Sex" by George Michael which reached No. 4 on the Billboard Dance Chart in 2009.

Jipsta's notoriety increased significantly when he was asked to collaborate with RuPaul on the song "Sexy Drag Queen," which was heard regularly on the television program Rupaul's Drag Race.

Jipsta is an openly gay man and has been in a relationship with his partner for nearly 20 years.

Born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Queens, Jipsta is of Italian, Scottish, and Irish descent.

Jipsta was raised in a single parent household as his father died from pancreatic cancer.

Jipsta cited his mother Patricia as the person who introduced him to and fostered his love of music.

The song climbed to the #4 position on May 2, 2009, making it Jipsta's first Top 5 Billboard single.

The single also did well in the international market, making its impact on Billboard's "Global Dance Tracks" chart based on worldwide club play alone.

Jipsta filmed his first official music video in support of the single, which aired in heavy rotation on Logo's Click List Top 10 countdown as well as on Logo's NewNowNext Pop Lab program.

Jipsta released his fourth single called "Nasty Boy" in March 2010.

Jipsta has released six studio albums: Bandoozle (2011), Turnt Up (2013), Ban2oozle (2017), "Swaggerific" (2019), "Year of the Tiger" (2021), and most recently "ORIGAMI"(2022).

Jipsta released the highly anticipated debut album, entitled "Bandoozle" in May 2011 to positive reviews.

It entered the iTunes Charts Top 200 dance albums in the Top 50 and remained on that chart for over five months.

Bandoozle contains the album versions of the previous released stand-alone singles "Don't Act Like You Don't Know," "Middle of the Dancefloor," and "I Want Your Sex" plus 11 new songs recorded for the album.