James BKS | |
|---|---|
 James BKS in 2015 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Lee-James Edjouma |
| Born | 18 November 1982 Paris, France |
| Genres | |
| Instrument(s) |
|
| Labels |
|
Lee-James Edjouma (born 18 November), better known by his stage name James BKS, is a French lyricist, a music composer and a producer of African hip hop. [1]
Born in Paris, Edjouma's career started out in the US when he signed on Akon's label Konvict Muzik. [2] It was around this time that he was working with famous artists such as R. City, T-Pain, and producing for Sean Combs, Snoop Dogg, Ja Rule, and Booba. [3] He then decided to return to France to focus on his personal project.
He is currently signed to Idris Elba’s London-based label, 7Wallace. [4] [5] He released three singles on the label, featuring Allan Kingdom, Reo Cragun, Ebenezer, Idris Elba, Q-Tip (A Tribe Called Quest), Little Simz and his father Manu Dibango. [6] He also co-founded his own record label and music production company, Grown Kid, with his wife. His music has been aired several times on international radios most notably being playlisted on Annie Mac’s radio show on BBC 1Xtra. [7]
James BKS is also a composer of original scores for feature films [8] and advertisement. [9]
James BKS started performing live in late 2019 in Paris, showcasing his live performance for the first time at La Petite Halle de la Villette. [10] He also performed for the Africa Day event on MTV Base Africa [11] [12] and for Arte Concert [13]
He also performed live before the AFCON finals.
Edjouma is the son of famous Cameroonian musician Manu Dibango.
Emmanuel N'Djoké "Manu" Dibango was a Cameroonian musician and songwriter who played saxophone and vibraphone. He developed a musical style fusing jazz, funk, and traditional Cameroonian music. His father was a member of the Yabassi ethnic group, while his mother was a Duala. He was best known for his 1972 single "Soul Makossa".The song has been referred to as the most sampled African song as well as African artist to date. He died from COVID-19 on 24 March 2020.
Idrissa Akuna Elba is an English actor, rapper, singer, and DJ. An alumnus of the National Youth Music Theatre in London, he is known for roles including Stringer Bell in the HBO series The Wire (2002–2004), DCI John Luther in the BBC One series Luther (2010–2019), and Nelson Mandela in the biographical film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013). For Luther, he received four nominations each for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor, winning one of the former.
"Soul Makossa" is a song released as a single in 1972 by Cameroon saxophonist and songwriter Manu Dibango. It was originally recorded as the B-side for "Hymne de la 8e Coupe d'Afrique des Nations", a song celebrating the Cameroon national football team's accession to the quarterfinals of the Africa Cup of Nations football tournament, as well as Cameroon's hosting the games for the first time; the lyrics were written by Cameroonian poet and musicologist S.M. Eno Belinga. Except for some words in English, it was written in Duala, a native dialect continuum from Cameroon. Manu Dibango later recorded a new version for his 1994 album Wakafrika, titled "Mouvement Ewondo".
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of June in the town of Annecy, France. Initially occurring every two years, the festival became an annual event in 1998. It is one of the four international animated film festivals sponsored by the International Animated Film Association.
Timur Ildarovich Yunusov, better known by his stage name Timati, is a Russian rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur.
Rachel Estelle Irene Prager, better known by her stage name Baby Blue, is a British rapper and singer from London, England. She is known for her work with singer Estelle and collaborations with John Legend, Madness, Sway, Shystie, Ms. Dynamite and Lady Sovereign. Baby Blue has a sound that fuses hip hop with grime, R&B and soul. In 2018, Prager-Riel became "Head of Music" at 7Wallace, Idris Elba's record label.
Kalenna Harper is an American singer and songwriter from Philadelphia. Signing to Bad Boy Records in the late 2000s, she formed the musical duo Dirty Money with label-mate Dawn Richard. The duo was joined by label boss Sean "Diddy" Combs to form Diddy – Dirty Money in 2010. The group released their only album Last Train to Paris (2010) to critical and commercial success, following up with two mixtapes until their disbandment in 2012. From 2014 to 2015, she was a supporting cast member on the VH1 reality series Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta.
"Welcome to St. Tropez" is a song by Swiss DJ and record producer DJ Antoine taken from his studio album 2011. It features vocals by Russian rapper Timati and American singer-songwriter Kalenna. Originally, the song is by Timati and Russian singer Blue Marine. The song became a top-ten hit in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Switzerland.
Xavier Desandre Navarre, a.k.a. XDN, is a French jazz musician, percussionist and drummer.
SoFly and Nius were a French music production and songwriting duo signed to Artist Publishing Group (APG).
Simbiatu "Simbi" Abisola Abiola Ajikawo, better known by her stage name Little Simz, is a British rapper, singer and actress. She rose to prominence with the independent release of her first three albums; A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons (2015), Stillness in Wonderland (2016) and Grey Area (2019), the last of which was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize and won the awards for Best Album at both the Ivor Novello Awards and the NME Awards.
Shakka Philip, known simply as Shakka, is a British singer, songwriter and record producer signed to Pitched Up, Columbia Records and Sony Music.
Djibril Gibson Kagni is a record producer and songwriter. Gibson's first full credit production work was in 2004 on Trouble for American rapper Akon.
Webedia is a company specializing in online media, a subsidiary of the Fimalac group based in Levallois-Perret, France.
"Boasty" is a song by British rappers Wiley, Stefflon Don and Jamaican rapper Sean Paul featuring vocals from English actor and musician Idris Elba. It was originally released by Wiley featuring Mucky in August 2018, and remixed for release with contributions from Stefflon Don, Paul and Elba in January 2019. It reached number 11 on the UK Singles Chart in March 2019. A solo version of the track was released on the rapper's 14th studio album, Boasty Gang – The Album, which was released on 22 June 2020.
Kaamelott: The First Chapter, also known as Kaamelott: First Installment is a French comedy-drama fantasy film written, directed, produced by and starring Alexandre Astier, and a sequel to the television series Kaamelott created by Astier.
Lou Jean, known on stage as simply Lou, is a French singer.
Franklin Boukaka was a Congolese baritone singer, guitarist, and songwriter who is recognized as a pioneer of Congolese popular music. He performed in bands based in each of "the two Congos," i.e., the countries now named the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; toured worldwide; achieved broad popularity; took outspoken political stances; and is widely believed to have been the victim of an extrajudicial execution during an attempted coup in the Republic of the Congo.
Julien Franck Bouadjie Monono Kamgang, better known as Tayc, is a French singer and songwriter. Prior to the release of his triple album titled Nyxia (2019), he released two mixtapes and a number of singles. His second album called Fleur froide (2020) hit the charts which launched his international career. Tayc's latest release is called Fleur froide - Second état : la cristallisation (2021) accounts for various new singles as well as previous one from Fleur Froide.