J-Wess
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J-Wess or J Wess or the J-Wess Project is an Australian urban musician who has had a top twenty album in Australia in 2004 with J Wess presents Tha LP. Three singles from the album have been hits in Australia - "What Chu Want" going top 10 in February 2004, "Luv Ya" reaching number 15 in June 2004, and "Bang This" reaching number 18 in August 2003.
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Early years
J-Wess was born James Essex in Los Angeles, California in 1970. He grew up surrounded by music with his parents having albums by Motown greats and his favourites being George Clinton, Dr. Dre, DJ Quik and Raphael Saadiq.
Before graduating,his son Justin was born in 1991. Unable to support his son he began looking for options outside the US. However, he was also talented in basketball playing college basketball as part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) while studying business finance. In 1999, J-Wess was invited to Australia to play with the Gold Coast Rollers, a National Basketball League, Australia based on the Gold Coast, Australia. Unfortunately, the Gold Coast Rollers folded shortly after he arrived so he moved to Adelaide to play with the Woodville Warriors and the South Australia Panthers in the subsidiary Australian Basketball Association.
In Adelaide, J-Wess renewed his interest in music. While he had often been involved in arranging the music for his basketball teams, he joined Adelaide's club scene befriending local DJs such as Nigel Reynolds aka Agent 86 or DJ Dumb. He quickly built a reputation resulting in a deal with Festival Mushroom Records.
What Chu Want - Chart Success
In the middle of 2003, J-Wess's first single "Bang This" was released. Featuring the contributions of MC Digga and the vocal talents of Kulaia, it quickly gained airplay on Australian radio and Australian video programs. The single reached a peak of number 18 on the ARIA singles charts and the top ten of the Australian urban and dance charts.
The second single "What Chu Want" featured the talents of Lolly as well as MC Digga and Kulaia and was released in late 2003. It reached the Australian top 10 in February 2004 and went gold.
His album J Wess Presents Tha LP was released on April 5, 2004 and debuted in the Australian top 20 album charts of April 12, 2004, peaking at #19. The third single is "Luv Ya", which debuted at #15 on June 7 2004.
Discography
- J Wess Presents Tha LP (2004)
Links
- J-Wess web site (http://www.jwess.com/index.cfm/)
- Adelaide advertiser article (http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,9201739%255E31624,00.html/)