Artist Name
Jae P
Artist Website
Artist Email
Please email through the website
Track 1: You Don't Know My Name
Track 2: A Wonderful Dream
Born on the 3rd of July 1982 in Accra, Ghana, Jae P (born Kwame Barfour-Osei) moved to England at the tender age of 1. At the age of 7 he relocated with his family to Ghana. During his early years he drew musical inspiration from the likes of Lords of the Underground, Naughty by Nature, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Kris Kross. Till this day, he says these groups influenced him with their musical style, image, lyrical content and beats. His other musical influences include Jay-Z, Notorious BIG, Common and Talib Kweli.
It was however not until he moved back to the UK that his hunger for musical success and recognition began to receive major fuelling. At the age of 14, he started writing songs to beats he would make by looping the ends of popular hip-hop records - this was the beginning of the inner producer. After teaching himself the art of cutting and sampling on the PC software program Cool Edit, he started making his own beats for the songs he had written by cutting and pasting drum sounds, loops and pasting them all together for a 3 minute instrumental. He continued to make beats and demos in his bedroom during high-school in the hope he would have the opportunity to produce for his hip-hop influences someday. He only started to rap himself because he found it hard to find other young emcee’s in his area to rhyme over his beats.
“I’ve always been a producer first… I only started to rap because no one would rhyme over my beats…”
Music has always been a medium of self expression and a means of escaping some of the harsh realities of life. He always expresses his feelings whether bad or good through his beats and lyrical content and considers his form of hip-hop to be very eclectic, with influences from his multicultural upbringing. For Jae P, making music is his way of
"Escaping some of the harsh realities of life…I’m in my own little world when I’m making a beat…or writing a song.”
Understanding the need and benefits of education and also taking his fathers influence in academics, he continued to succeed in his education and returned to Ghana in 1999 to study Economics at Ghana's prestigious University of Ghana, combining his love for music with his academics – graduating with BA (Honours) degree in Economics. Furthermore, most recently in 2005, he graduated with an MSc in Economic Management & Policy from Glasgow’s Strathclyde University. Now I wonder what Kanye West will think of that!!??
To date, Jae P has played live in several cities including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee (with BBC Radio 1Xtra), Liverpool, London, Perth and Accra (Ghana). He has supported the likes of Sway, Gemma Fox, Slum Village and the Pharcyde. His songs “Travelling Man”, “Take It There” and “Listen” (taken off his One/Ansa EP with Myth) have enjoyed support on XFM (Scotland) and BBC Radio 1Xtra and BBC Radio 1. “Take It There” was also added to the Choice FM UK Cuts play list for several weeks. He has independently released an EP with fellow MC Myth called “One/Ansa” which received credible reviews in music magazines such as Skinny & Hip-Hop Connection and is currently working on his first solo full length album called “Unsigned & Hungry Vol. 1”. The first single off the album &ldquoYou Don't Even Know My Name&rdquo is out on iTunes now and has also received support from DJ’s such as MistaJam and Ras Kwame from Radio 1Xtra.
Understanding the need and benefits of education and also taking his fathers influence in academics, he continued to succeed in his education and returned to Ghana in 1999 to study Economics at Ghana's prestigious University of Ghana, combining his love for music with his academics – graduating with BA (Honours) degree in Economics. Furthermore, most recently in 2005, he graduated with an MSc in Economic Management & Policy from Glasgow’s Strathclyde University. Now I wonder what Kanye West will think of that!!??
As a producer, Jae P (known as “Oneness” when working the boards) has worked with several artists such as L-Marie, Kim Wilson, Nafees, The Haatsville Project, Rich London, JD Era, Ray Robinson and many more. The future definitely looks bright for this young prolific producer/emcee.
