Jay Prince

Jay Prince’s star has been steadily rising since his emergence via independent music label Soulection, who invited Jay to tour as their headline live act across the U.S., taking the then-wide-eyed performer to Philadelphia, Texas, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles—destinations he’d never dreamed of visiting but have since become much more familiar, and the latter he now calls his second home. Jay’s ascent has only continued, from supporting Chance The Rapper in 2017 to closing out 2019 on tour with Fred- die Gibbs & Madlib. All this after embarking on a sold out European tour, South African festival dates and a China club tour. The London boy is truly global. But his story isn’t only one of bright lights and big names. Before he was performing to twenty five thousand people at Coachella with his friends Mura Masa and Snakehips, the 26-year-old rapper came of age in the East London borough of Newham. Growing up, Jay Prince refused to be bound by his zipcode destiny. “It’s easy to have a particular outlook from being from Canning Town,” he reflects. “I kind of want to break that cycle.” This message echoes throughout Prince’s music, as he fights to uplift and empower both himself and others. Home is the foundation and inspiration for everything he stands for Prince says. With that, he roughly means all of his adolescent haunts: the Congolese church in Vauxhall where he learned how to play keys at 16, the football pitch where the neighborhood kids would all gather on Sundays, and the youth clubs with studios where he honed his music writing skills. “I feel like the most important thing I want to be able to show is that there is community here,” he says, “where people can do great things.” This message was brought to the big screen in the music video for “BEAMLIGHT”, which was shot exclusively in Canning Town and won the UKMVA Award for “Best Urban Newcomer”. Musically speaking, Prince recently collaborated with Goldlink and Tyler The Creator, on the Juls pro- duced single “U Say, produced a track on both Paul Epworth and Mr Hudson’s albums, and is also fea- tured on the debut album of Bay Area rapper Rexx Life Raj. And beyond music, he was the face of Soundcloud’s first every physical marketing campaign “First On”, and has also appeared in campaigns for Reebok, Belgian designer Arte, and sunglasses brand Arnette and you can hear his tracks “Run It Down” and “Father, Father” on the respective soundtracks to NBA2K20 and Konami’s Pro Evolution soccer 2019 game. Expect this star to keep on rising into 2021 and beyond, as the world anticipates the release of Jay Prince’s debut album.