James The Prophet Gets Autobiographical On 'Up & Down'

With his debut album Unimaginable Storms out Friday via Sony Music / Rupture, rising 20-year-old rapper James The Prophet unveiled a final preview today with a soulful, autobiographical new single"Up & Down." Amidst a backdrop of richly colored beats blending jazz, soul, funk, and old school hip hop, this new album is eclectic, but unswerving in its consistency - holding 10 tracks on which James graciously slows the torrent of his demons and visions.

Socially conscious, insightful singles like jazz-funk banger "Power On," towering Trumpism protest song "G.O.P" ft. French platinum artist Kalash Criminel, "Get it Right" and "The Truth" offered a sample of why James' chameleonic flow has launched a meteoric rise in France (hip-hop's second biggest market). A pair of introspective lo-fi cuts released in June like "Tobago" ft. Chester Watson and "Sentinel" ft. UK rapper Lord Apex have further cemented James' status as an ascendant global talent not to be missed.

In a genre that can be driven so much by ego, James' more reflective bars are what set him apart. "It's important to be real. My sensitivity is my strength," he says. "When I started rapping it was really about my emotions. It was so much easier to express myself in verse - like therapy, I guess. We should teach men to be more open and less about toxic masculinity."

The album's title then is a nod to the fact that beyond what may be apparent visibly, everyone is dealing with their private crises. "'Unimaginable Storms' represents the idea you could be six feet away from someone and have no idea what they're going through. I thought the idea was something anyone can relate to - not knowing what the person opposite you is thinking or feeling," he explains.

Triple citizenship has given O'Brien an outsider status befitting his prophetic moniker: one foot in all three cultures, at home in none. Unimaginable Storms is a similarly paradoxical album - at once visceral and inviting, silky-smooth and barbed, amorous and anxious, melancholy and spirited, cool and gloomy, discreet and sometimes exposed.

James was recently contacted by the French Embassy in Houston, TX to record a performance and conversation with the platinum rapper Bun B, which aired on June 21 for Fête de la musique, France's World Music Day here. Following last year's We Love Green festival with Young Thug, Lana Del Rey & Bad Bunny, he'll be opening up for hip hop legend Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) soon. James' early freestyle went viral after being shared by the country's biggest rapper Booba. He went on to share stages with all-timers like The Pharcyde, appearing on France 24, Vanity Fair, GQ and beyond.

In 2018, James was a promise, a future conjugated in the present tense, the kid no one saw coming who had what it takes to break the status quo: the petty habits of a rap scene fast-gentrifying. With Summer Archives, his first mixtape for Rupture, James The Prophet dug deep, probing his guts and thoughts in an act of explosive intimacy. Maybe James wasn't yet a prophet in his country, but his name started to circulate. The follow-up, Unimaginable Storms is here, bringing with it the hint of a new generational voice in the global hip hop world.

To post a comment, you must register and login.