World renowned Hip Hop producer J Rawls is a proud native of Columbus, Ohio’s southeast side. Several years after he started honing his craft for producing, he got his first big break as the producer of Mos Def and Talib Kweli’s hit Brown Skin Lady and Yo Yeah on the infamous Black Star album. The connection was made while living in Cincinnati after attending college at the University of Cincinnati. He was moving and shaking in a circle of fellow producers that includes Hi-Tek and Fat Jon. Since then, he has and continues to produce for and perform with a number of Hip Hop and R&B recording artists. In addition to national recording artists that range from Eric Roberson to The Beastie Boys, he has also worked with a number of local recording artists such as Rashad and has solo albums as well. He produced an album for Middle Child and cut three albums with the Liquid Crystal Project, who will be performing at the King Arts Complex’s Heritage Concert Series on August 9th, 2012.
Holding it down as a devoted husband and father, he’s also busy this summer touring Europe and teaching a class on Hip Hop at Tiffin University. His home base is still here in central Ohio and BLACK CENTRAL™ had the opportunity to sit down with him before he left for Europe. He shared with us that he has some exciting projects coming up. We’ll stay tuned to that and share info with you as we get it. He is also still a member of the Usual Suspects Crew and has an internet radio show on DPS Radio.
If you live in central Ohio and haven’t experienced the jazzy hip hop style of J Rawls, be sure to come out to Easton on August 15th to enjoy his performance with the Liquid Crystal Project at Easton’s “Sounds on the Town” Concert Series from 6pm – 9pm. Also support The Jazz Hop Movement.
You can hear a snippet of one of his tracks if you happen to catch our radio promotions this summer. The song you’ll hear is Know You from his Jay ARE collaboration with John Robinson. We wish Columbus’ own J Rawls the best in all of his endeavors.