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Noa James, formally known as Blackjack, was born in Southside Jamaica Queens, New York; he had the typical life style of a young male living in poverty. As a teenager, he moved to Pasadena CA, while there he started getting into battles and ciphas, that’s when he realized that he had a way with words and loved being on the mic. From there he moved to San Bernardino CA in his late teens. While working, he met another Emcee who was in a group called H.T.O (Hostile Take Over,) which consisted of a lot of Emcee’s. When the opportunity arose for him to join the group he accepted their offer. He was with H.T.O for a year before he decided that being a solo artist was the better career path for him but in 2007 Noa James reconnected with the C.E.O of H.T.O, Seis One aka Ramone Jones, and decided to collab with the group again. He then hooked up with local producers, started dropping mixtapes, and did talent shows for local radio stations and schools.
To get his name established in the I.E. he started pushing out mixtapes. In early 2004, he dropped his first mixtape entitled, Human Crack in the Flesh. In late 2004, he dropped his second mixtape entitled, Adventures of Blackjack. Both mixtapes combined sold a total of 3,000 copies. Noa James has performed at many of the local I.E. clubs, he has also performed in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. One of the biggest performances of his career came in the summer of 2006. It was an anti-murder campaign called Spit Fest which was held in Los Angeles CA at Leimert Park; there were about ten performers and thousands of supporters.
Currently Noa James and DJ Ad-Seg run a Hip Hop community named Building Blocks Community which was established in May of 2007. Building Blocks is a Sunday night weekly event that has local live performances, emcee battles, beat battle & bboy battles which is located at the new Levels Resturant and Lounge in San Bernardino. Noa James doesn't only do events but he books for events also. Building Blocks also has an Emcee chapter which Noa James currently organizes; it's a group of emcees that support one another at shows, help perfect their craft and also help book shows. Through Building Blocks, Noa James has made a couple names for himself, he is know as The Intelligent, Elegant, Elephant, The Beast of The 9 & The Silverback Of Hip Hop. He has acquired may hosting opportunities; such as Project Blowed IE which he co-host with Ganjah K.
Noa James is currently working on his EP entitled The Intelligent, Elegant, Elephant with features from many of I.E. emcees and producers, such as, Seis One aka Ramone Jones, Jynxx I.E.s Producer of The Year, Arkitek, Magnificent Ruffians, Yasin, Antahlyzah, Robert Redeye, DJ Penn, DJ Ad-Seg & Ganjah K. The EP is scheduled to drop in fall of 2008. Noa James is also featured on many local I.E. artist album, such as, Magnificent Ruffiians' Elevated Soul album, Antahlyzah's What Happen To The Kulture? album & Dj Ad-Seg's Segarachi. A major upcoming project that Noa James is apart of is a compelation entitled Substance for The Masses, which is being dropped by Uneek Records; an I.E. based record company that is known for reggae but is now tapping into the hip hop genre.
Even though Noa James is doing a lot of things be on the look out for more. |
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