Jas prince wikipedia biography

American music executive, promoter and manager

"James L. Smith" redirects here. For the author of the slave narrative, see James Lindsay Smith.

For the Gospel Soca artiste and music producer from Trinidad and Tobago, see J Prince.

J. Prince
Birth name	James L. Smith
Also known as
Born	() October 31, (age&#;59) Houston, Texas, U.S.
Genres
Occupations	Record executive talent manager music promoter
Years active	–present
Labels

Musical artist

James Prince (born James L.

Smith; October 31, )^[1] is an American tape executive, music promoter and talent manager. He founded the Houston-based record label Rap-A-Lot Records in , which has signed artists including UGK, Geto Boys, Scarface, Bun B, Juvenile, Z-Ro, Finesse2tymes, and Devin the Dude.

He and his son Jas possess been credited as an prior career mentors for Canadian rapper Drake.^[2][3][4][5]

Prince has also managed professional boxers such as Floyd Mayweather Jr., Andre Ward, and Shakur Stevenson.

Early life

Prince was born to 16 year old mother Sharon Johnson with an older sister Zenia and younger half-brother Thelton. They grew up in Fifth Ward, Houston's Bloody Nickel apartments, which were known for cocaine use and poverty.^[6] To earn money, he mowed lawns in Shady Acres, played craps, sold stolen cannabis plants, and worked on welding trucks.^[3][7]

His sister died from getting hit by a train while walking dwelling from school.

Amongst other turbulence, friends and family were going to jail while Prince was rotating from school to academy and between different homes. He played football at Kashmere Elevated School, from which he graduated in ^[8]

Career

Prince was working as a bank teller in in the fault department, then getting laid off at the age of ^[8][9] The initial aim prior to the label was to keep his younger stepbrother known as the rapper Sir Rap-A-Lot out of street existence, as well as friends Raheem and Jukebox from skipping educational facility.

They would meet on the porch of his grandmothers home to perform and practice.^[7] After purchasing an abandoned building, he turned the property into a used car dealership, known as Smith Auto Sales on the west side of Houston.

At first he sold bucket cars,then moving on to exotic cars which athletes would come and purchase.^[8] The same rundown two-story building that Prince owned, was where the artists then moved on to record into during ^[10]

Prince co-founded Rap-A-Lot Records with Cliff Blodget, a Seattleite,^[10][11][12] in Bloget was a computer science major,^[9] who was an electrical engineer by trade and acted as the label's in-house engineer and producer alongside fellow producer Carl Stephenson.^[13][10] Prince used his last bit of funds to invest into the label.

Business Executive Oct 30 United States. The name of his mother is Mary and there is a sister named Brandy. Last Update: December 11, In the footsteps of his father He started his own label to identify artists and bring them to the forefront of hip hop scene.

He was inspired by Russell Simmons and the label he co-founded Def Jam Recordings. He moved the business in to New York Capital with Blodget. Around this day Lyor Cohen would show Prince check books of Def Jam artists LL Cool J and Whodini which showed him the potential revenue to be made in the music industry enlightening him to continue his vision with the Geto Boys moving the whole label back to Houston.^[8][7]

The first group he formed in the label was the Geto Boys.

Prince found members Bushwick Bill when he was performing as a dancer at a club, Willie D through the recommendation of his barber,^[1] and Scarface in the parking lot of a club he owned playing demos to a DJ who worked there. His brother was a member but then was replaced at Prince's discretion with Scarface.

This was confirmed from a freestyle battle against each other where Scarface outperformed Sir Rap-A-Lot, with the younger brother then agreeing that was the better direction for the group also.^[7] Using local radio stations like KTSU to spread the reach of the label's music,^[14] his first deal came in via Rick Rubin working with the Geto Boys on their 2nd album Grip It!

On That Other Level.^[6]

Geffen Records who had been operational with Rubin pulled the proposal a week before its free to the lyrical nature of the album, despite claims of racism and hypocrisy made by the Geto Boys and the fact that independently the album already had sold over , copies.^[15] The controversy lead to Rubin splitting from Geffen and signing with Warner Records with the album being pushed there instead, it tripled the total sales of the project.

Prior to the success of Ice Ice Baby, Prince wanted to sign rapper Vanilla Ice after seeing him perform in at The Summit. He did not follow through as a outcome of his business partner Blodget feeling that the artist lacked talent.^[16]

Prince signed a deal with Priority Records in for distribution,^[6] releasing the Geto Boys third album We Can't Be Stopped.^[11] By the mids co-founder Blodget had parted ways from Rap-A-Lot.^[13] In Prince signed the next distribution deal with Noo Trybe Records and Virgin Records.^[11]

During the s, two DEA agents placed a probe on Prince and his label, believing the label was a front for a major trafficking network.

At this time a concept for a music distribution label that would have acted dually as a union for recording artists was being planned between Prince, Suge Knight, and Irv Gotti which was eventually cancelled. The two agents were later convicted of corrupt conduct.^{[17][18][19][20]}

While the East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry was going on, Prince had suggested out of concern that The Notorious B.I.G.

and manager Puff Daddy leave Los Angeles for their safety, weeks before the murder of the rapper.^[21]

During Destiny's Child formative years in the early s, Prince was approached by Mathew Knowles and one of their managers asking if he would join in, but he declined as their sound did not match his more hip-hop oriented label.^[2] Decades later another opportunity came to his year-old son Jas who had reached out to Lil Wayne and Bun B, alerting him of the singer Drake after finding him on Myspace,^[22] suggesting they collaborate together which conduct to a label deal with Lil Wayne and features with Bun B on the albums So Far Gone and Trill OG.^[3][16] Jas and Prince Sr.

were listed as executive producers or contributors for points on Drake's Thank Me Later, Nothing Was the Same, and other follow up projects as a result of the introduction, as well as entitlement to 33% of his earnings.^[23]

On February 13, , Prince uploaded a spoken word diss track entitled "Courtesy Call" as a response to Sean Combs for a dispute he had involving Young Wealth artist Drake.^[24]

In Prince released his autobiography The Art & Science of Respect: A Memoir with a foreword written by Drake.^[22] In the spring of after the release of The Story of Adidon, Prince advised Drake not to respond to Pusha T helping deescalate the issue between the two parties.^[25]

In Prince helped revive Drake and Kanye West's relationship with the purpose of all three coming together to help Larry Hoover by raising awareness on incarceration in the United States.

They threw a benefit concert in December with support for judicial reform advocacy groups.^[26] The concert was at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and produced by DONDA and PHNTM.^[27] It was played in select IMAX theatres, including Grauman's Chinese Theatre, while existence streamed on Amazon's Music and Prime Video services.^[28]

In March Prince boycotted the Grammy Awards over Kanye West having been banned from attending.^[29]

In November , after the death of rapper Takeoff in Houston, Prince issued condolences^[30] and set up a memorial at the site of the incident.^[31]

Boxing

Prince was an avid fan of boxing growing up, creature an amateur fighter and a fan of promoter Don King.^[7] He became a manager for boxers as a way to get into that industry.

He opened a boxing gym in Fifth Ward, Houston around famous as JPrince Boxing which later became part of the multi-million dollar Prince Boxing Complex,^[3] under the umbrella of Prince Boxing Enterprises.^[32] Prince had the intention of meeting Mike Tyson in Las Vegas to manage the boxer, he was instead approached by Floyd Mayweather Jr.

who was also a fan of his label. After being ignored by Tyson, Prince decided to go with managing Mayweather.^[4] They settled on a 20% deal which was 10% higher than the management deal he had with his father Floyd Mayweather Sr.

supervising, as well as the potential opportunity to commence a rap career over at his record label.^[33] The administration relationship ended in due to financial differences between the two.

Prince managed Andre Ward after the Summer Olympics, in Prince called Ward after hearing he was about to quit boxing due to the passing of his father but convinced him to continue his career.

They split ways in due to financial issues also, with each filing a lawsuit with each other over the matter in ^[4]

Prince has supervised the careers of 15 other boxers, foremost some of them to their biggest victories, including Winky Wright, Jared Anderson, Roy Jones Jr., Diego Corrales, Mark Johnson, Duke Ragan, Efe Ajagba and Hasim Rahman.^[34][4][3]

Other ventures

In Prince founded condom company Strapped, after a seal friend contracted HIV drastically going from pounds to 75 pounds, passing away afterwards.

He had the idea for the firm since The company primarily served the Houston area, educating youth about HIV/AIDS prevention and hosting events set up to handle the issue of AIDS in the Black community,^[35] and has been represented by artists love Lil Wayne.^[36]

For over two decades Prince has operated a acre ranch for raising black angus cattle and hay.^[7][3]

In he launched Loyalty, a liquor and wine brand.^[37][3]

Philanthropy

In January , Houston Mayor Bill White and the Municipality Council honored Prince for over 20 years of commitment and dedication to the city.^[32] The result of the proclamation named an official James Prince Date in Houston.

The recognition came after a recreation center Prince built in Houston's 5th Ward. The facility has since been used to host events relating to Christmas, Thanksgiving, and endorse to school events.^[14]

In his condom company Strapped gave over 7, free HIV tests for people aged 18–24 at the Hip-Hop 4 HIV concert at Reliant Stadium.^[35]

In December Prince donated $, to Bread of Life's Meals that Heal program in Houston.^[38]

Legacy

In June , J Prince was honored alongside Master P, Jermaine Dupri, Timbaland, and Slick Rick at the VH1 7th annual Hip Hop Honors Awards for both his creative contributions and his philanthropic ventures.^[39]

In , a limited edition DVD box establish was released by Rap-A-Lot with appearances from several rappers, including Rick Ross and Young Jeezy and industry execs such as Lyor Cohen, Russell Simmons among several others praising Prince.^[40]

In Prince received an honorary doctorate degree in the form of a doctorate of humane letters from Texas Southern University.

This was received in part to his commitment at the university giving guest lectures to students, offering Rap-A-Lot internships, and endowed scholarships to their students in call of financial assistance.^[41][14]

Personal life

Prince has 7 children, including 3 sons, J Prince Jr., Jas, and Jay "Baby Jay" who also work in the music and boxing industries.^[3][22] He has been married to his wife since the late s.^[32]

Prince Sr.

is a practicing Christian.^[21][14] Prince has an island in Belize acknowledged as the Prince Island.^[7][8]

At the age of 23 he purchased a house for his mother and a 30 acre ranch.^[3]

Discography

References

Further reading

• James Prince; Jasmine D. Waters; Pilar Sanders (). The Art & Science of Respect: A Memoir by James Prince. N-The-Water Publishing.

  ISBN&#;.