James Iheakanwa, known professionally as B Wise, is a Nigerian Australian rapper from

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, New South Wales. He released his debut album ''Area Famous'' in 2018 via the label Elefant Tracks.

Biography

Iheakanwa was born and raised in

Liverpool, New South Wales Liverpool is a suburb of South Western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, south-west of the Sydney CBD. It is the administrative seat of the City of Liverpool and is in the Cumberland Plain. History Indigenous Before Bri ...

, the son of a Nigerian social worker and entrepreneur father and an Australian nurse and maternal support worker mother. The eldest of three children, Iheakanwa spent six months in Nigeria with his father when he was 12 years old, where he discovered hip-hop influences such as

Tupac Shakur Tupac Amaru Shakur (; born Lesane Parish Crooks; June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor, regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all tim ...

, but he was shaped by life in the southwest suburbs. In July 2022, B Wise formed the group BBGB with BLESSED,

Manu Crooks Emmanuel Adu, better known by his stage name Manu Crooks, is a recording artist based in Sydney. Biography Emmanuel Adu grew up in Ghana and moved to Australia when he was 12 years old where he attended Parramatta High School. He found his lo ...

, Kwame and Lil Spacely. BBGB released their debut single "Tough Love" on 15 July 2022.

Advocacy

Alongside musicians Jack River and Ebony Boadu, Iheakanwa was a

keynote A keynote in public speaking is a talk that establishes a main underlying theme. In corporate or commercial settings, greater importance is attached to the delivery of a keynote speech or keynote address. The keynote establishes the framework fo ...

speaker at the 2019 Conference for Young People in Sydney, in which he shared his experiences of how he got his start in the

industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Charted singles

Singles as lead artist

As featured artist

Notes

Awards and nominations

AIR Awards

The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known informally as

AIR Awards The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known as AIR Awards) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector. History The inaugural 2006 awards were held at Blacket Hot ...

) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's independent music sector. ! , - ! scope="row",

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, ''Area Famous'' , Best Independent Hip Hop/Urban Album , ,

APRA Awards

The APRA Awards are presented annually from 1982 by the

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwri ...

(APRA), "honouring composers and songwriters". They commenced in 1982. ! , - ,

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, "Ezinna" by B Wise, Sampa The Great & Milan Ring (Nicholas Martin, Milan Ring, Sampa Tembo, Tung Yeng, James Iheakanwa) , Song of the Year , , , -

ARIA Music Awards

The

ARIA Music Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

is an annual ceremony presented by

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival Records (Australia), Festival, Sony Music ...

(ARIA), which recognise excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of the

music of Australia The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music forms a significant part of the unique heritage of a 40,000- to 60,000-year history which produced the iconic didgeridoo. Contemporary fusions o ...

. They commenced in 1987. ! , - ,

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, , ''jamie'' , , Best Hip Hop Release , , , , -

References

External links

* Australian male rappers Australian record producers Living people Musicians from Sydney Rappers from Sydney Year of birth missing (living people) {{Australia-musician-stub