James Weddle Lacy, better known by his stage name Lil James, is an American

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...

. He was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

and raised

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. He released his major label mixtape, ''21 Years Later'' in August 2018 through

Don Cannon Donald Cannon (born August 2, 1979) is an American DJ, record producer, and record executive who served as Vice President of A&R at Def Jam Recordings from 2012 to 2018. With DJ Drama, he is the co-founder of the record label Generation Now, a ...

and

DJ Drama Tyree Cinque Simmons (born April 22, 1978), known professionally as DJ Drama, is an American disc jockey (DJ), record executive and music promoter. He initially gained recognition as the DJ for Atlanta-based rapper T.I., and continued to gai ...

's record label Generation Now, an imprint of

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

Early life

Lil James was born in Detroit, Michigan. His mother passed away early in his life, and he spent a large portion of his childhood in

foster care Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home ( residential child care community or treatment centre), or private home of a state- certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent", or with a family mem ...

. He began rapping at age 3. When he was 10 years old, Lil James moved to Atlanta, Georgia. As an adolescent, he had occasional run-ins with law enforcement, but later turned his focus toward music.

Career

Lil James released two singles in 2017, "Followers" and "Can't Do It." By March 2018, he had been signed to Don Cannon and DJ Drama's Atlantic Records imprint, Generation Now. That month, he performed at

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

for the first time. In April 2018, he released a music video for his song, "Followers", directed by SpuddsMckenzie. In June 2018, he was featured alongside Jack Harlow and Sixteen on the

Skeme Lonnie Kimble (born January 3, 1990), better known by his stage name Skeme, is an American rapper from Inglewood, California. Skeme has collaborated with various West Coast rappers such as the group Black Hippy, Bizzy Bone, The Game, Dom Kenne ...

song, "Get Sumn." The following month, Lil James was featured on the song, "Gang," as part of Skeme's ''Big Money Sonny'' mixtape. In August 2018, he released his first major label mixtape, ''21 Years Later''. The album had features from

Kap G George Ramirez (born July 31, 1994), better known by his stage name Kap G, is a Mexican-American rapper. He is best known for his 2016 single "Girlfriend (Kap G song), Girlfriend", which received RIAA certification, platinum certification by the ...

and

Jacquees Rodriquez Jacquees Broadnax (born April 15, 1994), known mononymously as Jacquees ( ), is an American singer, songwriter, and rapper. He signed with Birdman's Cash Money Records in 2014, and first gained recognition with his 2016 single, " B.E ...

. The music video for the lead single, "Traphouse," was released in October 2018 via ''

WorldStarHipHop WorldStarHipHop is a content-aggregating video blog. Zurawik, David.Worldstarhiphop.com makes a name for itself with shocking viral videos". ''The Baltimore Sun''. March 23, 2012. Retrieved on April 22, 2012Alternate link to the same article fr ...

''.

Discography

Mixtapes

Singles

References

External links

Artist profile on Generation Now
{{DEFAULTSORT:James, Lil Living people Rappers from Atlanta Rappers from Detroit Atlantic Records artists Southern hip-hop musicians African-American male rappers 21st-century American male rappers Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century African-American musicians