Clarence J aka Cj, youngest of six siblings, is a 23 year-old soulful rapper out of Oakland, CA. He has been surrounded by music since his early childhood days, which shows through his passion and love for the art of music. In the early 80’s, Cj’s dad, John, formed a R&B singing group in the Bay Area, called “Intimate”, where he was the songwriter for the group. As a child, Cj would cry around the house for his older brothers to “write raps” for him, up until he reached the age 12 and never looked back from there. Today, Cj’s goal as an artist is to show the world how diverse music can be, and does this by showing it throughout his music alone. Cj comes from a struggling background, which can be heard through his dark melodic voice. He brings a bundle of pain, struggle, yet, a huge combination of happiness and joy to table all at once. He’s an open-minded individual and drags that trait over to his musical performance. Despite his deep thoughts and positive messages he displays in his lyrics, Cj can be very “colorful” at times to get his point across. This soulful artist loves to smile and laugh , and also loves to see his loved ones do the same.
Due to pre-foreclosure, when Cj was 13 years old, he spent his entire 2003 summer living from motel to motel, after his parents lost their home in the Vallejo, CA suburbs. However, the young and strong-minded Clarence J only saw opportunity for writing while being stuck on the road inside a van along with his parents, older brother, Nyjis, and their family dog, Rebel. Cj always wrote on paper about his sad life situations and made them into happy feelings that he could openly converse about to anyone at anytime. To add to his world of chaos, at the age of 14, Cj found out that he was what the Doctors called, a “Stone Factory “, that his body produced a great number of of kidney stones which caused several emergency room visits and surgeries and operations. Although he is talented and bold enough to tell the world in song about his experiences, he’s also undoubtedly a great “storyteller”, and can deliberately create perfect images into the listener’s head whether the story is fictional or non-fictional.
In 2007, Clarence J met well-known bay area rap artist, Iamsu, at Pinole Valley High School, where their styles in music and personalities immediately clicked. From there, they made all sorts of music along with others such as rapper/producer P-Lo, rapper Skipper, R&B singer Rossi, and music engineer Chief, forming a group known as “HBK” (Heartbreak Kids). Today, the happy pursuits of the group are to gain individual accomplishments in all of their music artistry careers. Cj’s music is well-known around the Bay Area for its diversity. His lyrical songs gain attention from listeners favoring politics, love, romance, and cultural history, yet, his more up tempo songs includes catchy hooks and clever flows that gains the attention of DJs, party goers, and youth audience. He is most recognized for his verses featured on Iamsu’s “Ralph Lauren Rugby Shit” and “Losin” which made it on a popular hip-hop website, http://www.worldstarhiphop.com
This summer, Cj is working on releasing his 3rd & 4th project, “State Of Mind” and “Dark Zero”, following his previously released mixtape, “CJ 2.0”, that was released in early January 2013. With his recognition growing, his hard work has been acknowledged by earning a spot in Thizzler’s Top 10 Freshman Bay Area prospect list, on http://www.thizzler.com/baf10. Clarence J explains how his past achievements does not affect his work for the future, and making on the Bay Area prospect list does not stop there. “I see people in my camp making big moves, the way I see it, this is only one of many more achievements to come”. With that said, as stated above, CJ is not only working on two more projects outside of the soon to be released Mixtapes, he is also set in stone to do a collaboration project with his group member rapper/producer Iamsu, which will be a complete production by Iamsu himself. “I look forward to inspiring all who listens to my music to ‘be you’ and pursuit any dream you want, and, don’t forget about Peace Movement!”

Descriptions: Soulful| Story Teller| Peaceful| Bold| Lyricist| Songwriter| Founder of Peace Movement| Diverse| HBK Gang

Other Interest: Basketball| Cutting Hair| Comedy| Animal Lover| Competitive| Alone time| Poetry| Long Walks