James Roan

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James Roan
Born James Edward Roan
June 26, 1994 (1994-06-26) (age 29)
Miami, Florida
Nationality American
Occupation rapper, songwriter, recording artist and narrator
Website
https://jamesroan.com/

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James Edward Roan, (born 26 June 1994) is a Rapper, Recording Artist, Songwriter and Narrator. He was raised in Miami, Florida where he currently still resides. His approach to music being as versatile as he is creates multiple types of music. You don’t know what you’re going to get. Blending lyrical flows and wordplay but adding soft natural harmonic vocals with an R&B like touch. His visuals is another form in which he loves to tell and bring his ideas to fruition on screen. He likes to call himself and firmly believes that he is the "Future leader of the Next Generation".[1][2][3]

Early Life

He got into music listening to different music in the generations before his time. The more he listened to it, the more he adapted to different styles and his interest continued to grow. From Hip-Hop to R&B, Alternative, Rock and more. Growing up around older people in his family he couldn’t help but to be forced to hear the all time greats. At the age of 15 is when he laid down his first track, doing all of the recording and engineering himself. From this point on, he found a skill set and used his talents to create his own original music in his own way.

Musical Career

His career started with the stagename “Democracy” back in high school. At 17yrs old he released his first project titled “Time Will Tell”. He wanted to show he could make multiple songs flow together cohesively on a project, and he did so in this 7 track EP. The Artwork was created and designed by Ryan Parks

Next, was a 20 song project released in 2014 called “Slowly But Surely”. This once again proved he can keep any listener entertained throughout the entire project without getting bored, or skipping any tracks. James Roan created the artwork by drawing it and Ryan Parks digitally designed it.

In 2018, James felt that it was time for him to step it up a notch or two. He finally released his  first official album “Enter · End” and some success followed afterwards. It was his first time releasing music on the major streaming platforms. The concept of this album is brilliant, making the project based on success vs failures. To start off, the album could either enter him into the game or it would signal the end of his career. To add to that, he feels that if he does “enter” into the game it would be the “end” for everyone else. He would take over the industry by storm. Lastly, the album shows the path to success itself with the first half of the album being mellow and the second half more upbeat. Basically a cool to warm effect throughout the sonic experience. Going deeper using colors to further push the album’s concept. The album artwork depicts the “Enter” in blue being a cool color and the “End” being a warm color. In between those two words, is a black middle dot or “interpunct” which actually represents James struggling between success and failure. The real time photo is James Roan at his friend Chris’s house standing on the balcony overseeing the water. His friend caught an off guard photo and literally just added a painting like filter on top. It wasn’t until a few years later that James used it for the official cover. The artwork is by Christopher Angel, Ryan Parks and James himself. The very first song off the record “Rapture” gained over 25,000 streams on spotify. The album also has 4 music videos and a full track by track series on YouTube.

Jamesroanlogo.png

His next musical effort, released in 2019, was a collaboration album with R&B singer and producer Alayo. It’s titled “Seven Nights' ' and consists of 9 tracks, some solo tracks and other both artists are vocally present. A good portion of the production was handled by Alayo. as well as the mixing and mastering. The album ended up getting over 40,000 streams on Spotify. The album artwork was made by James Roan himself.

By the end of 2020, he changed his stage name from “Democracy” to  “James Roan” which is actually his real name given from birth. He claims it’s the best decision he’s made for his career by far.

The following project was a re-issue of his 2014 mixtape “Slowly But Surely” but instead he trimmed it down to just 5 songs out of the 20 originally released. This is the first official release under his new stage name “James Roan”. The EP was promoted by a trailer shot by himself and his brother Jeremiah Jones, James also edited and directed this as well.

Next, his second solo album called “Power Forward” was released in October 2021. It took him a grand total of 6 years to complete the album. He put the project off, came back to it, released other projects in between and a few other things. This album is more aggressive and has more of a dark and gritty sound than his first album “Enter · End”. You can tell he is frustrated as he feels he’s being overlooked and not getting the recognition he deserves with what he brings to the table. His flow, delivery, and lyrical ability has improved a lot from his past work. He showed he’s evolved as an artist, but wants to let everyone know he’s tired of waiting. This record has 11 tracks with beats from producers like Koolizm101, Donnie Katana, Jordeaux, Stoic and Enon Jacobs. He also has some guest stars on the album as well with features from Lil Ominous and Beijing Baby. This project’s theme is to let everyone know that no matter how hard things get, you can always bounce back. You can power forward right through your struggles. Multiple topics are touched on this album to relate more to common people in society. We hear things like self doubt and limitations, insecurities of the wealthy, the daily struggles of the working class, college students delimas, and police brutality. However, this record also aims to motivate everyone and inspire you to keep going to accomplish your goals. James saw some additional success after the release of Power Forward being featured in articles like Disrupt Magazine, Vents Magazine as well as Influencive. Ryan Parks once again handled the artwork design.

He will have two more albums coming our way soon. The first produced by Richy B called “Elements of Life” and a fourth solo project titled “Lonely Nights In Brickell”.

Filmography

He's done voiceover narrations for GAP Inc. Breast Cancer Awareness and Relay For Life commercials. Also,  his own self directed, self- edited advertisements and documentaries.

  • Erase Cancer: Miami Dade Kendall Campus - 2014 (Actor & Voice Narrator)
  • Gap Inc: Breast Cancer Awareness - 2015 (Director, Filmed, Edited & Voice Narrator)
  • Who Is James Roan? Short Documentary - 2020 (Actor)
  • Life Outside of Music: The Curve Miami, Car Scene, Meets, Racing etc. - 2020 (Director, Filmed & Edited)
  • The Making of Power Forward: Documentary - 2021 (Director, Filmed, Edited & Voice Narrator)

Discography

Mixtapes

  • Slowly But Surely (2014)

EP’s

  • Time Will Tell (2012)
  • Slowly But Surely: The Reissue (2020)

Albums

  • Enter · End (2018)
  • Seven Nights (with Alayo.) (2019)
  • Power Forward (2021)
  • Elements of Life (with Richy B) (2022)
  • Lonely Nights in Brickell (TBA)

Music Videos

  • Times Are Always Changing (2020)
  • Why I Gotta Die? (2020)
  • What You Don’t Understand (2020)
  • Happy (2021)
  • Day (2021)
  • Mission As An Emcee (2021)
  • I Just Don’t Know (2021)
  • Days Gone (2021)
  • What’s Up Now?! (2021)
  • Couldn’t Touch Us (Motherf*cker) (2021)
  • Before We Pass (2021)

References