James Earley

James Cecil Earley (born October 20, 1964), also knows as Jae-E, is an American multi-platinum producer, instrumentalist and engineer. For the past two decades, Jae-E has produced some of the most talented artists this industry has seen including David Bowie, E-40, MC Hammer, , En Vogue, B Angie B, One Voice and others.
Currently, James Earley's stellar music production on the projects of newest artists, the Hip-Hop & R&B singer "Ariel", the Hyphy artists "Driyp Drop", rappers Chuck Nutt and Mary Jane, Russian R&B singer Angelica Blaze (also known as Barochka).
Early life
Jae-E was born James Cecil Earley on October 20, 1964 in Oakland, California, future multi-instrumentalist and music producer, engineer - James "Jae-E" Earley was highly impacted by the sounds of the San Francisco Bay Area's expansive and equally inventive music scene from his very first days of the planet.
His parents met in the popular, now historical, Haight Ashbury district in San Francisco, which was the epicenter of the 60s counter culture hippie movement in the America. Immersed in music styles from funk, to rock, R&B, folk, jazz, classical, bluegrass, etc., it was all there to be heard, and appreciated, and James soaked it up like a sponge, even as a baby—music, revolution and freedom of the arts, body and mind....was everywhere. This was a creative ground like no other.
As a baby, Earley first exhibited signs of musical talent. When, during a family trip, the Sam and Dave song, "I'm A Soul Man" came on the car radio, and he began singing along, and dancing to the popular tune - instantly, his mom and dad knew their son had talent. Later, the baby Earley exhibited an extraordinary ability to keep perfect time as he endlessly banged on pots and pans with spoons and forks. His mom sensed that, like her father, a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, it was a good bet her son had the gift for music too. Without reservation, she became encouraging of her child's efforts, and quickly, bought him a drum-set, and enrolled the boy in drum lessons. Soon, Earley, a member of a show business family, became a child actor, amid continuing his drum lessons, he took on classical violin and piano lessons, whilst, simultaneously playing in the now legendary Phil Hardiman Jazz Band for children. Earley was also regularly shepherded around by his mom to play with experienced adult African drummers. With his mom, already a singer and bassist, the young James asked her to teach him how to play bass, and in time, he completely took her bass and guitar over. Paralleling his at home instruction, James and his jazz band friends, without prompting by their instructor, would regularly teach one another the finer points of the instruments whom each was learning to master in class. Losing interest in acting, James took on music full-time as he began to grow-up. With the family having moved to Southern California, there were constant interruptions in Earley's musical aspirations, but he never gave-up. In his early teens, he met—then would-be producer Khayree, who began teaching him various bass licks, during infrequent return trips that Earley and his family made to the Bay Area to visit family. Khayree would later become producer—but that would be a decade in the making.
James was in the Gifted Children's Program in school, and was shown to have a genius IQ. He loved building actual working radios from kits, and regularly played with science kits—this, while many other children were playing with action figures. At 16, James even built his own talk box out of a microphone—and would regularly take apart his instruments and stereo equipment to work on the electronics. The bedroom that he shared with his brother was something of a science and sound mixing lab. He was always inventing something new, or using the instruments at his disposal to experiment and create new sound vistas.
Early music career
At the time, James was in a funk/rock/reggae band with Saul Hudson - a brilliant guitarist that he went to school with at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, in the early 1980s—a school, which James, in recent years, fondly dubbed "Rock 'N High School" due to the number of successful musicians that went to Fairfax, and made a name for themselves—including wunderkind producer Phil Spector. While still in the band, Hudson changed his name to Slash, and later went on to play with Guns N' Roses. But Fairfax was not limited to producing a guitar hero, no—even bassists made their make there. During high school band classes, Earley and some of his funk bassist friends taught one of their curious peers the percussive, and unique, bass slapping style made famous by bass hero Larry Graham of the legendary groups Sly and The Family Stone and Graham Central Station. Within a short time, the young man would perfect the technique, and would emerge to be known as the Red Hot Chili Peppers famed bassist Flea. Throughout those formative high school years, and shortly after graduation, James played with many young musicians who were the children of a wide array of stars, and industry insiders—among these musicians were Jason Nesmith, an eventual member of the band Nancy Boy, and son of The Monkees Michael Nesmith, Tom Morello, future star guitarist of Rage Against The Machine, and Meeche Womack, now a successful hip-hop producer under the name Meeche Wells. Wells, having changed his last name in tribute to his mother, is the son of the late legendary Motown star Mary Wells, and producer/writer/performer Cecil Womack, of the famous Womack family. Meeche went on to produce Snoop Dogg and basketball superstar Shaquille O' Neal.
In 1984, the L.A. club scene became highly influenced by the music of Prince, and James, having evolved as a chief creative force within local music circles as a writer, composer and arranger- would be instrumental in forming several bands that carried the Minneapolis Sound and look - including electrifying bands like The Blue Unit and The Few. Like at the movie Purple Rain, they lived that film, every night...live on club stages, and at rehearsal halls, all over L.A. Due to financial concerns, egos, and power struggles, the life of a band could often be measured in months, and as a result, James quickly found himself launching two new bands Spoiled Brat and Rhythmic Thrust with Meeche. The bands were heavily influenced by punk rock, funk, and new wave music - a blend that was like no other - by then, their sound was more Oingo Boingo - than Minneapolis. Tom Morello, and Jason Nesmith were brief members of Rhythmic Thrust - and this was the band where Earley was, for the first-time in his young career, forced to step-up and act as the front-man and lead singer, a position that afforded him more autonomy as a writer, as well, it netted him the obvious pressures that go along with such duties; it was a double edged sword for the good and the bad.
James, when given the occasional opportunity, would play tapes of his songs for music icon Bob Dylan who is a close family friend of one of James' long-time band mates. Dylan's verbal approval of his works served to give Earley the increasing hope that he was on the right track as a credible and commercially viable song-smith.
Music career
Later, when the Earley family moved back to the Bay Area, James within months, followed, and was quickly introduced to Felton Pilate, co-lead singer and writer for the world renown R&B band Con Funk Shun - an introduction which was made by Earley's mom. James began to work with Felton as a client for many months. Impressed with Earley's abilities, Pilate eventually offered him a position at Felstar Studios as his second engineer, and as a writer, arranger, composer and in-house studio musician - for paying clients in need of professionally produced music. Felton taught James the pros and cons of engineering, as well as using computer assisted recording methods - which were largely new at the time. Earley's background in a tech training and hardware assembly job, in his late teens, taught him the professional basics of electricals, and helped ease his transition into his new position. Viewing this new opportunity as a launching pad for his musical endeavors, James would use his 24 hour access to the studio and its instruments to write and produce his own music. In a short-time, his collection of songs caught the ear of Fantasy Records executive Fred Pittman who promptly signed him to a solo record deal. Within a year, Earley began to build a solid reputation as a music producer - this, while MC Hammer, a local rapper, searching for the brass ring of success, began frequenting the studio. When Felton left to work on a rock album, James and Hammer grew close as collaborators and friends, and James was given the green - light to write and produce what would eventually become many of Hammer's biggest hits while managing to author his (Hammer's) trademark sound, a sound that was a merger of hip-hop, R&B, funk and pop. In weeks, James met E-40 and his family-whom had come to the studio to record their first album as The Click. Jay King of Timex Social Club and Club Nouveau in addition to producer/writers Denny and Tommy would also often record at the studio-and a new style of music had begun to arise in the Bay Area. Rap was given solid musical foundations and structure-something that Teddy Riley was doing on the East Coast, and Earley and Pilate on the West-along with Denny and Tommy, Al Eaton, and Khayree - they, separately all managed to contribute to inventing what is now the standard recipe for the hip-hop music sound of today -a recipe that hasn't changed in over 26 years.
Thanks to James and solid music, and dance skills, the rapper would secure a major record deal from Capitol Records- and fastly became a much talked about—and hot commodity in the record industry; from California, to the South - and then, throughout the U.S. During Hammer's first major U.S. tour in cities all across the country, the 3 men plotted to record Hammer's second album Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em (which was released February 12, 1990), on a studio bus, the first such mobile recording studio of its kind, a necessity, which gave them the ability to constantly stay on the road—while crafting new recordings-sometimes before, and after shows-in arena parking lots, and outside of hotels (where they were staying for any given tour dates); even while the bus was in transit to another city—along the tour route, nothing would stop them—it was Hammer-time! Created and designed by Pilate and Earley, the bus was outfitted at such lightening speed, by Earley and two bus driver/carpenters, that it arrived in Chicago after a 2 and a half day non-stop trip from the Bay Area, without direct-line recording mics. Using only wireless stage mics from Hammer's concert tour, another first, Felton and James used them to capture the all crucial vocal performances for the album—an album, which went on to spawn the monster hit (1989) - and instantly, Hammer became a megastar, and household name, worldwide. To this day—decades later, is still the biggest selling rap album of all time.
Later James Earley was discovered by singer and dancer (and future wife) Angela Boyd. He begin to work on new R&B project. He brought to MC Hammer's attention that Angie was a vocalist. Hammer is also the one credited with giving Boyd her stage name B Angie B when one day Hammer spoke the words "just be Angie". She sang on "Pump It Up (Here's the News)" on Hammer's Let's Get It Started album and she became a backup singer during his concert tours.
As a follow-up, Earley did the soundtrack for Rocky 5 where he met Silvester Stallone, and during the same period, he produced a song for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film soundtrack. Amid the ever growing flurry of activity, James recorded several albums for various acts under Hammer's personal record label imprint Bust-It Records at Prince's Paisley Park Studios. During this amazing period, James would be given the nickname "Young Quincy" by Hammer's partner/brother Louis Burrell. The name was in reference to super producer Quincy Jones--who acted as the long-time producer for Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra - so it was ironic that James lost the Grammy nomination for Album of the Year to Quincy Jones, himself—the greatest producer in the history of music. No, this wasn't a loss, but something of a win, just to be nominated in the same, all important, category with the only man who stood a chance of taking the award away from James, Felton and Hammer that year—was the ultimate honor.
Following a royalty dispute, James left the Hammer camp, and took his signature sound with him—and with the noticeable sound change that followed his departure, the end of an era had arrived—and Hammer-time had ceased. The only track James had left behind in his exit, would be Hammer's last big major hit, the single "Too Legit to Quit". Moving on, James worked with industry titan Jimmy Iovine, where he helped to record the debut solo album of Cheap Trick's Robin Zander—while dually working with Marky Mark (Mark Wahlberg) and his brother/executive producer, Donnie Wahlberg of The New Kids On The Block—who, at the time, were the most popular music act in the world. Next, David Bowie would seek Earley out to remix the song Jump They Say. Earley and his brother Jacques later gained gold records for the En Vogue remix for Free Your Mind—and James went on to do the soundtrack for the Hudlin Brothers film Great White Hype - which was partially scored at Skywalker Ranch. In the interim years, E-40 would become a superstar—and of the last few years, Earley has returned to work with E-40 on several projects, as well, he has teamed with 40's brother D-Shot on various productions, from CDs, to music videos. In addition, the 3 men have been working on tracks for a new Click album—among other projects. Earley has also recently worked with popular Bay Area/Texas rapper Baby Bash and remixed a track for the first artist on Lady Gaga producer new record label—a track which featured E-40.
Present music career
Presently, Earley has been grooming his own roster of talented music artists, including American rappers Chuck Nutt and Latina Mary Jane, among others. The Earley brothers have always wanted to work with European based acts, and recently the chance presented itself for them to work with Russian R&B/Pop singer and rapper Barochka aka Angelica Blaze. James and his brother Jacques noticed gifted song writer, composers and lyricists Barochka/Blaze. Along with her musical partner, Alexandr Zloy, who is—in his own right, a gifted rapper, writer, composer, lyricists, and engineer (as well as a music video director), Barochka is ready to ignite a Blaze of excitement with her upcoming solo album. Often compared to Britney Spears and other western world pop divas, she has the talent to be the next big worldwide pop star. Earley brothers saw in her as sexy, fun, effervescent, and charismatic artist. A product of the growing and deeply energetic Russian hip-hop, rock, and R&B pop scene—she, along with her peers, exhibits the kind of great potential reminiscent of the days leading-up to the birth of the British (music) Invasion, Motown, the New York, California, and Atlanta based rap scenes -and Seattle's Grunge movement. Something special is happening there in Russia, and soon, the whole world will be focusing their eyes and ears on Russia's music industry - and a rich new interpretation of popular music-that has come to the west, From Russia With Love (as brothers believe).
Earley has many plans which are still under-wraps including scoring a film. With the introduction of the Internet and social networking, the music industry is being forced to change worldwide, but it doesn't know how—and worse, it is slow to act—when in desperate need of action. Still, Earley is clever enough to change with the changing times, and dare to be ahead of the trends, by setting the trends. The globe is now interconnected, and young music buyers no longer see cultural or musical borders. It is time for the music/entertainment industry to recognize this fact, and open-up to new kinds of artists, new possibilities of marketing, and new audiences and sounds—and it will take someone to lead the way—and like the days in the beginning years of his career, Earley hopes to be the lighthouse that leads the ships of dreamers to an inventive port of safe harbor and expression.

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