Jessta James

Country singer and songwriter Jessta James grew up in Bozeman, Montana. He was exposed to classic outlaw country as a child, added Southern hard rock as an influence while he was in high school, and then discovered hip-hop after he had graduated and begun a career in the construction business. He didn't write his first official song until he was 24 years old, and by now firmly in the hip-hop guise, he built a home studio and began building and recording songs from beats and his own free-styled lyrics, hitting a stage to perform whenever he could. James moved to the West Coast to further his deepening involvement in hip-hop music, all the while listening for that sound he heard in his head that mixed all of his influences into a single vision, frequently experimenting with country elements in his hip-hop productions. James' musical vision finally fell into place when he met producer Dan Hannon, who flipped things a bit, suggesting James add hip-hop elements to a country base instead of the other way around. Everything clicked, and James' debut album, Time to Get Right, was released in the spring of 2013 by Brash Music.