“Itty Bitty Bum Bum” with its mesmerizing opening sets the listener forth on a techno/groove journey with rapper Young Tommy Knockout generating a prelude for Ucmee’s female authoritative counterpoint. With YouTube hits going from 110,710 page views to 113,283 the week of June 6th, to over nine thousand more – 122,894 the week of June 15th – and radio play starting to heat up, the three minute and fifty second dance/trance/hip-hop/pop hard to categorize gem has staying power; you can’t forget it after just a few seconds in.
The “booty shaker single of the 2016 summer” is just that, artist/producer J. Jewels’ dark chorus vocals like the soldier’s straight out of the wicked witch’s castle from the Wizard of Oz, one of many hooks with staying power that come at you out of left field. And there are plenty more that drift in and around throughout the three minutes and fifty seconds of “Itty Bitty Bum Bum.” It’s the first release from the upcoming J. Jewels Presents on the JEI Music Group imprint and a prelude to Jewels next tour.
JEI is the new launch from former studio owner Jewels who ran a famous recording enterprise around 2009 in the heart of Medford Square. That first music think tank was a special place where a talented group of producers/engineers/artists developed unique, terrific sounds near the inspiration of the Mystic River.
Fast forward to 2016 and seven years later this modern proto-pop/punk/rap excites on many levels. Where a Lil Wayne/Birdman saga, “Stuntin Like My Daddy,” stays repetitive with some fun production, J. Jewels trades redundancy in for clever, creative frostings that grab the listener’s ear and keep the song revolving like a merry-go-round, different treats keeping things highly interesting.
Jewels has worked with artists both local and national, from Omega and Mighty Mystic (Mystic’s “Slipped Away” a minor classic,) to Former Jay-Z and the Rock artist “Beanie Sigel, platinum selling artist Verse Simmonds, former Young Money Cash Money artist 2 Pistols, reggae star Mr. Easy and many, many more.
Along with the music, Jewels is appearing in current mainstream movies. He has brief appearances in Central Intelligence which feature Kevin Heart and the Rock as well as The Purge with Elizabeth Mitchell and Frank Grillo.
On the success of “Itty Bitty Bum Bum,” and the upcoming promotion of the L.P., Jewels is putting the finishing touches on the “J Jewels Presents” tour, reflecting the title of the full-length. The tour’s lineup is still in flux depending on the schedule of the invited talent. Keep checking the link for updates:
Jewels Presents Tour: Featuring. Jewels, Maino, Ce’Cile, Mighty Mystic. Lynda Rose, UCmee and more Special Guests TBA….
Artists on the tour are represented on the J. Jewels Presents release, individual talent performing their hit material along with the new sounds recorded with Jewels. Jewels official turntable guy, DJ Atm – a multi-talented individual who has danced and shared stages with Usher, T-Pain – among others – has signed on for the tour. Check out the following links: DJ ATM and Usher, DJ ATM and Kelly Rowland and DJ ATM and T-pain Backstage.
With a career that began as a disc jockey/ videographer/ record producer and show M.C. to a full-fledged entrepreneur with unique ideas for marketing and promotion the above referenced material show that Jewels has emerged as a total artist himself, the current success of “Itty Bitty Bum Bum” putting an exclamation point on his years of effort.
We asked Jewels, who was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti about his life of music in America.
TMRZoo.com: What were your first musical inspirations?
Jewels: I have had a variety…from Bob Marley, Method Man, Adina Howard, Michael Jackson and more… I love variety.
TMRZoo.com: Which instruments do you use to express yourself?
Jewels: I play a little keyboard here and there, mostly what I do is oversee production as an executive producer.
TMRZoo.com: How did you get started in the music business?
Jewels: Again I got started when I was real you probably about 16 years of age. I used to DJ friends’ parties, Film Family weddings and charged a fee for doing it for them.
TMRZoo.com: What recordings were released from when you had the facility on High Street, Medford, Massachusetts?
Jewels likes to surround himself with positive people who are looking to get into a better future…and the Medford resident who is a family man wants to be a positive role model and help out his community.
Accomplishments include making contact with industry names such as; 50 Cent, Jeremih, New Boys, Beanie Sigel, Mr. Vegas, Ace Hood,Ying Yang Twins, G-Unit,Serani, Sizzla, Mavado,Elephant Man, Ne-Yo,Amerie, Shaggy, N.O.R.E,Donnie Klang, Keyshia Cole,Verse Simmonds, Fat Joe, Remy Martin, Serani, Omarion, Trey Songz, and many more…
But it is “Itty Bitty Bum Bum” that is setting the new direction, the first blast to give a taste of what is to come on the J. Jewels Presents album and tour.
Joe Viglione is the Chief Film Critic at TMRZoo.com. He has written thousands of reviews and biographies for AllMovie.com, Allmusic.com, Gatehouse Media, Al Aronowitz’s The Blacklisted Journal, and a variety of other media outlets. Joe also produces and hosts Visual Radio, a seventeen year old variety show on cable TV which has interviewed Jodie Foster, director/screenwriter David Koepp, Michael Moore, John Cena, comics/actors Margaret Cho, Gilbert Gottfried, Gallagher, musicians Mark Farner and Don Brewer of Grand Funk Railroad, Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Felix Cavaliere of The Rascals, political commentator Bill Press and hundreds of other personalities.
