Jame$ Lean

Jame$ Lean was born in Oshawa, Ontario and is the middle child of two siblings. James Silliphant, which is his given name, was raised in Oshawa where he began to develop his rapping skills. After releasing his first four unofficial mixtapes in secondary school "Welcome 2 Canada" & "Back On My Greezy" 1, 2 and 3 from 2008 to 2010 Lean gained attention in his area as a notable rapper. In 2011 Lean entered the Toronto based battle rap leagues GZ(Ground Zero) & KOTD(King Of The Dot) under the stage name "Yung Casper" a name he adopted from his father. Lean quickly became one of the most demanded battler's in the GTA(Greater Toronto Area) as well as the Ground Zero division.
In 2011, Lean was noted as one of the standout rappers from the KOTD ranks and, although going against what his peers advised him to do, he began to focus more on music and released his first official mixtape "Converse & Paper Planes" in 2012, featuring appearances from Kid Platinum, Nizama Amazin & Young Wingz also hosted by Ground Zero's Gully TK, & KOTD's DJ Docta. The mixtape received good reviews which allowed him to be put on some shows opening for Royce Da 5'9" and many other acts. Throughout 2013 Jame$ focused mainly on rap battles and refrained from making music due to the state of the local music scene at the time.
On June 27, 2014, Jame$ and Nizama released a collaborative EP dubbed "The S.O.B EP", entirely produced by Drew Taylor, the following month the duo released a music video for the single "Bird Huntin" off the "S.O.B" EP. This spawned a slew of concert's and a rather big buzz, which prompted the two artists to form the group S.O.B(South Of Bloor) a name based off the area both artists we're residing. Later that year Lean along with his childhood friend and local producer ChadMakeAMilli opened a studio set up for the group and several other local artists to record in. Which led to the release of the collaborative project "The Union" released on February 1, 2015.
On December 24, 2014 Lean released the debut single "2 Many Nights" the song was met with great reception and motivated him to make the move to a solo artist once again. On July 17, 2015, Lean released his second single "Pilot". The song spawned a number of opportunities for the Canadian rapper, such as a Ontario wide tour, and the music video released for "Pilot" was featured on many notable hip-hop and urban platforms. On October 3, 2015 Lean released his first solo project the "DIME EP" which featured the single "Pilot" as well as three other tracks featuring production from his producer friends Ace Pronto, Drew Taylor, and ChadMakeAMilli. The EP also featured production from the super producer John Carter on the sleeper hit "Meter".
After a successful tour across his home province, Lean released his second solo mixtape "2 Many Nights" on November 13, 2015, once again the tape was produced entirely by Drew Taylor, with the entire project also being engineered by Lean and Taylor and hosted by DJ Docta. The tape was a compilation of music Lean and Taylor had recorded throughout the year of 2015 and featured appearances from Young Stitch, Coke Keys Car'tel, Desran, Nathan Skullz, and Joey Gallowz.
Lean is currently working on his next solo project titled "Lean On Me" and it is set to release by the end of 2016, as well as working on a collaborative project "Top Boyz" with rising star Young Stitch which is set to be released mid 2016.