Congrats are most definitely in order for Caleb James, who has just landed the B-Side cover of this week’s Chicago Reader. The piece penned by Leor Galil chronicles Caleb’s journey from the son of a respected musician to the budding rap-sanger he is today. You know how much we gushed over Caleb’s project, The Jones, last year when it dropped, so it’s nice to see Caleb and the project getting the proper shine it deserves.
Chicago rapper and producer Caleb James is only 22, but he’s already been on a gold record—the thing is, it came out when he was 12. His father, Steve “Stone” Huff, who’s now a pastor at Safe House Church in Evanston, used to be a full-time musician and producer, and as a kid James would hang out during sessions at his dad’s West Town studio, Stone Recording. “Bump J used to be there, and I used to sit on his lap,” James says, obviously enjoying the image of a hard-ass Chicago street-rap icon getting chummy with a kid. That was how he ended up on a song with Bump and Cleveland R&B singer Avant—James was ten years old when he sang the chorus of “Flickin’,” a bonus track on the 2003 Avant album Private Room, which peaked at number 18 on the Billboard 200 and went gold in 2004.
Like father, like son. Read the full piece right here. The Jones 2.0 coming soon.