It’s surprising that James Earl doesn’t have one of those Twitter bios that says “Actor/Producer/Nobel Peace Prize Winner/Astronaut,” ’cause he’s really doing it all this year.
You may know him as Derrick Dupree from the TBS show Ground Floor, but actor James Earl is so much more.
He started his acting career as a kid on Glee before landing on the TBS sitcom. Season one of Ground Floor is now finished, so he’s now waiting to see what happens for season two.
In the meantime, he’s staying busy with other projects–mostly in the hip hop scene.
He broke into the music biz when he shot the original video for “Toot It & Boot It,” the single that launched the careers of YG and Ty Dolla Sign into the public eye.
“I had like 100 people out there for shoot,” he remembered. ”That was my first real music video. When it got picked up, the label ended up reshooting it. But I shot the original.”
James, who remembers spending a lot of time in the L.A. record store Fat Beats as a kid, doesn’t believe in separating his talents:
“I love music and acting equally; they go together,” he said. ”I started acting in middle school, but music was always there. My mom was a singer. Acting is something I just kind of fell into and it just happened. I’m not mad at it though! I plan to show everyone there’s no separation between music and acting. There’s an a lot of transitioning, but at the end of the day it’s all entertainment. I want to do both; I don’t want separation, so I’m bridging that gap. A lot of people don’t know this, but the lead singer of 30 Seconds to Mars, Jared Leto, had a leading role in the Dallas Buyers Club movie. It doesn’t have to be ‘Oh he’s an actor’ and stop there.”
James doesn’t stop there at all–he’s got one button, and that’s GO!
Fresh off tour with Rick Ross, who refers to DJ Real Lyfe (that’s his DJ name) as one of his “favorite DJs,” James was in the studio with Ross when I called him.
“I’m not a big scratcher, but I’m not a push button DJ either…I push a lot of buttons!” he jokes.
Being one of Rozay’s favorite DJs has kept his DJ persona busy the last few months.
Real Lyfe has been around since James was 16; his mom bought him some cheap turntables at Guitar Center, and he’s been a tyrant on the turntables ever since.
On Ross’ tour, however, he was pulling double duty, playing the roles of both a DJ and cameraman:
“I originally went on tour to document and film it. Something happened; they needed a DJ, so I stepped up. I still filmed, too. I would switch out with another camera man when I needed to fulfill my DJ duties. This was my first tour; you literally sleep through it. Wake up, do the show, party, and go back to sleep. It was cool though. I got to see a lot of things I haven’t seen before. We went to MoTown, the White House, and a lot of different cities. It was definitely interesting to see the different people and how they dress and talk. How people behave…that can be interesting too. There was this one stop in Florida, near Tampa Bay, and this guy was just running through the whole theater throwing money in the air–and it was a lot of money, too. Not just singles.”
After the tour with Ross ended, James headed to Hong Kong with his buddy James Fauntleroy from 1500 or Nothin’, the Grammy winning producers that also pulled double duty for Ross, playing as his live band on the tour. The two were headed to a hip hop show curated by Pharrell Williams.
The hip hop lover was taken aback at how much love Hong Kong showed American hip hop:
“Hong Kong was crazy. It was definitely a mixed crowd. I was surprised to see people coming from all over coming to catch this show. There was people from the Philippines there…even people from the United States, coming all the way from L.A. and Virginia. Hong Kong is like New York/LA/Vegas/Atlanta. We went to the club and they listen to everything we listen to. They dress fresh. Hong Kong loves hip hope. This festival was the second one that they’ve ever had there. The government is strict; they’re more about making money with buildings than with parks and recreation type stuff, and there’s a strict curfew. They’re just now starting to be open minded about the hip hop shows. I’d like to see that in America–more hip hop shows and festivals that aren’t in clubs. Hip hop artists get pushed to the back because of the past, but we have a new generation of artists and fans. Everyone should get the same opportunities the other genres get…like Outkast headlining Coachella; that’s huge!”
While on tour, James and his buddies from 1500 or Nothin’ got some footage for the documentary James is working on.
The documentary will tell the story of how 1500 or Nothin’ started at the bottom.
Fittingly enough, it’s titled 1500 or Nothin’.
“We’re all from South Central Los Angeles,” James said. ”We’ve all built something and now we’re filming their story. It’s gonna show various sides of the music industry: music production, the game behind publishing, all done by these four guys from L.A.”
He plans to release the documentary sometime this year–and that’s not the only thing he’ll be releasing.
“I’ve always been into production. I’ve done some stuff for Dom Kennedy and some other collaborative efforts. I’m into having fun; you might hear me rapping,” he hinted.
“Every time I do music, it’s always been for fun. You can’t do it all once, but you can do a little bit of everything,” he finished.
It seems like James is putting his theory into practice–and doing a pretty good job!
April Dawn (@scarlettsinatra)
