Beckwithjp facts for kids

BeckwithJP, is a London based singer-songwriter who was born in Aberdeen (Scotland) but was raised in Yarm (Teesside). He achieved a US R&B top 100 hit on the Billboard charts with "You're That Kind of Girl" (then going by the moniker Beckwith). Most recently he has found success in the singer-songwriter genre with a new stripped down acoustic sound. His self titled EP released in May 2016 reached #13 on the UK iTunes singer-songwriter chart on release.

Early Career

BeckwithJP started out as a solo artist in the late 90s, then known as Beckwith. As a teenager he opened many shows for UK touring US Boybands including N'Sync, Backstreet Boys, O-Town, LFO and EYC.

R&B Success

Beckwith's career caught momentum when he found a songwriting parter in Marvin Ambrosius (credits include, NAS, The Game, Angie Stone), brother of Marsha Ambrosius from Floetry fame (credits include Michael Jackson, Alicia Keys). They received underground praise and scored major London radio rotation with songs such as Rain produced by Matt Mclarrin (credits include Patti Labelle) and BadGirl (self-produced) but it wasn't until they worked with the French, R&B producer Pascal 'Claps' Guyan, that they found mainstream success.

You're That Kind Of Girl

In 2008 Beckwith and Marvin received a Beat CD via EMI publishing which included instrumentals produced by grammy nominated Pascal "Claps' Gyuon who was fresh off the success of Leona Lewis's debut album wherein he co-produced the song "Here I Am". Beckwith and Marvin went on to use one of the instrumentals and turned it into 'You're That Kind Of Girl' which was mixed and mastered by Tom Ely.

In the lead up to the release of the song, it was playlisted by Ronnie Herel and Trevor Nelson on BBC1xtra, it was also selected as Track of the Week by Ras Kwame. It eventually hit #99 on the R&B Billboard Chart top 100 while claiming the top spot (#1) on the UK iTunes R&B chart. It also featured on the DJ Vlad R&B mixtape of the year.

Gospel

Growing up on Gospel Groups such as Commissioned and Take 6, it was a lifelong dream of Beckwith's to at some point release a gospel music song.  During the time which had passed after the initial success of "You're That Kind Of Girl" his career had slowed down with lesser charting hits such as "Soulful Women" (#10 UK iTunes R&B) and failures such as "I Will Be There". Following this decline it was decided that there would be a window of time in 2014 to fulfil this gospel ambition.  The song was called "Rejoice" and was produced by Hip Hop legend Domingo (credits include Big PUN, Rass Kass and Eminem). It was agreed that the songs sales would be donated to the charity Oxfam and was released under the name Beckwith J Walton (The first move to distance himself from the R&B genre which he had become acquainted). The song was a strong genre success charting at #20 on the US Christian and Gospel iTunes Chart and #14 on the UK iTunes Christian & Gospel Chart. The song became the biggest selling Gospel song by a British artist in the World that year (2014).

Despite the success of the song, it was always intended to be a one song project. Beckwith, became disillusioned with the Gospel music platform quickly and determined that despite of the honourable intentions "There are more politics in gospel than R&B!". It is not known of which Christian fraction Beckwith belongs too and if or he is still a practising Christian.

Singer-Songwriter Transformation

After his foray into gospel and the success of the 5th year anniversary remix of "You're That Kind Of Girl" featuring Sadat X (from Brand Nubians) Beckwith wanted to change his musical direction indefinitely. He started the recording his self-titled EP at Satellite Studio's in Enfield in September 2015. It was a strictly live, acoustic driven project.

Can't Stop Loving You

In May 2016, released under the name BeckwithJP (adapting his initials into his artist name) he released a self-titled EP. The sound and direction were very different from his earlier R&B incarnation. Recorded, Mixed and Mastered entirely at Total Harmony music studio in Enfield, the EP was executive produced by BeckwithJP with Jake Sanders and the project was overseen/managed by music impesario Craig Harris. It debuted at #13 on the iTunes UK singer-songwriter chart to great acclaim. The video for the lead song "Can't Stop Loving You" created by Brave Bird Films, is regularly featured on VH1 and has appeared on MTV2. It is available on the Internet via Youtube and Vevo.

Chart Success