James BKS | Working with Idris Elba and Stepping Into The Solo Artist Role With ‘Waka Go’

Having gone from making his first beats on a PlayStation to collaborating with the likes of will.i.am, and producing the hit track New Breed featuring Little Simz, A Tribe Called Quest’s Q Tip, and A-list star Idris Elba, James BKS is a Paris-based producer who is rapidly being recognised as a music artist in his own right. The French-Cameroonian songwriter speaks to Headliner about coming into his own as a vocalist and solo artist on new singles On My Way and Waka Go.

Born in Paris, music is very much in BKS’s bloodline; his father is the legendary Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango, who built a multi-decade career fusing jazz, funk, and traditional Cameroonian music. Like father, like son, he has built his name by blending hip-hop, the urban genre sounds of France, with West African instrumentation, rhythms and sounds.

This fusion is all too natural as his life has seen him grow up in France and the US and spend time visiting family in Cameroon. His music is the sound of the three continents that have shaped him as a person and musician. His career seems to magnetically draw in hugely influential people: while in the US, he signed with Akon’s label Konvict Muzik, and he would quickly find himself working with the likes of T-Pain, Snoop Dogg, and Ja Rule.

Upon returning to France, BKS was placed on the radar of actor and DJ Idris Elba and then put to paper again, this time with Elba’s London-based label 7Wallace. This wasn’t to be a mere professional collaboration, however. BKS had the A-lister contribute a verse to 2019’s New Breed, a single that also enlisted the extraordinary rapping talent of Little Simz and one of the legends of hip-hop’s golden age, Q-Tip.

With his second album on the way, there is plenty to listen to in the meantime — he released his debut LP in two parts across 2022 and 2023, in Wolves Of Africa (Part 1 of 2) and then (Part 2 of 2). BKS speaks to Headliner from home in Paris, having just returned from South Korea, where he was one of the songwriters leading a writing camp organised by one of the country’s biggest record labels.

“I moved to the US when I was 19,” he says. “And that's when I really took music seriously. In France, I was a fan of hip hop and pop music, artists like Michael Jackson, the Fugees, and Jay-Z. But I didn't see myself pursuing that career. In the US, I met a lot of people who told me that I had something. I started producing for fun as a hobby, and people saw something in me; they saw skills in everything that I was doing. And they were like, ‘Yo, you should pursue this seriously.’ I got my first internship at Akon’s label, Konvikt. I met a lot of songwriters and top liners, and that's how I got my foot into the game.”

A fascinating part of BKS’s trajectory is the move from studio-bound producer to releasing a debut album with featured artists on almost every track, to his latest singles seeing him come to the fore as a solo artist. He shares his thoughts on why collaboration was so integral to his early journey.

“As a producer, I started behind the scenes,” BKS says. “You want to be able to work with the best and have multiple collaborations with artists that you look up to. When I saw producers like Swizz Beatz, Pharrell Williams, and Timbaland, they had multiple collaborations, but they were still able to infuse their signature sound in everything that they were doing. And that was truly inspiring to me, and that's what I was aiming at.”

When a music artist breaks through into mainstream success, you can often pinpoint a big moment where it happened for them. For BKS, all his hard work and producing for other artists came to a head with New Breed, his 2019 single featuring Idris Elba, Little Simz and Q-Tip. It’s a brilliant introduction to what BKS does — opening with West African folk instrumentation, suddenly Q-Tip is rapping over a silky beat with his trademark flows. He certainly shows why he’s regarded as a hip-hop icon. Meanwhile, Little Simz shows what the newer generation is offering with a very powerful final verse on the track.

In terms of BKS and Elba’s worlds colliding, he says, “I was already back in France. I really wanted to create my signature sound. Every collaboration that I was doing felt like I was serving the artist that I was working with. But it was time to develop my own project. My partner and I decided we would try to do this on our own. And we went to Africa, to Gabon, to shoot a music video. I met one of Idris’s partners at the time, who really liked my approach to my music, and he knew afrobeats well.

“I followed all of Idris’ work, every mixtape, compilation and soundtrack that he was releasing. I knew that he was a DJ as well. I felt that whenever I got the opportunity to meet him, I knew that musically, we would connect. So I asked if his partner would send him my music. I said, ‘I have this song that I'm working on, and I know that if he hears it, he's gonna like it.’ Idris responded right away. I met him, and our relationship became more than music — I truly see him as a mentor.”

And on how both the rapping lineup of New Breed and the song itself came together, he says, “That was a dream come true. Q-Tip is the kind of person I’ve always looked up to, and I see myself in him also. I went crazy when I heard him on my record. Then, I was actually at the studio when Little Simz recorded her part, and it was one of the best experiences I've had in my life. She was so talented, so gifted, and Idris jumped on it and went crazy, too. It wasn't just a commercial song. There was a lot of substance put into it, as far as messaging, the approach, the African pride, and trying to connect people, trying to build bridges together. I knew that that song would resonate with the world.”

Where do you go from there, BKS’s most-streamed song that has helped catapult his career? The answer is Waka Go, his latest single. 2025 sees him make his full transition from collaborative producer to bona fide solo artist as he performs each verse and chorus himself. It’s unmistakably a James BKS track, as he sings over his unique blend of Cameroonian afrobeats and touches of contemporary hip-hop. While conservative critics of hip-hop music stereotypically claim it encourages behaviours such as promiscuity, BKS does quite the opposite with this ode to resisting temptation and keeping his vows to his wife close at heart.

“I wanted to offer a different perspective on what's cool these days,” he says. “I wanted to flip the script on the people who talk about cheating and having multiple relationships. I'm not trying to throw anybody under the bus. I'm just trying to approach things differently, trying to give the world a different perspective on what's truly cool. Especially for my son. Having a relationship, growing with someone, and building something from the ground up. We humans are far from perfect. I get tempted every day. So I feel this purpose of trying to put great values on the table and leave something really positive behind us.”

Prior to this single was On My Way, a song that sees a reflective BKS realising now is not the time to let his success so far go to his head, to get complacent or rest on his laurels. He’s clearly not allowing that to happen, as it’s more new music without him having the likes of Idris Elba or will.i.am to fall back on and hide as a producer — he takes the starring vocal role again. There’s a stunning moment in the song in which his vocal melody is matched by the guitar and bass guitar parts. The West African sounds and instrumentation shine particularly on this track.

BKS is keen to impart the advice of On My Way’s lyrics onto people: “It's about being confident about yourself, not being scared of trying new things, getting out of your comfort zone, but still being an eternal student. After the last tour that I did, I had a great cast around me, features with Grammy award winners, and I had a lot of things in mind that I didn't achieve. At first, I took it personally, thinking, ‘that's crazy, because my music is good. I'm as good as such and such.’ But I didn't know at that time that I still had to grow as an artist. Once I understood that, things became clear in my mind, and I started working on my second project. It's all about growing and never thinking that you have arrived. You constantly need to go at it more and take new challenges.”

It’s a wonderful privilege to get to witness James BKS grow as a musician, producer, and now, as a performing vocalist. And 2025 could prove to be his biggest growth as an artist yet, as he reveals that these new singles are building us up to album number two. “I’m actually done making the new album, and I can’t wait for people to listen to it. As we’ve started with Waka Go and On My Way, we’re planning on releasing way more music. We’ll keep going.”

james-bks.com

Photos by Fifou