Rapper, singer, and record producer Je’kob Washington was born in San Antonio, Texas on June 16th, 1981. He attended several high schools, playing basketball alongside his brother. By his junior year they were both considered top prospects by several colleges. During his senior year of high school, the part-time family music group Je’kob was in called “Souljahz” got invited to go overseas to Aachen, Germany and record their first full-length album with a young producer who they met through a family friend. They decided to go just for the fun of it before they made decisions on which college they would attend. As soon as they returned to the states their father took the finished album to the ASCAP offices in Los Angeles where he met Charis Henry who was successful in signing many songwriters including Tupac Shakur, Truth Hurts and Tweet. Prior to ASCAP, Henry worked with Eazy E at Ruthless Records and Queen Latifah at Flavor Unit Management. She loved the project and quickly after the group met with her, they found themselves sitting in the offices of Jimmy Iovine, the CEO of Interscope Records. The group received offers from several powerhouse labels including Interscope, Warner Bros., and Atlantic Records. In 2000, after lengthy negotiations, they ended up inking a deal with Warner Bros./Word Records.

The troupe performed alongside the lauded and diverse likes of No Doubt, Nelly, Counting Crows, Ja Rule, Ashanti, Garbage, Boyz II Men, and Erykah Badu on a cross-country tour in support of their major label debut, The Fault Is History. Television features followed on CNN Headline News, E!, Billboard, and The WB, plus a slot on Sessions@AOL beside Christina Aguilera, 50 Cent, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. But even with the tremendous amount of buzz and overwhelming fanfare, red tape soon wrapped itself around the burgeoning band, putting a long delay on what would’ve been its sophomore CD.

In 2006, the group re-emerged independently as The Washington Projects. They have since released two albums, Commanders Of The Resistance in 2007 and Light Up The Dark in 2010, of which both garnered critical acclaim and rave reviews. Between 2006 and 2010, they toured nationally and internationally, traveling twice to war zones in Iraq to entertain the troops, as well as headlining a tour to Italy alongside The Nappy Roots. In 2012, Je’kob signed a distribution deal with Seattle-based Save The City Records to release new material and make new appearances. His first release was a 3-EP series entitled Faith, Hope, & Love. The gutsy trilogy garnered rave reviews and the first single, “Love Is All”, quickly climbed Billboard charts, peaking at #12 on CHR radio. In 2014, he released his newest album, entitled This Side Of The Sky, which was heavily focused on Creation & Purpose. It rose to #25 on the Billboard charts and Je’kob toured the record extensively throughout 2015.

There have been as many glorious moments as there have been trials, but Je’kob sums up his experience best in one of his songs entitled “Dreams”: “What you fight for is what you die for, and what you try for is what you cry for, but if you really want it, you will try more.”