James Poyser | |
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 Poyser at the Black Lily Film & Music Festival in 2007 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | James Jason Poyser[1] |
| Also known as |
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| Origin | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Genres | |
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| Instrument(s) | |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Member of | The Roots |
| Formerly of | |
James Jason Poyser is an American record producer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He performed as a member of the Philadelphia-based hip hop band The Roots since 2009. He met Jimmy Fallon in 2013 and served as a live session musician for his NBC talk shows Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.[5][6][7]
Poyser has written and produced songs for numerous artists including Erykah Badu, Mariah Carey, John Legend, Rihanna, Lauryn Hill, Common, Anthony Hamilton, D'Angelo, the Roots, Jill Scott, Al Green, Emeli Sandé, Talib Kweli, Big Sean, and Andra Day, among others.
Throughout his career, Poyser has toured and played for with high-profile artists including DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Cece Peniston, Jay-Z, Usher, Queen Latifah, D'Angelo, Elvis Costello, Hezekiah Walker, and Aretha Franklin, among others. An active session musician, he has contributed to the works of prominent musical acts such as Adele, Norah Jones, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Ozzy Osbourne, Nas, Ziggy Marley, Citizen Cope, Yebba, Snoh Aalegra, and Femi Kuti among others.
In film, he composed the score for the Academy Award-winning Two Distant Strangers, Boxing Day, and Totally Awesome, while contributing music and arrangements of Fame, Dave Chappelle's Block Party, and Jeymes Samuel's The Harder They Fall and The Book of Clarence (both for Netflix). He also scored the Hulu docu-series, The 1619 Project and the WNBA documentary, Unfinished Business, in addition to serving as a composer for the CBS television series, The Equalizer. Poyser also contributed music to the television shows The Chappelle Show, Black-ish and also composed the theme songs for Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas, Hawthorne, and The Break with Michelle Wolf.
Poyser received a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song in 2003 for his work on Erykah Badu and Common's hit single "Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)."[8] He was also the executive producer on Badu's highly celebrated albums, Mama's Gun and Worldwide Underground. Poyser received two Grammy Awards, including Best R&B album, for producing John Legend's Wake Up! album in 2010. Along with his production partner Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, he produced Al Green's album Lay it Down, which also won two Grammy Awards in 2008.
A collaborator with the band dating back to their fourth album, Things Fall Apart in 1999, Poyser officially joined The Roots in 2009. He's composed and live performed for the in-house band on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and subsequently The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. He is often used as comic foil, especially for his use of deadpan facial expressions, in the popular recurring sketch, "Thank-You Notes". Poyser also tours with the band and regularly performs at their live shows.
