Cool James  (Tanzania) EuroDance member Added : 23/12/2002 Viewed 10947 times 00/08/2002                     93 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

 

Cool James albums

	Sukuma Land
	Soft Like A Pillow
	Mwana Maria
	African Millennium	1999
	Karubandika	2001

 

Cool James singles

	Sina Makosa
	Excuse Me Mr Someone	1996
	Telephone Man	1996

 

Featurings

	Danuma - Look At Your Man	1994	LISTEN
	Rednex - Old Pop In An Oak	17th Nov 1994	LISTEN

Productions, co-production, executive production

	Danuma - Look At Your Man	1994	LISTEN
	Danuma - Summertime	1994	LISTEN
	Cool James and Black Teacher - Godfather	1994	LISTEN
	Cool James and Black Teacher - The Rhythm Of The Tribe	1994	LISTEN

Songwriting

	Cool James and Black Teacher - Thank You, Thank You	1993
	Danuma - Summertime	1994	LISTEN
	Cool James and Black Teacher - Godfather	1994	LISTEN
	Cool James and Black Teacher - The Rhythm Of The Tribe	1994	LISTEN
	Cool James and Black Teacher - Comala Wessa	1995	LISTEN
	Cool James and Black Teacher - Free	1998	LISTEN

 

Cool James biography

Cool James real name was James Dandu. He was also known under the other scene names Mtoto wa Dandu and CJ Massive. He was born in 1970 in Mwanza, Tanzania. He did his primary studies in Dar es Salaam Olympio, then his parents moved to Sweden. "I couldn't study mathematics there, which I really wanted to do, because I didn't speak Swedish and they would only teach it in Swedish, but I opted to go for music and ended up enjoying it."

His professional musical career started in 1983, he released his first musical album in 1986, already a dance-oriented production. Then he joined the Kenyan Andrew Muturi and created the group Swahili Nation. Together they released the hit single Mpenzi. But "Andrew's brother wanted to join in and we let him, and after that another brother... I mean after a while all this family stuff started to get in the way of business", he explains. So in 1990 James left the group, and started a business to promote himself and his entertainment work. Called Dandu Planet, the company now owns subsidiaries that are involved in artist management, production and publishing work.

In 1993 he created the eurodance project Cool James and Black Teacher. They released one album and many hits such as Dr. Feelgood (it won the Best Scandinavian Dance Track in 1994), Godfather and The Rhythm Of The Tribe.

Then he went back to his solo career as a rapper in his homeland, Tanzania. He wrote and produced his music himself. "When I came to Africa, I had to decide between doing the music for the love of it and not making much profit, or going back to European-oriented music and doing it for the profit." he said.

Cool James was a great supporter of African music. He registered another subsidiary of his company, Dandu Entertainment, in every East African country, to seek out, produce and manage talented, underexposed African artistes.

He married Devotta Chuwa and had 2 kids called Caroline and Michael. His hobbies were music and football, he admired Puff Daddy and Koffi Olomide. Michael Jackson also inspired him a lot.

He died in a car accident on the 27th of August 2002.

Cool James tribute at Channel5
Cool James interview at Kelele.com
Cool James at Wakilisha
Thanks to Aquastealth and Anton "MC Kasper" Skaletsky

The biography was last updated Mon, June 15th 2009

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