The Heat

Jamall Andrew Richards (Born November 16,1994), known as "The heat" or "JR" on stage is a 16 year old writer, singer/rap artist and a film producer, Born in Brooklyn, NY. He is the son of Maxine Ann-Marie Richards and Anthony Gerald Richards, and is of West Indian decent. Jamall Richards started singing from the age of 4 in church. Growing up in church in a Christian family, he performed at many Christian rallies and crusades, and church concerts in and around the New York City area. Later at...

Jamall Andrew Richards (Born November 16,1994), known as "The heat" or "JR" on stage is a 16 year old writer, singer/rap artist and a film producer, Born in Brooklyn, NY. He is the son of Maxine Ann-Marie Richards and Anthony Gerald Richards, and is of West Indian decent. Jamall Richards started singing from the age of 4 in church. Growing up in church in a Christian family, he performed at many Christian rallies and crusades, and church concerts in and around the New York City area. Later at age 5, he taught himself how to play the drums in church, and later on kept practicing after Friday night youth services to get better. From a young age he was exposed to Oldies Dance-hall and Reggae music by his father, and R&B and Reggae Gospel by his mother, this gave him his first taste and interest in music. By the age of 6 Gospel was his favorite genre of music, and he was inspired by many artists such as Donnie McClurkin, Kirk Franklin, the Grace Thrillers (A Gospel group from Jamaica) and Sandra Brooks (also originating from Jamaica). At age 9, Jamall became interested in Hip Hop, R&B, and Rock, and looked up to artists such as Biggie, Tupac, Jay-Z, and P-Diddy and by age 11, his ambition to sing had begun. Originally he went by his real name Jamall Richards, or Andrew his middle name and started singing at local talent shows and church events, he also pursued drumming more, and started taking lessons from his friend at church, Adrian Humes and Nick Phillips, one of the Pastors of the church. With the drum lessons he went on to improving on the drums and eventually became the church's drummer after Adrian Humes left. By Freshman year in High School at Age 13, Jamall became even more interested in the art of hip hop through his friends, Tariq Washington, Troy Washington, Kurtis Taylor, and Dornel Kirby, all aspiring rappers from Brooklyn. He spent many evenings after school in the recording studio that was provided at the school with his friends experimenting with music, rapping and more while also improving his singing abilities and drum playing talents. Finally on the morning of March 28, 2009 he recorded his first studio single "Poem about a girl" featuring Tariq Washington as RDK, Kurtis Taylor as Nyquil (named after the cold relief medicine), and Troy Washington as Troy ya Boy. After becoming a hit around the school and neighborhood, they formed a group known as "GHG". During these years Jamall also became interested in dancing, influenced by the various dance battles after school in the streets and a lot of times on the Subways trains of the MTA. At Age 14 in his first month and a half of Sophomore year his family moved from the busy congested streets of New York to a suburban neighborhood in the Poconos to pursue a new life. He continued High School at Pocono Mountain West High and less than a month later he became part of the Urbane Gospel Choir, a district choir under the direction of Meredith Lamm. Here Jamall got even more exposure to gospel music. He started his own online show via YouTube on December 23, 2009, which has grown over 22,000 views in its first year on the web. It was inspired by one of Jamall's close friends Jazze-Rae Francis from back in New York after having a show of his own JazzeRae360. It was named Chrome Network, and he has been doing product reviews mainly around electronics, promos, comedies, and recently music content. Jamall did many stage performances traveling to different towns and cities solo, and with Urbane, he also recently took part in the Buck Hill Skytop Music Festival in August 2010, singing and acting in Gershwin's Porgy & Bess, with the Virginia Opera Company under the famous choreographer and award winning director Greg Ganakas and Peter Mark an Artistic director with the Virginia Opera Company. Working with professional opera artists such as Lawrence Craig who has appeared in various opera musicals such as The Magic Flute, Cosi Fan Tutte, Madama Butterfly and Falstaff, Darius Crenshaw, a performer who worked with the Cincinatti Ballet, Los Angeles Ballet, and New York City Ballet, Aundi Marie Moore a Soprano who have sung with L'Opera de Monte Carlo, and Sarasota Opera just to name a few, April Nixon, a performer who's appeared in various Broadway shows such as Cats, and Tommy. She also had television credits on Law & Order, The Wire, and Dave Chapelle, and Michael Redding, a Baritone who had performed with Opera Carolina, the Virginia Opera, and Evansville Philharmonic naming a few. Jamall Richards is experienced and he has a dream to succeed someday, and he's ready for anything and any challenges that may come his way. Today he goes by JR or "The heat" so look out as this kid has a lot in store for him. " I started singing at age 4 and built my way up in church and stuff and eventually took things to the booth, and I been playing drums since age 5 that also started in church till I eventually started doing shows and stuff. I discovered songwriting in church too. Basically I thank church, if it wasnt for my parents and my auntie wakin me up every sunday morning to go to Church I wouldn't be halfway where I am today." -JR "Never give up on what you believe in, and dont ever let anyone bring you down and tell you, you can't" - JR