PARISIAN MUSICIAN AND PRODUCER JAMES BKS UNVEILS ‘SEE US RISE AND WIN’ DELUXE EP LED BY ‘MILLI VANITY’ FOCUS TRACK
‘MILLI VANITY’ UNEARTHS REDEMPTIVE STORY OF EGO, FAME, TRUTH AND RISING AGAIN FEATURING MILLI VANILLI FRONTMAN FAB MORVAN
SEE US RISE AND WIN is the excellent new deluxe EP from French Cameroonian artist, producer, and creative polymath JAMES BKS. Arriving with four brand new tracks, including focus track ‘MILLI VANITY’ and its remix featuring original Milli Vanilli member Fab Morvan. Born out of the moment that James BKS stopped trying to impress people, and instead chose to connect with them, See Us Rise And Win tells his story without making a spectacle of it, and puts his heritage at the core for the first time. Its artwork is a thesis, revealing one table where everything can be said without masks – victories, losses, empowerment, doubts, inherited wounds, trauma, temptation, friendships, resilience, and intergenerational conversations. If the original project was the decision to stand up and face oneself, See Us Rise and Win is the practice, staying aligned, choosing growth over ego, and remaining honest.
Musically, the deluxe EP extends James BKS’ hip-hop and afropop language, with its bikutsi pulse, chant-driven hooks, and modern rap architecture, co-produced with JoA Touch (Wiz Khalifa, Akon, Shay) and long-time collaborator Roark Bailey (Playboi Carti, Kanye West, Lenny Kravitz, SAINt JHN). Across the tracklist, lead single ‘Na Na Benz’ salutes the Togolese matriarchs of the ‘40s who turned wax prints into cultural power, with James BKS spotlighting female agency and ownership for a new generation, while focus track ‘Milli Vanity’, which was written on the back of the 2023 Paramount Plus documentary Milli Vanilli, and James getting to meet Milli Vanilli frontman Fab Morvan. The track and its remix, featuring Fab Morvan himself, reframes the Milli Vanilli saga into a hopeful and redemptive story about ego, fame, a ruthless music industry, facing the truth, and rising again more authentic.
Elsewhere on the EP, James BKS maps his arc from self-discovery to alignment, with ‘On My Way’ tracing his basement-to-mainstage musical odyssey, where every misstep becomes lesson and fuel on his journey to self, and titular track ‘See Us Rise’ holding space for friendships that fracture and evolve, honouring sweet memories and hard truths without blame. ‘Waka Go’ wrestles with everyday temptation and recommitment, choosing long-haul love over momentary spark, while ‘Assia’ (Cameroonian for “have courage, be strong”) extols the human capacity to transcend suffering and grow through it. James widens the EP’s lens without losing intimacy with ‘Wetin U Go Choose’ scoring a young dancer’s decision to own her dual identity and defy conformity, and ‘N’dolo’, which means “my love” in Douala, turning heartbreak into renewal with inner strength, resilience, and self-empowerment.
James BKS’ See Us Rise And Win deluxe EP and its predecessor from May, which thread West African rhythms through contemporary hip-hop and afropop, while exploring strong themes of self-empowerment, temptation and resilience, are building on a proven run from the Parisian musician and producer. His two-part debut album Wolves of Africa and Wolves of Africa Part 2, which featured the likes of will.i.am, Idris Elba, Little Simz, Royce Da 5’9” and Q-Tip, garnered critical acclaim and rave reviews from BBC Radio 1, Vogue Magazine, NME, and Rolling Stone, among others, and was crowned by sold-out Théâtre du Châtelet headline concert. On this new work, James BKS is in testimony mode, letting his Cameroonian roots and tri-continental sensibilities power these songs that are built for reflection and release – this is his invitation to tell the truth, rise and win together.
‘SEE US RISE AND WIN’ DELUXE EP TRACKLIST
- On My Way
- Wetin U G Choose
- Waka Go
- Ndolo
- Assia
- See Us Rise
- Na Na Benz
- Milli Vanity
- Hold On
- Milli Vanity (Remix)
CONNECT WITH JAMES BKS
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesbks
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jamesbks
Website: https://www.james-bks.com