For nearly two decades, Leela James has been a standard-bearer of soul music with her unique and powerful vocal prowess. The Los Angeles native has gained a reputation for being an electric live performer who has mastered R&B, soul, rock, and funk.

Since James debuted with her highly-acclaimed A Change Is Gonna Come in 2005, she has amassed an impressive catalog of seven LPs, numerous guest appearances, and has toured across the globe with her signature sound.

Her latest project Thought U Knew (2023) continues to display her signature soul sound as she explores all aspects of her artistic growth and evolution to a veteran singer/songwriter.

Even as a child, James’ gift of song was apparent but she had no idea how far her talent would take her.

“I think one of my first music memories was probably singing in church when I was young and seeing how people responded to me,” James told BET.com. “At that early age, I thought it was kind of cool but I didn’t really understand the magnitude of me having a musical career, I just enjoyed singing and I always love making people feel good. I remember that feeling of people being lifted in some kind of way by my voice.”

James’ love of singing would eventually become her life’s work after having her creativity sparked by a teacher who recognized her potential.

“During my high school years. I was participating in a lot of talent shows and various showcases. My English teacher took a liken to me and told me that I should consider doing music professionally. Unbeknownst to me, he had a recording studio and was a producer in addition to being a teacher,” she recalled. “Me and a couple of other students had the opportunity to go to his studio, in a professional setting, and we saw how they came together. I was like, 'This is cool, and you can make money doing it.’ I was all in.”

One of her first mainstream appearances was the Jamie Foxx film Bait, on The Roots' song "Work" where she was credited as Alechia James and the rest she said “is history.”

“Work” was one of the big songs from the Bait soundtrack and that was a great time. That was my first time working with The Roots and I was such a big fan of them,” she said. 

On Thought U Knew, each single has a video where James reimagines some characters from her favorite movies. She spoke about the vision behind the visuals--highlighting the storytelling in her music starting with a nod to House Party on “Satisfied.”

“All of my videos for this project, such as “Right Back In It” paid homage to Queen and Slim and for “Thought You Knew” we remade Set It Off. On “Satisfied”, I wanted to connect the dots with the rest of those videos and complete the story of how the couple being played in the videos met. Basically, the video is about how we met at this house party which led us to all the other activities,” James said.

“I wanted to pay homage to House Party and Daryl “Chill” Mitchell was more than willing to make a cameo appearance in the video,” she continued. “This one put the cherry on the top with the legendary Chill being in it.”

James also said that she could see herself working as a film director in the future after working closely with Dang Films who directed all the videos from the album.

“Dang Films is so easy to work with. When I bring him my ideas and my vision,  he brings them to life,” James explained. “We work well together, he's a great talent, and I enjoy shooting videos with him.”

Now on her eighth full-length project, James feels that she is creating her best work and her consistency for more than 20 years is a hallmark of success in the industry.

“I am Gemini so I’m not one dimensional,” she laughed. “I've been in the game for over 20 years, and I have been doing a lot of things throughout my career. I started to discover the last few years that the different things I’ve done, people didn't know,” James said. “I've been here. I've been doing this and I've been that girl in that sense. But a lot of times, certain artists, and especially myself, don't always get that visibility, so there are things that people may be surprised to know about me. I’m thankful to be able to share my story with BET.com.”