The rapper known as J.West was born James Tener on September 6, 1994, in Nappanee, IN. He started performing in his early teenage years in theater productions at Warsaw Community High School. It was at Warsaw where Tener pursued a career in the film/broadcasting industry as a director/actor. Although he had always had a love for Hip-Hop it wasn't until September 19, 2014 when he would release his first project titled My Life EP. Shortly after its release
West started working on a second project Destination Famous (set to be released March 7, 2017) throughout that time West decided to take the music to a higher lever by moving from a small town in Indiana to the city of Chicago, IL where he has met artist such as Chance the rapper, Rhymefest, Add-2, Jay Electronica, Macklemore, Ryan Lewis, and Brother Ali.