Faame Emanuel

Most two-year-olds play with toys, Baltimore native Emanuel Johnson, turned to music, and acting inspired by rapper Bow Wow. This multi- talented artist known as FAAME (Focused and Achieving My Empire), writes music and plays, raps, sings and acts. He’s a graduate of the prestigious Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied theatre and was regularly featured in productions.


In 2014, he released his first album, Problem Child, replete with raw and honest lyrics: "Inpatient just like a bladder," he raps, "mix it up like its batter, energize like a battery, manifest in catastrophe, adversaries are after me; “14, a long story, Dora couldn’t explore me.”


“We should all have a paint brush to give life to our creativity,” he says. Artistic luminaries such as James Brown, Tupac Shakur, Kendrick Lamar, Bob Marley, Erykah Badu, and Bilal are sources of learning and motivation. While his music celebrates enjoyment, it is also a candid release of personal experiences, anxieties and stress. When we exclude the voices of young people from issues like what’s happening in inner cities, our society loses so much, Emanuel insists.