This is Justin A Wilson II aka ‘LJ‘ from Southern California, United States. He’s still a one-year-old believe it or not in this video as it was filmed shortly before he turned two.
LJ’s love for music began in the womb. He would tap rhythmically when his mum would tap her fingers on her belly and move when she sang to him. Once born, LJ was enveloped by music. His father, an accomplished musician made sure that he was exposed to complex melodies and rhythms often foregoing the nursery rhymes and creating a daily playlist of classical and jazz. Also being a musical family, fun songs were created for just about every activity: eating, changing a diaper, nursing and so on.
While LJ enjoys music from every genre, jazz, gospel and classical have emerged as favourites. As an infant, he could always be soothed and lulled to sleep by Sonata in A. At four months, his parents discovered that he could match pitch; his mother would sing a note and he’d sing the same note. He was an early talker saying his first word at six months and by ten months, he began singing along to songs and verbalising a few lyrics. At this time, he began his first attempts at maintaining rhythm with beatboxing, saying, “dubba dubba” to the beat.
By 13 months, he was keeping time to songs, banging his spoons at each meal. And by 15 months, he was able to identify and mimic unique syncopations and tinker on the piano in the correct key as a song was played. He got his own drum set at 18 months and hasn’t looked back. His passion for drumming and music is such a joy to experience and watch.
LJ’s favourite artists include: Larnell Lewis, Eric Moore II, Aaron Spears, Snarky Puppy, Stevie Wonder and Bootsy Collins.
