James Samuel "Jimmy Jam" Harris III and Terry Steven Lewis are one of the most prolific and successful production teams to emerge from the American R&B scene of the late 80s. The two musicians met in Minneapolis through a student program at the campus of the University of Minnesota and quickly started making music together. In the following years, they both joined the Prince-adjacent Morris Day and the Time and began working as in-house producers for Clarence Avant’s Tabu Productions in 1980. Subsequently, they went on to produce masters for The S.O.S. Band, Cherrelle, Alexander O’Neal, and Change. In 1986, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis began a fruitful creative partnership with Janet Jackson, handling production duties on the singer’s breakthrough album, Control. The album proved hugely successful, earning Jam & Lewis a Grammy Award in the category of Producer of the Year, Non-Classical. Their winning streak with Jackson continued throughout the decades with a string of chart-topping albums that cemented their reputation as a true production powerhouse—Janet (1993), The Velvet Rope (1997), All for You (2001), and Unbreakable (2015). Perspective Records, their own record label, was created in 1991 and served as a launching platform for many up-and-coming artists, most notably Sounds of Blackness, Lo-Key?, and Mint Condition. Besides their award-winning work with Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis have also lent their expertise to major players in the contemporary urban scene such as Boyz II Men, Mary J. Blige, Vanessa Williams, and Michael Jackson. In 2021, they released Jam & Lewis: Volume One, their proper debut as recording artists, which climbed to Number 3 on the UK’s R&B Albums chart. The album featured a star-studded lineup of iconic musicians and longtime collaborators, including Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton, and Usher.
