Johnny Kemp
Bahamian-American singer-songwriter

Jonathan "Johnny" Kemp (August 2, 1959 – April 16, 2015) was a Bahamian singer, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a songwriter in late 1979 and is perhaps best known for his solo work, including his single "Just Got Paid" (1988), which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song in 1989.
Biography
Early life and career
Kemp began singing in nightclubs in the Bahamas at age 13. He moved to Harlem, New York in 1979 with the band Kinky Fox. In the early 1980s, Kemp became a successful session musician and songwriter, singing backup for the B. B. & Q. Band on their 1982 album All Night Long (on which he co-wrote several tracks) and for Change on their 1982 album Sharing Your Love (on which he co-wrote "Take You To Heaven"). He also appeared on the obscure Network LP I Need You in 1984, where he had lead vocals on the song "Cover Girl", later re-recorded for his self-titled debut solo album.
Solo career
Kemp landed a solo recording contract with Columbia Records and released his eponymous debut album in 1986. It charted in the U.S. on Billboard's Top Black Albums chart, reaching No. 36 on June 28 of that year. He scored a minor hit single from the album with "Just Another Lover" (co-written by Kashif), which peaked at No.
“Johnny Kemp” enters the record as bahamian-American singer-songwriter. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Johnny, Kemp and Bahamian-American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Johnny Kemp” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Johnny, Kemp and Bahamian-American provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3182925. VIAF identifies the subject as 28717111. The Library of Congress control number is n91109792. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1959, 2015, 1979 and 1988.
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This entry incorporates text from “Johnny Kemp” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.