Chris Thomas King (born October 14, 1962) is a New Orleans, Louisiana-based blues musician and actor.King was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is the son of blues musician Tabby Thomas. He has won awards including &Album of the Year& for both Grammy Award and Country Music Awards. King has sold more than 10 million records in the United States. He is featured playing the part of Tommy Johnson in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000, Ethan Coen & Joel Coen) He is also featured in Down From the Mountain and More Music From Ray soundtracks.
Musical career
King is known as the pioneer of rap/blues. He conceived the first sample based blues concept album in the early 1990s by writing and producing the first all-rap/blues album for RCA Records titled 21st Century Blues… From Da Hood.
As an entrepreneur King took control of his master recordings in the early 1990s, forming 21st Century Blues Records. He also established a publishing company, Young Blues Rebel, LLC. 21st Century Records signed the New Orleans Ninth Ward rap/blues duo the 21C-B-Boyz and the London, England based NuBlues, to 21st Century Blues Records in 2003.
As an actor, King has co-starred several films including two musical films, Ray and O Brother Where Art Thou?. He also starred in the Wim Wenders art house film The Soul of a Man, as Blind Willie Johnson and Kill Switch as Detective Storm with Steven Seagal.