James J Skillz Ricks was a Mississippi hip-hop artist and producer who ran an independent label, A.N.B.O.S. Music & Entertainment, and used a Canton house on North Canal Street as a makeshift studio where artists frequently gathered. On the night of January 21, 2014, Canton police found Ricks lying face down in a rear bedroom with a single gunshot wound to his torso; responders were unable to revive him and he died of that injury.

Police focused on a teenager present that night, identifying Madison County youth Fredrick Tyrone Smith Jr. as the suspect. Officers located and arrested Smith later that evening; he was booked on a $1 million bond. In April 2015, at age 18, Smith pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and accepted a 40-year prison sentence.

Ricks is remembered locally for his mixtapes, studio work, and for founding A New Breed of South.