James Wesley McGee (January 23, 1950 – January 8, 2021) was an American-Canadian musician.^[1] He was most noted for several early rap singles released under the stage name Mr. Q, including "Ladies Delight", the first known Canadian hip hop single.^[2]

A native of Fayetteville, North Carolina, McGee moved to Flint, Michigan, in 1968 to work at the General Motors plant.^[1] After visiting Toronto, Ontario, several times, he moved to the city in 1974.^[1] In Toronto, he began to work as a musician, performing with bands such as Giant Step, Salongo and Crack of Dawn over the course of his career.^[1]

In 1979, George Lewis of Monica’s Productions (later to become Scorpio Records) hired McGee to rap on "Ladies Delight", a response track to The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight".^[2] Released just a few weeks after "Rapper's Delight", the song was based around a rerecording of the hook from Cameo's contemporaneous single "I Just Want to Be".^[2] He recorded a number of other rap/hip hop songs over the next few months as Mr. Q, including "DJ Style", "Rapping Time", "Party, Party" and "Party Rapp"; "Party Rapp" included lyrics about the 1979 Mississauga train derailment, the first explicit indication in any of the Mr. Q singles that they were actually written and performed by Canadians.^[2] "DJ Style" was included in the 2006 hip hop compilation album Big Apple Rappin'.^[2]

He was also featured on Rap the Night Away, a 1981 album by Bobby Boyer and Demo Cates which has been credited as the first full-length Canadian hip hop album.^[3]

He released the solo album Over & Over in 1982 under his own name.^[1] The album featured the single "When We Party (Uptown, Downtown)", which was popular in dance clubs but did not become a charting breakthrough hit as McGee could not afford to undertake a major tour.^[1] His single "Another Love in Your Life", from his 1988 album Survivor, received a Juno Award nomination for Best R&B Soul Recording at the Juno Awards of 1990.^[4] In 1991, he was invited to sing "O Canada" at a Toronto Blue Jays game.^[1]

Throughout his career, McGee also worked as an educational assistant and Black history teacher at Park Public School in the Regent Park neighbourhood of Toronto.^[1]

In 1999, McGee moved back to Flint, where he worked as a church choir director and gospel music performer.^[1] In 2016 he recorded a song, "Don't Drink the Water", about the Flint water crisis.^[1] He released his seventh and final album, Smooth Cruising, in 2020, soon before his death in January 2021.^[1]

McGee died from complications of COVID-19 in Flint, on January 8, 2021, at the age of 70.^[5]