RH First Look: Rich Jones
"And even just walking down the streets, my mom would point out people rapping in front of me, just cyphering while we we're walking down the street. I'm sure she regrets pointing that out now, haha," says Rich Jones, recounting the earliest moments that Hip Hop reached his life. Now in his early 20's, Rich Jones grew up on Chicago's northwest side where without any knowledge of the genre he now knows as Hip Hop, he definitely experienced it in some fashion walking the streets as a child in Jefferson Park. From gaining information of the local Chicago scene through the Gravel Records Chicago Project at age 15, Jones dug deeper to discover The Molemen crew, and other prominent underground acts in the scene. With a strong passion for the music building during his high-school years, Jones began the real grind while in college.
Now a recent graduate, Jones has formed the 4-man crew Second City Citizens who have just released their Sophomore project titled SpliffNotes. With chilled out, melodic beats, meshed with "summertime Chi" focused lyrics, Second City Citizens offer a noticeable brand of indie Hip Hop, suited for those warm July nights, where the porch is the only place to be. "And I can say that the people I have associated with, is on some family type sh*t. Not on some business like, cold and calculated type... We do this because we have mutual respect and are actually friends." Jones says about his SCC crew as they prepare for what's next. For Jones, solo EP's are coming soon, and with production from Tony Baines on deck for Jones and his team, this is only the etchings of a promising musical career for the passionate MC. We put him under the First Look microscope below. Check out the interview, and a new song "Swing For The Fences".