“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”.
Rich Jones: “Swing For The Fences”
[audio: http://rubyhornet.com/media/rh/music/rich_jones_swing_for_the_fences.mp3|width=180]RubyHornet: Rich Jones, how are you? You are from Chicago, the northwest side to be exact. What was the first real moment you had with Hip Hop? When was the first time you can remember being extremely passionate about this profession?
Rich Jones: Hip Hop has been something I’ve been aware of since a very young age. One of my earliest memories was seeing “Meteor Man”, and watching it recently I was like ‘Damn, Biz Markie is in this movie.’ And even just walking down the streets, my mom would point out people rapping in front of me, like cyphering while we we’re walking down the street. I’m sure she regrets pointing that out now, haha. But I’d say probably when I was fourteen, is when like, it’s an age of transition. Freshman year of high-school and all that, trying out different things, kind of just finding yourself. I remember right around that time in middle school, I used to listen to a lot of Beastie Boys, Eminem and like every other kid around that time when he came out, Dr. Dre, like a lot of the mainstream stuff we had easy access to. Around 14, 15 though I started digging deeper and getting more into the local scene. I remember Gravel Records, they had the Chicago Project, a 10 track EP, and I got it at Gramaphone. But yeah around that age, I was also out in Boulder (CO), and someone told me to go and cop Violent By Design by Jedi Mind Tricks. And that’s when I first got my walkman too, so I’m walking around bumping CD’s all day.
RubyHornet: So when did you start recording?
Rich Jones: Around junior year (High School). There was a kid I met from Evanston who was really into music this kid Ben, and we’d met at party, and I’d told him I’m into MCing etc, and I’d written some stuff. So basically he recorded some stuff for me for free. The first song I wrote was about me robbing a bank, which makes a ton of sense…. But it was just some goofy sh*t, I didn’t really end up doing anything with it. Around that time the big revelation for me was it takes a long time to get stuff done. In my mind I was going to go in there one day and knock out like 20 tracks, because I didn’t know any better. I didn’t understand you had to do takes, I didn’t understand breaking it up, I’d try to do everything in one take, on some analog sh*t. Then around 18, I kind of started up again, It was fall of senior year and a friend of a friend had suggested I meet with this kid, Vinny Nice, who was in this really dope live Hip Hop band based that formed at Indiana University. They have a residency at Cubby Bear and stuff now, but he had a set-up in his basement so I used to go over there on weekends, and we’d just smoke, chill, and make music. Haha some of those songs are from my very first project, that will be dead and buried and will never be shown to the world.
RubyHornet: You’ve been rapping for some years now, and have formed a crew called the Second City Citizens. Can you speak on how you formed?
Rich Jones: There are so many MC’s that just stand alone and try to make their name strictly for their own. But they always have a backing crew behind them. There is always like a greater entity behind them, and there is a family aspect. I know a lot of people don’t always get that idea. When I met up with swords (of SCC), senior year, was just out of mutual love for the art, and great friendship.The day we kind of solidified we wanted to work together was funny. My friend was having a party and we were sitting on the curb smoking squares with a bottle of Hennessey passing back and forth, and we were just like ‘we should probably do this ourselves.’ We were enjoying ourselves. We went off to college, and it was really hard, like if you don’t have both parties on the same page its hard to get s**t done as a group, and at the time I was a little upset because I felt I was really pushing for it and….yeah. But it’s completely understandable and all love, like I’m actually really happy the way it worked out because near the end of college, I really focused on putting my project together, getting that done. Then I could take that experience and apply that to what we’re doing as a group currently. Especially having Troy Boy getting entered into the mix, it’s cool to have that third voice. At the end of the day, content excluded, our voices really sound good together, we each have distinctive voices and there is really no confusion. And now we really are looking to get a video done. I think Kreayshawn literally single-handedly showed, if you didn’t know already, you have to have a video as the first single. You’re not dropping a single, you’re dropping a video.
RubyHornet: So is that “single” for Second City Citizens?
Rich Jones: Well, this next project is Spliffnotes, which is a combination of some of our solo work, with newer group stuff and we all love to hit the studio hard. I’ll book solo sessions whenever I can afford it, and same goes for the other two guys. It’s not like we only work when we’re together. Bradley’s got some stuff he’s working on with the homie The Rarity, Troy’s been working on his solo project… and when I was back in the Master Of Ceremonies contest, they said do covers…I remember I took, Beastie Boys – “Get It Together” and “Liquid Swords” by GZA. I haven’t released those on a project yet, so just stuff like that will be on there. Besides, that I also got Tony Baines, who I linked up with through the contest Ruby Hornet helped sponsor, and we found we got along as people, and we can work together. I appreciate his style, he does mine. And that project (My Solo) is called Super Trap It’s going to be some different s**t, like we released our underground backpack sh*t, and honestly that’s where we come from, but you have to be able to display your full palette. Hell, even like Big Boi is talking about Mumford and Sons, and it’s clear now to be successful you have to know a bunch of genres, and that includes different genres in Hip Hop. I was on that Def Jux, Rhymesayers, underground diet for so many years, and finally my ear was like “F*ck you” haha. So, it’s cool to make some songs that we wouldn’t necessarily feel comfortable making, because we hadn’t grown yet. Now we’re having fun, and that’s the key thing.
RubyHornet: Well that brings me into, asking about ya’ll style and theme now. With what I’ve heard from ya’ll, the phrase “Summatime Chi” immediately comes to mind. Can you give me some words that describe that day.
Rich Jones: Well, the first thing that comes to mind is Lake Shore Drive, can’t avoid the drive. Nothing better than rolling one up and hitting LSD, whether it’s night time or day time, morning… Morning Lake Shore is beautiful. But you got that… Some North Ave. action, but honestly, it’s about being amongst the people. Being as much in the midst of the sweat as the next person, and you feel f*cking great because you’re alive. Who cares if you got some sweat stains, you’re alive. It’s a beautiful day, you probably got a cold beer in your hand, that’s summertime Chicago, you might be in Wrigley, you could be at Comiskey.
RubyHornet: What is next musically for Rich Jones?
Rich Jones: There are two projects. You know I only got the budget to do these short EPs now, but that’s fine with me. I’d rather have a 5-6 track project that is phenomenal than have a 20 track mixtape where you skip over half of it. The first project is….Well I just got back last week from U of I with Dave Coresh who is also a budding producer now. We linked up back in December, and went down to SXSW together to get to know each other. Even though he’s a few years younger than me, he’s been in that big brother role you know, and Baines too, just getting me to push my boundaries more when I’m creating. This project is actually going to be more singing than rapping. Then next is the Babe Ruthless project, my moniker so to speak haha, It’s called Callin’ Shots, and as much as I’m excited about showing off singing, and different forms of this music, I’m a Hip Hop artist. It’s almost a defensive move, but one I want to make anyway. Just cause I sing, doesn’t mean I can’t rap, like I can’t hold my own in a cypher. That’s my arena for sure, and I’m very competitive. This project is going to be some real hit’em in your face rhymes, you know. I’m working on song writing structure, and tying it into baseball as well as the packaging ideas we have for this, just get me giddy haha.
