Thursday, October 20, 2005

Who? Mike Jones

Mike Jones has exactly two people to thank for his success: himself and his grandmother. Sure, there were peripheral players along the way, but the things that shape our image of the Houston rapper—the marketing gimmicks—can be traced back to Jones’s late grandmother, Elsia Mae Jones. The cell phone number? Her idea. The “Who? Mike Jones,” her idea.

The 24-year-old self-proclaimed “king of the south” broke onto the mainstream scene in April of this year with his major-label debut “Who Is Mike Jones,” but his name has been whispered in underground circles for about three years.

Jones didn’t grow up with his eye on platinum records, though. His dream was to make a career in professional basketball. In fact, he didn’t even pick up a microphone until four years ago. Houston has grown famous for producing a lot of “accidental rappers.” Paul Wall, for example, claims he found rap only as a means to further is jewelry business.

But when Mike Jones set his sights on hip-hop, he jumped in with both feet—against the advice of those closest to him. “Out of ten people,” Jones said in an online interview, “my grandmother was the only one who said I could do [this rap thing.] I went against all nine and went with her. And I’m glad I did.”

His legions of fans are also glad. Before he got his major deal, Jones formed his own label, Ice Age Entertainment. Through Ice Age he released several mixtapes, and with no promotion or distribution, managed to move more than a quarter-million CDs. To call this a major achievement for an independent label would be a severe understatement.

For marketing advice, Jones repeatedly turned to his supportive grandmother. “I used to go to clubs and give deejays my CD. They’d be like ‘who are you?’ And I’d be like ‘Mike Jones.’ And they’d be like ‘Who?’ ‘Mike Jones.’ ‘Who?’ ‘Mike Jones.’ Then I’d go home and tell my grandmomma I gave a couple of deejays my CD, and they didn’t know who I was. She said ‘just start saying who? Mike Jones. Who? Mike Jones.’” And so the greatest hip-hop marketing tool of the last several years was born.

Elsia Mae also advised Mike to give out his cell phone number to fans. After an imposter claiming to be Mike Jones was booed off the stage at a New Orleans concert, the real Mike Jones began incorporating his cell phone number into his flows so that fans could reach him. “I had to give out my number so people could call me [about shows] so I can tell them if I’ma be there or not,” he recently said in an interview with the Associated Press. At the time his number was 281-455-1858, but Cingular was charging him for all of those incoming calls. He was racking up charges in excess of $1,000 a month. Jones switched to another provider (with a more rhyme-friendly number), lowering his bills to a flat $150 a month. Now the Mike Jones fanline is the famous 281-330-8004.

Sadly, Elsia Mae passed away in 2002, before she could see her grandson make it big.

Mike Jones will be performing live at Cohen Stadium in El Paso this Friday night at nine. Tickets are $10 in advance through Ticketmaster.

-From Pulse
October 20, 2005

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