babyJ

Super producer Kenneth Jones, aka Baby J, is who you would call a veteran in this music game. No stranger to the rap game, he recalls his first experiences with music as early as middle school when he used to rap during the morning announcements. He remembers a time when Big Gates, owner of Big Gates Records, home of artist Plies, came at his school with a team dressed in suits just to check out his young skills. Although the opportunity to join the label didn’t fully come to fruition, it gave the young rapper the confidence he needed to explore his skills a little further. Joining up with PRC, a local label, he remembers hearing someone yell, “I have a 13-year-old over here making beats!” Decades later not much has changed except for the fine tuning of his many talents and becoming a household name in his city. We all have a story to tell and growing up in the streets of Ft Myers, FL, Baby J has many chapters to shared. He chooses to share his stories in a melodic format through his music and beats. Although, like many other artists, you will find songs that are just meant to make you vibe and chill, this versatile artist’s musical catalog will also motivate, inspire, and even sometimes turn the ladies on with his clever word play, and natural musical talents. Although from a fairly small city compared to the major parts of the world when it comes to music quality, Baby J’s music cannot be classified as anything but “National”, “Major”, “Real life”, “Versatile”, and a “Unique flow you will not discover anywhere else in the world.” With a smooth flow, a creative soul, and an image that captivates the ladies, Baby J is an artist to watch and definitely an industry ready artist only lacking the right exposure.

Ladychelle: Sak Pase, It’s your girl Ladychelle, Ford Entertainment Magazine, and I’m here with Zoe Smooth. You know I had to click it up with my Haitians. What up? What up?

Zoe: Everything’s great Ladychelle: You are just a multi-artist. If I could put a title on it, you know, you do the music, you do the actual painting, art, you know because you got the merch that just dropped. You do so much. Tell me a little bit more about your art. Tell the people who you are, and introduce yourself.

Zoe: Well, I am Zoe Smooth. Smooth criminal, whatever you want to call it. Really it took prison for me to, should I say, realize the gift that God gave me. Cause in a place where there’s no money, no, no nothing to go and nobody to see. You have nothing but time to sharpen your craft. So that’s what I did to past my time. And I did everything, make purses, portraits, I did the dreads, cut hair, and I made money every which way. Fixed the radios, everything. So you couldn’t miss me. Did the tattoos, so you couldn’t miss me whatsoever. But I’m out. I’m just taking those same skills, and using them out there.

Ladychelle: I love it.

Zoe: All profit. No re-up. It’s beautiful.

Ladychelle: I love it. Cause using your mind and your gift, your hands and it’s amazing. It’s an amazing feeling. So I can imagine. Tell me a little bit about your upbringing that might have shaped your hustle, your grind, your “I’m going to go get it whichever way.”

Zoe: Well, my mom never knew how to read, or write. The Coast Guard saved her. The boat had capsized, they saved all the coast of Florida and she made it over here, touched down, here I am. So I thank the Coast Guards, thank y’all for saving my mom. But seeing her going through so much in life, it just made me want to go harder, do more for my kids. Nowadays people don’t even get to spend time with their kids. They too busy going to work and when they come home, all they got time for is to cook the meal and tell ‘em to go back to sleep. So I try to do different for my kids. That’s it.

Ladychelle: Now you’re barbering; you’re a Barber, right? And then you also do the music. How do you find the time to balance it all?

Zoe: Well I don’t know, really. I be doing that thing in my sleep. It’s easy, surgical.

Ladychelle: I was about to say, is cutting hair kind of the same, kind of relates a little bit with writing music. Do you apply the same artistry to everything that you do?

Zoe: Yeah, because in foreign countries we don’t have the ability to say I can’t, cause we going to damn show try because we’re tired of being hungry. So I apply that same mindset into the American atmosphere.

Ladychelle: Now, with you wearing so many hats, if you had to choose just one to run with if you had to sit and be like, okay, you know what, this what I’m going to do, which one would you pick? Or do you have a favorite?

Zoe: Anybody that comes through that door is a dollar sign to me. So I wouldn’t care. You know what I mean? Somebody wants a haircut, you got it, you want tattoos, you got it, females, eyebrows. Okay, you can get your lashes did, I got you. And I’m going to play some fire-ass music in the background for you.

Ladychelle: Take me through the process of your music. Take me through the vibe of it. What can people look forward to? Cause you just dropped the album, “Press Play” on your website.

Zoe: Press play, it’s self-explanatory, all you got to do is press play and let it ride. I know people are tired of just buying an album and it’s just one song that they like on the whole album. So they got to keep on rewinding that one song, not mine. You got to Press Play and let it ride.

Ladychelle: And what’s, what’s the subject line of your music?

Zoe: Press play. It’s everything, life. It’s real life. It’s nothing fictitious in my music. It’s a lot of y’all boys out there, making that fictitious music, nigga pull that paperwork now.

Ladychelle: Let’s get into that. You know how, because there’s movies, people come up with their ideas and imagination and create movies. Why can’t that apply to music, where they can create their ideas and persona and then put it in music? Why is music, rap music specifically calling out like, oh nah, this ain’t real.

Zoe: Because it’s getting used against us regardless of how you see it. You know what I mean? They can, but we get penalized by. So why do that? I’m not say the truth, why? You’re gonna penalize me, and use that against me in the court of law. But with me, I’ve already been there, done that. I cut hair, I still could talk about the dope and all the other stuff I been did when I was a little jittybug. Little jittybugs need to tighten up, jail ain’t where you need to be at.

Ladychelle: You know what? Then let’s get into that. Because a lot of the, especially rap music nowadays, hip hop music generally glorifies the street life, glorifies certain things that could lead you to a life behind bars. But at the same time, I don’t feel like we have enough people that are like, Hey, this is not where you’re trying to be at. So let’s talk more a little bit about that.

Zoe: We lack leadership, that’s all that is. We lack leadership. Everybody followers. Nobody want to be a leader. We need somebody to stand up and just be like, no man, that’s not what it is. We don’t got no OGs teaching the young Gs nothing. These young bucks, they out here just moving reckless, killing for no reason and they’re rapping about killing what they just did. That’s retarded, why would you do that?

Ladychelle: So how do we fix that phenomenon? Or are they just lost?

Zoe: They lost. That’s a lost cause They lost unless they got one of them little young bucks that going to switch up the rhymes and make them see different, then they lost. Ladychelle: Do you feel like you as an artist, as a business owner, do you feel like you are applying that leadership to the young bucks and you’re telling them what’s what and what’s real?

Zoe: Of Course, of course I am. I let these kids know that every time when you come to my barbershop, I don’t call it a barbershop. I call my shop “the trap”. You wonder why? Because every person that comes through my door, it’s a eight. Eight is $30. Every person that comes through my door is $30 cut or a dub site. It wasn’t $20 this or $20 that. So whatever thing is about a dollar sign for me, that’s why my name starts for the best and it’s dollar signs.

Ladychelle: I love it. I love it. Let’s get into the final message of what you would encourage people and what your music and your art kind of speak of. Let’s speak specifically about one of the piece of art that I know that you did that’s one on the merch where you put “Justice for None”.

Zoe: Well that piece, Justice for None, I was locked up and, it’s self-explanatory, it’s justice for nobody. I was locked up with politicians, warriors, doctors you name it, big time drug dealers, and we was all still the same people. So there’s justice for nobody. Now. When you got a big time lawyer sleeping right next to you, I’m like, damn, how you got in here man, you big time. Cause Bernie Madoff was, I used to eat with Bernie Madoff before he died. You know what I mean? It is crazy to see, to be around people like that. Nicky, Nicky Scarfo, you know what I mean? That’s another one. That’s another big name.

Ladychelle: So pretty much what you’re saying is at the end of the day, when it comes to the justice system or the street life? No, there’s only one way out.

Zoe: Yeah, they don’t give a damn, you got money, don’t give a fuck bunch of money enough. Not at all. We need your time. That’s what we need. Because every year that’s like two, that’s $23,000 that they make off of every person that’s locked us $23,000 per person. So that’s a trap and that’s why they go to the trap and that’s why I don’t be in traps. She won’t trap me again, that’s why I’m in the barber- shop. It’s my trap.

Ladychelle: I love it. Let’s get back to your music. Let’s get back to Press Play. What is the overall message that you want people walking away from after they’ve pressed play and they’ve listened to every single track, what is the final message that you like? Okay, this is the word.

Zoe: I will hope what they get from listening to my track is that, at least one track is going to get you through the day, you know. You might be feeling some type of way in one moment then here, after listening to the music, you going to be like, “oh man, that made me feel a little better. I need rewind that man, That’s my favorite song”. With Press Play, you just got to press play and let that thing ride.