Melina Jones | Hip-Hop and Politics

Talk about old school. Melina Jones‘ hip-hop career began in Bernal Heights , SF when she was barely 2 years old. That’s when her soul-singer father, Ernest East, stuck a microphone in her hand and pushed the record button on his old black-and-chrome Slimline tape recorder.

What followed was about 90 seconds of something like “I kick ya’ ath! I kick ya’ ath,” remembers Jones of those very early demo days. “When I was about 10, I heard ‘Five Minutes of Funk’ by Whodini. I would never be the same again.

In high school I got a job at a record store and bought Eric B & Rakim‘s ‘Follow the Leader.’ It was all over.” During high school, up in Humboldt County, Jones started her first band, called Slim Liquor. The sound was a mix of funk, hip-hop, spoken word and good old rock ‘n’ roll. But the rapper in Jones could not be held back for long, as she would invariably steal the show with freestyle rhyme sessions as the leader of her second band, the Sum of Forces. After a couple of years of gigging around town by night (and driving a cab by day), Jones decided to focus on her solo career. With the help of her producer, Deedot, Jones has refined her solo voice. “It’s been on from the dawn,” she says.

Source: SF Gate

Check out Melina’s latest releases HERE—> http://melinajonesmusic.com/

Below is a video where Melina breaks down who she is..

http://vimeo.com/50374689