The Denisonian

Issue date: 11/10/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Courtesy of Wynne McIntosh Morgan Armor Jones was featured at the Bandersnatch this past Thursday night to a not so packed house. Jones' stellar and energetic performance, nonetheless, reflects his real passion for music. Jones, 18, is young and breaking into the music industry.

"Music can help you get over anything," Amor Jones confidently tells me.

I jump at this. I know exactly what he's talking about.

Music can help you get over anything, but people often don't really care enough to let it. Quickly, I realize Amor Jones is not one of those people.

We're sitting in a dark corner of the Bandersnatch, and he has just played a high-quality - if under-attended - set. Jones, who has just turned 18, is "at the point where [he's] trying to climb up."

Despite his age, he seems to know how the hip-hop industry works and what he doesn't want his career to become.

"Other rappers try to put on a gimmick… Real hip-hop, no gimmicks, man," Jones says, leaning forward, gesturing with his clasped hands.

Don't think Jones doesn't have his sights set high, though. He wants fame, sure, but he's just more realistic and small-scale about it.

He knows, for example, that it is too early to sell his music. He doesn't want to be on iTunes right now. By making his music available for free, he wants to build up a following of people who, eventually, will pay for his album when it comes. He knows that that's how it works now.

He's thrilled that his MySpace page has over 400,000 page views, reciting the exact number - 409,506 - automatically, as if he just checked moments ago on his iPhone. He's also very happy to be playing a small gig on a Thursday night at Denison.

"It's too bad it wasn't more crowded," I told him. He tells me he doesn't mind. One person or 100, he'd perform at the same high level.

And I believe it. The Bandersnatch was not packed, nor was the crowd going wild, but Jones performed as if it was. At some of the more low-energy moments, he tried to rally the crowd by teasing the audience to "make…some kind of noise," or, later in the set, by inviting us all up on stage. We made noise, but no one walked up to the stage. None of this bothered Jones, who flowed from song to song almost seamlessly.

Continued...

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