When the intro kicked in for the video for “What’s a Verb?” showing the St. Louis Public Schools’ Ashland School as the setting, I immediately felt a connection. By the time the final scenes rolled with the kids dancing and singing, “I know my verbs” in a call and response with rapper YG, I was kicking myself for not watching it sooner.
“Everything that you saw, everything that you heard, everything that you thought you can kick it to the curb,” YG says.
“Tell me if you think you know your verbs… Whatsa, whatsa verb it’s an action word.”
The catchy track samples the “I Dream of Genie” television show theme song and has a ring to it, as well as a beat that makes you bob your head. YG’s cadences and genuine dedication to the subject matter in his delivery – which just happens to be learning – completely legitimize the song.
“I would rather bring joy to kids than entertainment to adults,” said Robert Jones, the mind behind the music.
Through his A.N.D. (A New Dynasty) Entertainment and U Make it Happen not-for-profit organization, Jones is using his experience and resources in music to make a difference.
His current life and work is a complete 360 from where he started in the industry – using music for the sake of the perks – including women, money and status.
“I started record label because I had a nice artist that I thought could get me out of the neighborhood,” Jones said. “And I wanted females to dig what I was doing.”
And so began the work of A.N.D. Jones dug deep into his own pocket, spending every dime learning the business and grinding for his artist. He moved the rapper into his home for seven months, only to watch his golden meal ticket move back to his home on the East Coast due to marital issues after failing to meet the production obligations.
Jones, a single father, refinanced the family home on a longshot and was at the intersection of crisis and soul searching.
“I had spent so much money,” Jones said. “I was broke down emotionally and praying to God, asking, ‘What am I going to do now?’”
Bad turned to worse. Jones went to jail for outstanding traffic tickets. But it was a chance encounter with a fellow inmate that provided Jones with the inspiration for his new passion.
“I asked him, ‘When you get out of here, what are you going to do?’” Jones said. “He said he was going to get out, smoke some weed, try to rap and see how many girls he could knock down. He said he dropped out at 8th grade because it was boring.”
That was when, Jones, said “a light came on.”
“I was like, ‘Wow. What if I tried to bring fun back to education?’ Maybe I can help these kids want education and want to get a diploma,” Jones said.
And so began a transformation from hardcore rap to educational music.
“They were predicting how many penitentiaries they were going to build off of third-grade MAP scores,” Jones said. “That’s not really giving our youth a chance to be productive citizens. They are saying that by the time you reach a certain age you will fail and do something that will allows you to be incarcerated.”
So he made songs for elementary students and asked the schools if they would play them. The response was overwhelming.
“It started with nouns and verbs, then a song for seatbelts, and it kind of went from there,” Jones said.
In the summer of 2008, Jones and the A.N.D./U Make it Happen crew shot the video for “What’s a Verb,” creating more buzz for his organization and his music.
“It really opened up a lot of doors,” Jones said. “I’m trying to open the right doors to get people to buy into the concepts of what I’m doing.”
What he is doing now is touring schools alongside motivational speakers and entertainers to school young people.
But because schools cant afford to pay, he is in search of funding.
“The organization promotes consequences,” Jones said. “We ask the schools their main focus with the kids, and we come out and talk about it – everything from teen pregnancy to gangs to selling drugs, from academic achievement, dropout rates to gangs.”
He uses himself as the prime example as he talks about the consequences of his own actions that include dropping out of college, becoming a teen parent and being shot on two different occasions.
Jones said, “I tell them that if you are out here selling drugs you are just a dead man walking and you don’t really realize it.”
For more information, visit
www.umakeithappen.org or email jonesumakeithappen@yahoo.com. To watch the video for “What Is a Verb?” visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cCfb1JpJ1A.
