Lyricists are definitely a dying breed in hip-hop these days, a breed that proceeds at their own risk. A proud member of the pack, JONEZY stays true to the art while combining a variety of styles and flows over slick productions to produce a sound that can keep any hip-hop fan's attention.
JONEZY, who hails from Granite City, Illinois and now resides in St. Louis County, has flown under the radar thus far on the local hip-hop scene. With his debut album "Mr. Fillintheblank" hitting streets last month, though, it doesn't appear that he will be going unnoticed for long.
JONEZY pays much attention to the subject matter of his verses which makes them an important part of his final product. "I try to talk about issue and have some depth to the lyrics while still trying to keep people interested," said JONEZY. Throughout all of "Mr. Fillintheblank's" 14 tracks, he succeeds--JONEZY leaves the listener feeling like they actually have a real connection with him when they are finished. He is not just talking about bullshit; he is talking about life. "I try to set myself apart based on content, not image," muses JONEZY.
"Mr. Fillintheblank" is an honest look into the mind of a struggling artist, and at many times it is very self scrutinizing. However, it's at these points where JONEZY's most heartfelt lyrics surface. He is able to touch on a multitude of subjects, from his struggles with women, "she searchin' for a horse with a carriage/I drive a broke-ass Sentra, man it needs some repairin'," to his own views on his place in the current state of hip-hop: "clever lobbyists against the poppy shit/even though the populists just want to hear a beat, not who's rockin' it."
JONEZY has put his love for the craft above all else on his way to becoming one of the most interesting and lyrically talented hip-hop artists in the St. Louis music scene. It is hard to keep a good thing down, and JONEZY will definitely keep rising.
-Neal Gough, Eleven Magazine, December 2009
www.elevenmusicmag.com
WELCOME TO THE FFS!
CHECK OUT JONEZY's MUSIC HERE TOO:
www.facebook.com/jonezyhiphop
www.myspace.com/jonezyhiphop
www.reverbnation.com/jonezyhiphop
cdbaby.com/cd/Jonezy
Due to the increased amount of music being sold at CD BABY, our individual tracks sold thru I-Tunes have been held up...UNTIL NOW.
GO TO: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/djcjt
Check out the latest music and videos by DJ Crucial and Jonathan Toth from Hoth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRvdStu4usk and myspace.com/jonathanlivingstoncrucial
posted in: News
Jonathan Toth From Hoth: Interview with a Prin alum turned fulltime rapper
by Kenji Yoshinobu
Music Columnist
Published October 30th, 2009
For a decade, Prin alum and Saint Louis hip-hop artist Jonathan Getzschman has been making music under a variety of monikers – particularly one Jonathan Toth From Hoth. After founding his record label, the Frozen Food Section, in 1999, the Omaha, Nebraska native gathered local hip-hop acts and began steadily producing and releasing records. His most recent work, Sick Boys, is an album dedicated to skateboarding culture, which he collaborated on with St. Louis’ DJ Crucial, another fixture of the area’s flourishing music scene. Over the phone, Getzschman and I discussed his influences, his latest album, and why making music makes him cry with delight.
Principia Pilot: When did you first start making music?
Jon Getzschman: I started singing in fourth grade, doing opera. I also did Shakespeare with my mom in local Omaha productions. From there it evolved to musicals – The Sound of Music, Oliver – as a fifth grader. Then we went on a Christmas Carol musical tour of the West Coast through the Nebraska Theater Arts program. My mom took me, Dave and Rob – my younger brothers – and we were on the road for, like, two or three months.
PP: What got you into making rap music?
JG: It was 1987 and I started listening to the Beastie Boys. I ended up transcribing “Paul Revere” because I was so impressed by the lyrics – how they flowed together and the storytelling aspect. That was the first rap I ever memorized. Through 1990-91, I started hearing Cypress Hill. When I heard “Insane In The Membrane,” I decided I was interested in writing raps. I’d done poetry and I’d done music, but rap was really undiscovered country in terms of what I could create. I didn’t feel comfortable enough as a white kid to be rapping. Cypress Hill were Latino and Italian and could pull it off. I still felt uncomfortable, but I thought, what if I ghostwrite raps? So I started writing down raps.
During my sophomore year at Prin I met some St. Louis rappers. They taught me how to freestyle, or rap off the top of your head without prepared lines. Once I realized I could do it, I was amazed that I had the capability of rhyming impromptu like they were doing it – albeit not as hip as them. From then on it was all about developing my own styles. All I really did was freestyle, but I didn’t do much recording. It was unfortunate because when you’re free-styling and you have great lines, only the people you’re with are going to hear it. I eventually got a beat machine in ’98 and got tutored by DJ Crucial, but for about two years I just stared at it.
It was really the year 2000 when things started to get moving. For me, it was my choice to be led by divine inspiration. What resulted was a year of intense creativity and conceptualism of my first album, Brainwashing. That was really my opus of what I thought music was – how it should be listened to and created. It was when I realized I wanted to do this for the rest of my life.
I don’t consider myself an emotional person, but the times when I was making beats and they were coming together, I remember being so astonished at how amazing it would sound that I would cry at the beauty of it and that God was giving this amazing happening all under my fingers. Whether you want to call it ego, pride, or being swept up in the moment – I woke up for months just making music and crying, like, “This is so amazing!” [Music] for me has become a lifelong adventure of seeking critical moments in sound, taking those moments with so much gratitude, and combining them with my own sense being and awareness.
PP: When did you decide to found your record label, the Frozen Food Section?
JG: In 1999, I discovered that any spending of money on music was a tax write-off, so long as I was making music a business instead of a hobby. So that year was the turning-point of taking my music from a hobby toward the direction of a legitimate business. I remember a conversation I had with my dad at the time: I was sitting on the fence in regards to rapping. I wanted to do this for the rest of my life, but was aware of the facts that musicians don’t make much money and so far, white rappers don’t garner much attention. I asked Dad if I should follow my dream or stay practical and focus on making money.
“Will staying practical make you happy?” he asked.
“Not at all, Dad,” I said, “but what if I fail at being a musician?”
“It’s impossible to fail,” he said, “because no matter what path you choose, regardless if it’s wrong for you, it will inevitably lead you to your perfect place, and that is God’s law, so there’s no need to worry – ever.”
Thanks, Dad. The rest is history.
PP: What are the challenges to marketing yourself as an artist?
JG: Like most artists, translating music into money is a whole different universe. Some artists are very business-like. I have the hardest time trying to jump out of the creative mode and get to the business mode. For me, life is a lot more fun when you’re always in the creative side of things. On the performance side of things, famous people who have focused on their work and become masters at their craft inspire me. For the master artist, every day of his life is his best show. I love that idea of, whether you have a happy day or a depressing day, you made something. You took that day and something with that emotion. I really work with that idea in prayer with my work and performances. It helps me figure out the other stuff in terms of marketing.
PP: How did your education at Principia influence your musical career?
JG: I double-majored in mass comm [mass communication] and history. I did radio with Rick Dearborn, and I recorded my first song at Principia using the programs they had. Also, my senior year I took historiography and I wrote a 55-page paper on the history of hip-hop for my capstone. It helped me gain a context of hip-hop music.
PP: Why have you decided to remain in St. Louis?
JG: Mainly because my family is here, but also because I can’t stand the fast-paced nature of some of the bigger cities. I love New York and Los Angeles. They are nice places to visit, but it is hard for me to cultivate ideas. It really is a place where you can borrow ideas and amalgamate them to make something different. On the coasts especially you have different music scenes and it can be very polarizing for creativity.
PP: Why write an album about skateboarding?
JG: [DJ] Crucial and I have been skating for 22 years each, and, when you become a skater, it’s usually because you’ve found something deeper than Day-Glo colors or a rebel lifestyle or hitching rides from cars like Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future. In our case, we really love skateboarding to the point that it made sense to create an album based on its history, culture, specific anecdotes, and how it makes us feel to be skaters. It also helps that skating is at its height of popularity … creating more opportunities for licensing, videos and/or distribution.
PP: How long did this album take to write and record?
JG: We began perusing our skate vids from the last 20 years to find samples of interest. Over the whole of 2007 we kept collecting pieces that sounded right for the album, and made beats out of them or used quotes to enhance the subject matter. By the beginning of 2008, after going back and forth from the Cooler [the Frozen Food Section’s former HQ and recording studio] to DJ Crucial’s house exchanging ideas, the album was basically what it is now, so it was about a full year in the making.
For samples of Sick Boys and Getzschman’s other music, visit:
WATCH VIDEOS:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRvdStu4usk
HEAR SONGS:
www.myspace.com/jonathanlivingstoncrucial
BUY CDS:
www.thefrozenfoodsection.com/purchase.asp
Copies of Sick Boys are available at the Bookstore for a limited time.
REPRINTED FROM:
The Principia Pilot
http://principiapilot.org/2009/10/30/jonathan-toth-from-hoth-interview-with-a-prin-alum-turned-fulltime-rapper/
SECOND REVIEW of "Sick Boys" by Mike Gibson of Eleven Magazine
EDITOR'S PICK: LOCAL ALBUM
Jonathan Livingston Crucial, SICK BOYS
F5 Records/The Frozen Food Section
Jonathan Toth from Hoth is St. Louis hip-hop to the bone. His vocals are heavy and honest. In true Midwestern fashion, his beats don't fit one regional style, but utilize any and every technique available. The finished products are dark and simple; they're chopped, screwed, and replete with samples and effects.
SICK BOYS is a concept album without really being one. Teaming up with St. Louis native DJ Crucial for the first time since GHOSTWHIRL in 2005, J-Toth pays tribute to the only subject he loves more than music: skateboarding.
Early on, "California" recounts skating's genesis on the West Coast. Toth's formative years skateboarding in West County are reminisced in "Thanks God" and "Let's Ride." The gem of the disc, "Member That?" is buried toward the end of the album at track 21. The refrain is a Chris Farley SNL sample with a remixed laugh track, which forms part of the beat over which Toth shines.
SICK BOYS' depth is its only fault--23 tracks and one bonus is a bit lengthy. Still, Jonathan Toth from Hoth and DJ Crucial are clearly on their game. If Toth manages to stay this dedicated, his goal of releasing one album a month will be much worth the effort.
-Mike Gibson
from Eleven Magazine, vol. 6, issue 2, October 9, 2009
www.elevenmusicmagazine.com
--------------------------------------------------------
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Are You Really Sick or Just Faking?
"Sick Boys" REVIEW BY JOHN S. PULLEN
Yes Mom...it's contagious, and now they've made me sick too...sick with pride, sick with envy and sick of watching other artists create music that I wish I would have made. DAMN IT!
I found Jonathan Toth from Hoth by accident, surfing online thru the skate vids--youtube.com/user/jonathantoth--and watched him do his thing on the "Sick Boys VIDEO." Decent...for a mongo skater. The nose blunt slide over the BBQ pit and across the picnic table was nice, and the Ford F250 board slide was way blue collar. Like I said...decent.
But what held me there watching was the tune, "Mama got herself a little sick booooooooooy...yeah!" I recognized the Animals sample from "For Your Love" as soon as the keys came in, but during the second verse they dropped in Buena Vista Social Club's “Chan Chan,” and guess what. IT HAD THE SAME CHORDS. They doubled up on samples where one of the samples had actually borrowed from the other several decades before! Okay, I'm a nerd, but THAT SHIT'S RETARDED! It was stuck in my head all day. By the end of the song, (and it didn't end, they crossfaded it into "F*ck Yes!" which I ALSO RECOGNIZED as taken from Ray Simmons intro section in H-Street's "Shackle Me Not!"...who the fuck makes this kind of music?) I was looking everywhere for the name of the group, and I saw, [to listen to more: myspace.com/jonathanlivingstoncrucial]. THAT must be the artist...turns out it is...and it's Jonathan Toth from Hoth AND longtime skater friend DJ Crucial merging styles as Jonathan Livingston Crucial.
SO...I checked out Crucial's video called "Member That?" Another funny, homemade skate vid...with another wicked track. "Member That?" is Toth's take on skateboarding since the early 80's:
‘Member when the Gonz gapped Embarcadero,
or that stop sign shove-it by John Lucero?
That’s when the streets had those underground heroes, cause
vert had the accessibility of about zero,
Whoa. That was like reading my own history...or someone else's version who was watching me...and on the hook they put Chris Farley from the "Chris Farley Show" (on SNL) interviewing Jeff Daniels, stuttering "Member that? Member?...Yeah, yeah I remember..." and instead of cutting off the audience laughter, they TRANSFORMED IT TO THE BEAT. WTF?
I checked "Da Board" next, and watched a noticeably younger Toth and Crucial skating the Principia Lower School playground (where I'd played before as a kid!) over Intellect MC's raps about ollying off a launch ramp on the front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1989...then Crucial ollies hurdles and Toth ollies up and over a small house...
IS THIS ALBUM OUT YET?
I FOUND IT! August 25, 2009 was the official release date, but i noticed a blurb somewhere about having the albums in stock already at Vintage Vinyl, ahead of schedule...314...721...4096...THEY DID! I drove 45 minutes from West County to U-City and picked up one of the first copies in the store...23 tracks (???) are you serious? I couldn't wait to get home to listen to the rest of the album!!!
The rest of the album made me angry...
They took samples from all the old school videos I'd seen and chopped them up and re-arranged them into a whole new sound, like a mix of underground hip hop and skate punk spat out of skateboard history...voice clips from John Schultzes, angry land owners, EVEN SOME BRYCE KANIGHT CLIPS FROM THE ORIGINAL "SICK BOYS" BY MACK DAWG PRODUCTIONS in 1988. They got the Earthworms playing alter-egos that sound like posers I know...this country fuck named Abe tha Babe does a rendition of "Born in the U.S.A." based on skaters being patriots because they fought for their independence in the sports world and won (?!?) In "Nobody Loves Me Like Nike Does" Toth rants about how Nike finally got their foot in the door of the skateboard industry after years of failed attempts...and in "Thank God" he breaks down one of his favorite skate spots at Delmar and Cardinal (where I've skated many times) and how the landlord tried to keep skaters out of his lot by locking the gates of the surrounding fence:
...the next day, when I came back, there was
lock on the back gate, their way of saying that we
can't skate, yeah, as if they didn't like our
fan base (hah) they went and censored our ad space!
I laughed long and hard, like the rap race.
Do they think they can castrate my man place?
Damn they, for ever managing to stand in the way of
play! I brought my launch ramp and jumped the damn gate!
Simple. I coulda made this album, but I didn't, and now I'm angry...I'm going to listen to this album over and over and over and over and over...and I'm going to be angry over and over and over and over and over...
Thank you sirs, may I have another?
I hate you,
John S. Pullen
Latest News Updates
Posted Thursday, December 10, 2009 by Toth
Due to the increased amount of music being sold at CD BABY, our individual tracks sold thru I-Tunes have been held up...UNTIL NOW.
Check out the latest music and videos by DJ Crucial and Jonathan Toth from Hoth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRvdStu4usk and myspace.com/jonathanlivingstoncrucialLink. posted in: News
Posted Wednesday, October 14, 2009 by Toth
EDITOR'S PICK: LOCAL ALBUM
Jonathan Livingston Crucial, SICK BOYS
F5 Records/The Frozen Food Section
Jonathan Toth from Hoth is St. Louis hip-hop to the bone. His vocals are heavy and honest. In true Midwestern fashion, his beats don't fit one regional style, but utilize any and every technique available. The finished products are dark and simple; they're chopped, screwed, and replete with samples and effects.
SICK BOYS is a concept album without really being one. Teaming up with St. Louis native DJ Crucial for the first time since GHOSTWHIRL in 2005, J-Toth pays tribute to the only subject he loves more than music: skateboarding.
Early on, "California" recounts skating's genesis on the West Coast. Toth's formative years skateboarding in West County are reminisced in "Thanks God" and "Let's Ride." The gem of the disc, "Member That?" is buried toward the end of the album at track 21. The refrain is a Chris Farley SNL sample with a remixed laugh track, which forms part of the beat over which Toth shines.
SICK BOYS' depth is its only fault--23 tracks and one bonus is a bit lengthy. Still, Jonathan Toth from Hoth and DJ Crucial are clearly on their game. If Toth manages to stay this dedicated, his goal of releasing one album a month will be much worth the effort.
-Mike Gibson
from Eleven Magazine, vol. 6, issue 2, October 9, 2009
www.elevenmusicmagazine.comLink. posted in: REVIEWS
Posted Monday, June 29, 2009 by Toth
Jabari Robinson of Olivette, MO skates to his own song "Switch It."
Produced by DJ Crucial, recorded, mixed and mastered by Jonathan Toth from Hoth, filmed by Toth, Rob and Benjamin Shepard of 812studio.com
LINK: http://bit.ly/S0wue
Link. posted in: Jabari Robinson, DJ Crucial, Jonathan Toth from Hoth, f5records.com, thefrozenfoodsection.com, skateboarding video
Posted Saturday, June 27, 2009 by Toth
This is Kyle Beachy skating to "California" by Jonathan Livingston Crucial feat. Blaine Zapain (DJ Crucial on the beat and scratches, Toth and Blaine on the raps) from their album "Sick Boys." The storyline was actually written loosely about Kyle (Kilroy) going to college at Pamona in L.A. Kyle's been skateboarding with DJ Crucial and Toth since the early 1990's. His book, The Slide (released by the Dial Press this year) is available NATIONWIDE in Borders and Barnes and Nobles. Link. posted in: skateboarding, Kyle Beachy, DJ Crucial, Jonathan Toth from Hoth, California
Posted Wednesday, June 10, 2009 by Toth
This is J-Toth's first video recording of skateboarding from 1994 over a new song from the "Sick Boys" album by DJ Crucial and Jonathan Toth from Hoth [Jonathan Livingston Crucial]
TO LISTEN TO MORE BY JONATHAN LIVINGSTON CRUCIAL:
myspace.com/jonathanlivingstoncrucialLink. posted in: DJ Crucial and Jonathan Toth from Hoth, Skateboarding Video, "Sick Boys"
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