Interview: Jonathan Emile

Jon E’s sound isn’t the only refreshing aspect of his music that makes him one of a kind. Every song bares a set of lyrics that pushes the ideas of musical and intellectual awareness while sharing his life battles and experiences with his listeners. Doing this gracefully with his personal combination of hip hop, R&B, neo-soul, and reggae, there’s never a dull moment when you’re vibing along to his music.

It’s hard enough to be extraordinary at one thing but Emile pushes the limits, by pursuing excellence at Mcgill university as well as entrepreneurship by running his own record label, MindPeaceLove Records. Emile believes his will and determination comes from his battle with cancer and in case you’re wondering, he won. There’s no use for me to continue Emile’s story since I had the chance to ask him to tell it. Without further ado, here’s our interview with Jonathan Emile.

Meet You At The Show: I read that your not just a musician, you are actually quite the entrepreneur, attending Mcgill and you actually own MindPeaceLove Records as well, correct?

Jonathan Emile: Yeah, I do many things in general. I am a student at Mcgill, I founded MindPeaceLove Records in 2005 and Conscious Enterprise. Since then I’ve been producing myself and other artists. I did manage as well but I dropped the management division because I’ve been going back to school, that’s basically what I do!

MYATS: Do the other artists you produce have the same style and are in the same genre as you?

J.E: They are all under the ‘Urban’ genre. I have another rapper under the label, I have an R&B Soul singer, her name is Sonia Soul and I don’t manage these artists but I provide distribution and networking but we do not have exclusive management rights to them. But I do collaborate with them more than any other artists and they have the full support of my label. When they’re ready to release they’re original music, it will come out under MindPeaceLove in stores.

MYATS: What made you want to start your own label as opposed to joining one? How did you do it?

J.E: I would have loved to join a label but the way that the label came about, it would have just been impossible or very impractical for me to join someone else’s label simply because when I started the label, I was going through cancer. At that point, music for me was a spiritual discovery and a self learning process, so part of creating the label was really linked to me, it was not only for the music but to create an environment for me to do music in. The second thing is that going through that experience in my life, I sort of refined my social ideas in terms of what is right, what is ethical, and what I wanted to contribute to the world. Basically I wanted to do a humanitarian project with whatever type of art I saw around me. At the time I researched, there weren’t any humanitarian, socially responsible, hip hop urban music labels. So I had to go out there and create my own label, my own niche to bring my music to the market and right now it seems that socially responsible music is the hot thing in this sort of post Obama world. I created this label as a vehicle for my spiritual expressions and for my social views and feelings of humanitarianism.

MYATS: What program are you currently in at Mcgill University?

J.E: I am majoring in Philosophy, I was doing a double major in philosophy and political science but I think I’m just going to major in philosophy and minor in political science and I’m probably going to go into law afterward. I’m most definitely going to stay in Quebec and go into law and do French and English but I haven’t decided yet.

MYATS: One of my favorite things about listening to your music is that it has such a unique sound. You’ve got all these genres sort of meshed into one, like reggae mixed with hip hop and so on. Where did you get the idea of integrating all these genres together?

J.E: I think it was just luck. It was a product of my environment. My dad is African American and French Canadian and my mom is Jamaican Canadian, so if you look at it from the hip hop perspective; hip hop is the contemporary genre that spoke to me the most when I was younger. About the influence of reggae, that was the genre of music that I heard the most growing up along with influences of rock and R&B which I heard a lot of too. These are just the sounds that I heard in my home, it’s not like I came from a musical family but my home was always filled with different types of music and I never even thought twice about putting all these different elements together. It didn’t make sense to me not to since growing up, this was all one genre. It was all, sort of this conscious, spiritual music. Whether it was gospel or whether it was Leonard Cohen, for me it was all meshed into one, it was all just poetry and rhythms.

MYATS: MindPeaceLove, where did the name come from? Does it have some significant meaning?

J.E: It’s just an idea that I thought of when I was about 14 or 15, it was sort of weird how it all came together. It was an idea about life and how to approach problems and situations. First, by using intellect, second by addressing spirituality and third, by examining what really motivates you in life which is your emotions and your passions and love which is something that I agree with. It is was a very old idea, I think Aristotle first thought of the idea of love inspiring your actions. I decided if you can live a life that’s motivated by love and feel at balance with yourself and go about your life in a reasonable way, I think it would be a very fulfilling way to live. So it began first as my philosophy for mind peace and love and every crisis or situation I would say: Okay, let me try addressing this with MindPeaceLove. The ultimate test of that was when I was going through my treatment, was mind peace love going to get me through it? And the answer was yes, it did. It did work just by reexamining what was important to me and what motivates everything that I do. It allowed me to find balance, it allowed me to get through the toughest part of my life. So that is the name of my personal philosophy that also became the name of my company and I don’t think enough companies have this fundamental, ethical code to go by. That’s why I call the company Conscious Enterprise, because in essence, everything that we do is based around the idea of mind peace love, going about things in a responsible, spiritual and passionate way.

MYATS: Finally, you seem to do a lot of stuff and I also happen to be an entrepreneur myself. Any tips for people like us on how to manage multiple projects?

J.E: This question always makes me laugh because I never feel like I’m managing my time well enough but for me a big part of it was learning how to say no to people and learning how to delegate and trust others with things. When you have an idea or a project, it’s very easy to micromanage everything and it becomes exhausting. The best thing you can do for your idea, project or company is build a dedicated team. A lot of offers and interesting avenues come up but you have to know when to say no to those things and you have to pick when to foster the growth of your idea and your enterprise. I think this is the most important thing but I still have trouble with it, I have a rigorous schedule which I very seldom follow and I just have enough time to do everything I need to, hence me being on the phone with you!

Starting to get the picture now? This 23 year old musician has got his hands full with school, singing, and running a record label but after speaking to Jon, I can say that he’s got everything together. Whether it’s studying in a classroom, baring his soul on stage, or running the business Jonathan will always strive for the best by using three powerful words: Mind, peace, love.

A special thanks to Jonathan Emile and MindPeaceLove records for giving us at Meet You At The Show the opportunity to get inside the mind of the next hip hop sensation!

Jonathan Emile – “Lover/Fighter”:

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