Rese Jhordan

I am Rese Jhordan I was going to write this bio in 3rd person like its not me writing it but that would be wack so, Hello I am Rese Jhordan. Right now I am a singer/songwriter/entertainer who is loving the gift of music. I Thank God for it and try to use it for positive self- expression and to positively affect others. Music literally saved my life, I was born in Newark but my mom wanted to break out of the small town to what she thought was lands of opportunity. So we moved to the city. She attempted to start from the bottom, we landed in low rent housing projects or cheap duplex houses infested with roaches and rats. We waited for uncle sam once a month and took colorful paper money to the store to by food. The adults partied and I watched my mother, a small town girl get sucked into the city life. Music was the only constant, I listened to the music and fell in love with the feeling you get when you are lost in a song. Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Mike Jackson, Prince, then Hip-hop Sugar Hill, Run-Dmc, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, In the summers I would visit my Grandfather every morning at 5am his radio played country songs, Johnny Cash, Dolly, Willie, Hank. As I sat in front of a young MTV waiting for Micheal Jackson to come on I heard George Micheal, Cindy Lauper, Boy George, Duran Duran, Metallica, Guns and Roses. I remember 4 things from my life that changed me for ever and they all had to do with music. One, as I sat by a radio drawing a picture a broadcast came over and interrupted the music. "John Lennon has been shot and killed in New York City". I didnt know who John Lennon was then the DJ played Imagine. I cried tears on to a picture that i folded up and still have to this day. Two, I cut my grandfather's grass and earned 5 bucks. He went to a store to by fishing equiptment I was supposed to buy tackle, he didnt want me using up his stuff. I saw a bin of discounted cassettes marked $4.99. I walked over there laying on top was a tape with a red afro holding a guitar, Band of Gypses it read, song number two "Machine Gun". I took it home and played "Machine Gun" I was shocked at the sound it was the sound of the war that I heard all the old dudes talk about for years it was Vietnam. it was music but it was more, I grew up on Soul music but this was a man's soul painted with music. Went out and asked my mom, who is this, she brushed it off like I should already know, "Oh that's Jimi Hendrix" I was mad that she knew all this time and never told me Three, I became a young man to soundtrack of Hip-hop music, hip-hop music is what black people do when you give them hardly nothing to work with. We make it beautiful jus like soul food, from slave scraps to "Southern Cuisine". for me Tupac Shakur embodied the spirit of the young black male in ghetto and the spirt of hip-hop with all its glory and contradictions. I think he was one of the few to raise the medium to the level of an artform. Because of the nature of its origin hip-hop fails to create timeless music that compares to what came before it, its disposable, the black youth is effectively divided and conquered but tupac trandscends into a level of life and music intertwined that no one else could. He found those central themes that us all over the country could be relate to, the struggle, we lived through Pac and a big part of us died when he did. In 1990 I was at a Big Daddy Kane concert, Me, Ramon, Steve, Kenley and Rick Bear were trying to sneak back stage, the lights go down we jumped the baricade Ramon and Steve make it to side of the stage, Kenley got caught and kicked out, Rick went back and I was stuck half way, There I was standing where a young man was telling a story that sounded like a sermon about getting beat up my police, he was surrounded by opening artists Queen Latifah, Public Enemy, Third Bass, he was a ball of energy, showed a scar down his face, he was talking loud and fired up I was annoyed that I couldnt see the concert but had to listen to this dude talk about how he was going to take down the city of Oakland. Shows over he brushed by me with the rest of them I watched Ramon hug Kane as he came off stage, Im standing next to this dude that talked the whole time, he was a dancer for Digital Underground, he held in his hand big cartoon face of Eazy E, he had on a Red Wings Starter jacket. The next time I saw him in that jacket it was in a video for "Brenda's Got a Baby" he was tupac. Four, My friend Danny Phillips heard me singing Mary J. Blige with my walkman on while we were walking to a class in college at OSU. I kind of knew him in high school we were in the same English class. He asked for a ride home I gave him one, he offered gas money I declined. He pulled out a guitar and played some Beatles songs. I was like man I wouldnt mind learning someday, he gave me the guitar, just gave it to me. Of course it sat in a closet forever as i did my hip-hop music. I saw Lauryn Hill Unplugged and I dug it out from under a pile of clothes