"Who skipped class today to see Mike Jones?" asked a representative from the MCC – Penn Valley Black Student Association. The audience, some of whom really had skipped class and some of whom were merely hyped up for the event, went wild.

Mike Jones is a Southern rapper whose main promotional gimmick is repeating his name in his songs. The idea came from his grandmother, Jones informed the audience as he sat in a cozy armchair during an onstage interview with Kenny Diamondz of KPRS Radio on Monday, March 26th, in ST 101.

When Jones first tried to land a record deal, people would ask him his name. "I said, 'Mike Jones,' and they said, 'Who?', and I said, 'Mike Jones!', and my grandma said, 'You gotta use that," Jones recalled.

Jones seems to have come a long way since those days. Now he owns a club in Houston and his own record label, and the cell phone number he mentions in his songs gets thousands of calls each day. He showed up to the event clad all in white and festooned with sparkles that, on a man radiating slightly less testosterone, might have caused the audience to doubt his sexual orientation. One ring, he claimed, had cost him a million dollars.

After the interview, Jones opened the stage for questions from the audience. The first was the standard request for advice to up-and-coming artists. Jones recommended playing night clubs and strip clubs, to which the questioner (referencing Jones' Houston club, Ice Age) asked, "What about a job, brotha?"

Other questions were more serious. One person asked, "Do you deserve that million-dollar ring?"

"Yeah, I deserve it, and I'm gonna tell you why," answered Jones, and he proceeded to describe a charity venture he had undertaken involving providing clothing to low-income children. "And here's another thing - the government hears you earn ten million dollars, you gotta give 'em 33% of that. You gonna give 'em that or you gonna spend it?" asked Jones, displaying the ring in question to the audience, who cheered.

Jones' views on education, asked after by another audience member, were less clear-cut. He began his response by assuring the questioner (a schoolteacher) that education is a worthwhile endeavor. Then he explained, "They tell kids, you don't do this, you don't do that, you gonna be this, you gonna be that... Don't let people tell you that if you don't get education, you gonna be messed over."

Jones closed the Q&A session by returning to the first question: how to get started in the business. "You gonna go through a lot of hate before you go through the love," he warned before plugging the upcoming movie about his struggle to stardom.

Audience members were then allowed to go up to the stage for pictures with Jones, and the auditorium degenerated into bedlam. Amid the chaos, Jones reclined in his armchair, muttering along with the music videos blaring behind him as if the microphone in his hand had happened to catch him in the shower.

"Mike Jones... Who? Mike Jones... Who? Mike Jones..."

Copyright 2007 Metropolitan Community College