Jonathan Baker is the newest artist of Slingshot Media Group (SSMG) and is coming out with an EP called Live on August 19. You can get to know him in his life and music through this interview that Jam The Hype’s Fouad Abou-Rizk did with the artist recently. He has an incredible story, so you really need to read this and learn more about him.

Jam The Hype: Who is Jonathan Baker as a musical artist? It’s a big question.

Jonathan: It’s a huge question. Jonathan Baker as a musical artist is a real person, very free, fun, and intentional. Loves music: all types of styles of music, Jazz, Gospel, R&B, and Neo-Soul. I even like Country. I’m kind of an all-around musical artist. I also like to write. I’m a writer and musical director as well; it kind of covers a lot of bases.

JTH: I saw from your Christon Gray cover video that you can sing. You’re a really good singer. Will there be a mix of singing and rapping on this new project?

Jonathan: Absolutely! I actually do more singing on this project than rapping. I think there are three songs where I’m rapping, so there is more singing than rapping on here.

JTH: What’s the biggest thing you want to communicate with this project?

Jonathan: The project is titled Live and it is an acronym without being a traditional acronym. God simply placed on my heart to make it as “love intentional versus emotional.” I think that we have to remember that Jesus was intentional about what He did for us. The ultimate love was that he died so that we could live again. He took the place of us, where we were supposed to be, and in essence, required us to love one another as He loved us. John 13:34, it’s kind of like He was like [paraphrasing], “you know what, I know you can’t fulfill the Ten Commandments that I already gave, so I’ll give you a new commandment that you love one another.” I think to actually have life and actually live that you have to love. That’s the concept.

JTH: Can you share a quick testimony?

Jonathan: Absolutely. I was the guy who was raised in church, active in it since I was three years old, in the choir, in whatever they had going on. I knew about Jesus and had a relationship with Him. The place where I went wrong was trying to figure out life on my own instead of relying on being obedient. When I went to high school and college, I ventured into different things. I dealt with fornication. I dealt with drugs and stuff like that. Just seeing that was what the world’s norm was, I felt like, “if I could be saved and then do this as well.” I was the kind of guy who had two sets of friends. You go to church and you’ve got one set of friends, then you go to school, go out, have another set of friends and life is okay. When in essence, people would know me as a church boy, but then they would see me out like, “what are you doing here? Something’s different about you, but we’re not going to say anything.” There was one point in time where I got into a situation in a relationship, doing everything I wasn’t supposed to be doing, and I had a heart attack right then and there. I fell flat on the pavement. They came and rescued me, flying me to this hospital in Illyria, Ohio. I’m in the hospital, they did all of the procedures, so I’m in this room by myself and I heard His [God’s] voice say, “What are you gonna do? Are you gonna live for Me or live how you wanna live?” That’s when I knew that God is the giver and taker, everything revolves around Him, and He was basically saying, “I really want this relationship with you that you say you wanna have with Me [God], but you’re not showing me that. You’re showing everything besides truly loving me and giving your heart to me.” So from that day forward, I said, “You know what God? I’m gonna try and do my best to really do this thing the right way, instead of living how I want to live.” That was in August of 2007, [when] that happened. I was 23 years old then. Think about that. You’re 23 years old and you have a heart attack. You’re like, “life is over before is over before it even started.”

JTH: How is your health?

Jonathan: My health is fine now. It was fine then. I think that was really an indication where God was trying to get my attention. I didn’t have heart issues. It was really that God was knocking on my door saying, “Okay, you’re not listening when I just blatantly tell you or give you answers to the questions that you ask me.” It was really out of my disobedience. We think that we can live life and make our own decisions and think that we’re okay when we dishonor God’s requests of how we should live. When I would hear Him say certain things I would say, “I’m gonna do it my way. This is how I want to fulfill my flesh. It’s always that battlefield of Spirit and flesh. It was quite a knock but it was what I needed.”

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