Artist Spotlight: Jonathan Baker

JTH: How and when did you become affiliated with Slingshot Media Group?

Jonathan: I just started towards the summer and fall of last year. I’ve been on Yaves since 2008. That’s actually when I moved to Columbus. I met him then and that was like the birth of Slingshot Movement in itself, but we were never really affiliated then. I knew that he was doing what he was doing; I was doing what I was doing. It got to a point in 2011-2012 when we kept coming up, being in the same environment, showing up at the same places, working together, so it was like, “we need to sit down and talk and really talk about partnering up.” That’s what happened; it just made sense. There were some things that he was trying to do, and when you look at it, where you can help each other, it’s a strong teamwork and a team effort that we talked about. We made it work.

JTH: Were you part of the Slingshot group album? Can you talk more about that?

Jonathan: Yeah, Triangle Offense is a compilation of what the family was doing. There’s the actual movement and a couple of friends of ours who are affiliated did their portion as well. You have Yaves, myself, Aaquil, the newest member J. Word, Ron Riley, a guy named Ceezar, Armond who is a really good friend of mine, [and] Barbara Fant who did the spoken word on the project. You have Trevor Easley, who goes by Trev-Eaz, [and] J Flue.

RELATED: SSMG Triangle Offense Release Date, Cover Art & Tracklist [News]

JTH: What impact does Slingshot have in the music scene in Columbus, Ohio?

Jonathan: Slingshot was always set up to be a movement, not just a label. We go into different parts of the city and touch this generation and older ones as well so that we can be the ones who take the stand in a world that is kind of music-driven but they get the bad end of the stick because the music that is out there now is not uplifting or life-changing. That’s where we come in to give the outlet where you can listen to really good music, which also has a great message. We try to go into different areas of the city to touch people. Sometimes we may not do music. It may be a preaching or youth engagement that we do. We do different fundraisers for youth, churches, and things of that nature.

JTH: What’s your favorite song from your new EP and why?

Jonathan: That’s a hard one. I would have to go with “Torn,” which is the last song on the EP. It is written from a really real place to where I write about myself as well as situations that I had seen in my wife when she was my fiancé. I also wrote it because it was relatable to people across the world. When you’re in a situation where there’s something that has either hurt you or made you mad, something that you have done in the past that you regret, your mind instantly wants to let it go. Your mind is like, “It didn’t hurt me,” and you cover it up but your heart is telling you something else like, “I need to heal this wound and get this situation right.” The feeling that you really do feel, you act as if you don’t feel it. You never take the necessary precautions to do what you need to do so that your heart can heal.