To some calling a rapper Benedict XVI may be pure sacrilege. Hip-Hop and religion in the same breath? Unthinkable. But when you are from the hardened streets of North New Jersey and are literally encouraged to rhyme because of the things you see, the things you want to change in your neighborhood, the good you want to do, a moniker like that is expected.Choir Boy, born Mike Jones, not to be confused with the Houston rapper, was raised in a house where both parents were prominent. His relationship with his father brought about a track called Hey Dad. Not afraid to go against the grain and show love and respect to the male parent when many of his contemporaries show love to the Mothers in their life Choir Boy is easily singled out.Hey Dad will be featured on his upcoming album The Best of Being Me which will be released towards the end of the year. Understanding the prominence and the ease of self marketing, Choir Boy has opted to put this project out digitally. Like his recent mixtape Genius Loves Company which is available for free download from his myspace page, Choir Boy monopolizes on the tools available to him.Nowadays unsigned and independent artists have the means to produce market and distribute their albums and mixtapes at their fingertips. It has never been easier for a person to send their work around the world with just a click of a button. “With companies like myspace, youtube and CDBaby we have great tools,” Choir Boy explained. But you still need to have a hot product to ensure success and popularity. Choir Boy has touched on so many social issues and this is really what puts him in a league of his own. “It only makes sense to put what you see in your music and talk about what is really going on in life.”I Know Y’all Heard of Me was a track touching on an epidemic that has a stronghold on many countries and societies throughout the world, AIDS. Choir Boy has performed this song in front of numerous audiences, at churches and at shows to bring home that this disease does affect us all in one way or another. “I believe rappers should be able to paint a world out of nothing,” confides Choir Boy and as certain topics being literally brushed under the carpet because of the atrocities they bestow on societies, it is through music that people and especially the younger generations are provoked to think about these topics.Choir Boy knows he is a minority statistic with his narration. “To some you say whatever you need to say to get the job, but once you get the job you switch off,” falling prey to the mass produced Hip-Hop we hear on the radio today. He has achieved too much and come too way too far to concede to the blueprint of another.

With a list of positives stemming from his addressing of the negatives prominent in the world this messenger will undoubtedly make a solid addition to any labels roster. He has the skill, he has the stories and as an unsigned artist, the business acumen to make sure his music is heard throughout the world

Melanie Cornish