The Red and Black

Issue date: 10/22/09 Section: Out & About

Media Credit: Courtesy Janelle Clinton Univ. student Janelle "Lyric Jones" Clinton views music as simply "music" and pulls from a wide range of styles. [Click to enlarge]

Sometimes all it takes to make it big in music is to confine oneself to a certain genre. University senior journalism major Janelle "Lyric Jones" Clinton believes creativity suffers because of this.

"I don't like categories and genres. I hate genres - especially today, since so many things [in music] overlap," Clinton said. "Music is music to me. If I got up and wanted to do a country record one day, I want to be able to just do it. Genres were created to sell records and categorize things to make music."

Dabbling in jazz, rap and soul and even marketing, Clinton began performing professionally at age 16. A Boston native, she started singing in elementary school. Always interested in music, her inspiration was fostered in her father's church.

"The icing on the cake [there] was being around people who went to Berklee [College of Music]," she said. "They were cool, they were fun and they were musicians."

It was then that Clinton took on becoming a musician first - learning bass, drums, singing, etc. The fully developed artist came later.



Clinton's main goal at her upcoming show with India.Arie background singer Chantae Cann is to not be pigeonholed as a hip-hop artist or a singer. She wants to be seen as varied.

"When I'm singing, I sing about love, relationships and direct experiences," she said. "There's no fluff or added substance. But when I'm [rapping] I get more creative and clever. I speak about my frustrations with the industry, my goals, and what I ... want to change."

Before attending the University, she was known as both Clinton and Jones. Since then, a change has taken place.

"UGA made Janelle and Lyric into two different people: the student and the artist. It has taken me four years to show [everyone] that I am one."

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools