24: Introduce yourself to everybody who may not know who you are.

Hawk Jones:  I’m Hawk Jones and I’m from uptown, you know uptown Dade County. You know that’s pretty much what they call Miami Gardens, but it’s all Carol City. Born and Raised.

24: Tell us about your background and how you started off in the music business?

Hawk Jones: Well usually it’s just something you know, every kid starts doing, they start rapping, listening to their favorite rappers thinking that they could do it too. Take it seriously, next thing you know things don’t work out in school, going forward they have to find a better hustle, realizing you have talent, staying with it, and trying to product a crowd, get your crowd better.

24: What songs have you written so far?

Hawk Jones: Right now, we got a single called “In these Streets” with a singer named Marvin. I got  “Teach Them How to Slide” with Cash and 21GSC. I got another one coming with Young Breed and Triple Cs; it’s called “That’s the Hood for You.”

24: How is it working with Young Breed?

Hawk Jones: Well, Young Breed is pretty much part of Uptown, you know he pretty much founded with my editor DJ. You know uptown is Young Breed, Klean, another artist named Young Trizzle, Sleep Productions, 21GSC, and myself. So we pretty much just come together and collaborate. Everybody on their own page, everyone has their own background, but we all come together and form Uptown.

24: Describe for your fans what your type of music is.

Hawk Jones:  Well, our music is pretty much street and you know whatever the time of the essence may bring. You know, if I’m feeling like just keeping it real, I can make something that comes straight from the heart, you know for the street niggas and for the kids, that’s uplifting. You know, party records every now and then, learning what’s going to get you out the gate.
24: Do you think about kids that listen to your music and how you impact their lives?

Hawk Jones: I do because it’s a lyrical game now and before it was a lot of bubble gum rap, not to say there’s nothing wrong with that, but that’s where a lot of the money come from. You know what I grew up on was the Tupac, the Biggies,’ the Scarface, they had gangsta music, but then they also had “Brenda’s Got a Baby,”  “My Mind’s Playing Tricks on Me,” and you know you still got to have your humbleness, you just can’t be hard all day.

24: So would you say that your music and lyrics would be influenced by your environment and what you see and how important it is that your music is about where you came from and how it impacts your style?

Hawk Jones: Well, the importance of my music is always like my momma said, “If I can’t play around than don’t do it.” I’m not saying that it’s gonna be some stuff she don’t want to listen to, but it’s going to also be something that hopefully someday down the line, my kids will be able to play it 20-30 yrs for their kids. It’s like you want to be able to stand through the test of time and that’s going to be the reason that touch people through their feelings. It’s not just something you put together for a label because they want to sell it, you want to have something about you for the rest of your life and go on past your life.

24: How long have you been rapping?

Hawk Jones: I’ve been rapping since I was ten, but seriously trying to get it on probably about 6 to7 years.

24: How does your family feel about you rapping?
 
Hawk Jones: I pretty much been on my own since seventeen, so you look at it as you still have to do your stuff as a man. They gone support you, some people who you might look for their support, might not support you, but it can’t stop you from doing what you feel like you’ve been doing it’s in your heart.

24: What advice would you give someone who was trying to be successful in this music business?

Hawk Jones: In this music business, you gonna have to work hard, it look easy, I mean the engineer need to be happy. Another thing, trust nobody but yourself, if you don’t trust nobody to get nothing done, get it done yourself.

24: how do you feel about the major record labels that are in the business now and how do you feel their future is in this game?

Hawk Jones: I dealt with a couple of people, but I’ve never been under a major record label. Everything I’ve done, of course you know, you create your own label you learn. It’s better to be independent first and foremost, but you do realize it’s a whole lot easier to build your team behind. So I say this, build your team up first with whose around you, of course you going to have your friends and homeboys that’s going to want to be around to be a part of the group, but you gone need to find somebody that actually know what they doing, you gone go the route of being independent best bet is to find somebody that understands the majors. From what I’ve seen they don’t listen to you unless you got somebody bringing it to you.

24: How do you feel about the internet and how it impacted the music business?

Hawk Jones: The internet is the music business right now. I got found through twitter from a lot of people, I got found through myspace.com from a lot of people. I know youtube.com is where a lot of artists, you know their whole game is viral. I watched 90 videos from a artist off of worldstarhiphop.com that’s quality for BET and MTV, but they only got one channel all type of music nowadays. You know BET plays for a hour and a half on ‘106 & Park.’ MTV Jams, they’ll run it all day, but that’s the only two channels that actually after the game. So it’s not a television game, it’s all on the internet.

24: Where can your fans find you?

Hawk Jones: Right now, you can find all of us @WeAreUptown305, follow that on twitter. My personal twitter is @Uptown_Hawk on Face book it’s the Facebook.com/WeUptown page and you can just contact us through there.

24: Do you have a mixtape you working on right now?

Hawk Jones: My mixtape should be out shortly. Its’ red tape, you know just took that from the place where people try to conceal stuff through red tape that’s what I feel like right now.

24: What’s the lead song right now?
Hawk Jones: The lead song, “Teach Them How to Slide,” that will be the one that DJ Crunch One and all the Street Connect DJs, they show me a lot of love in the club so I’m getting a lot of play with that one.

24: Any videos, anything coming out soon?

Hawk Jones: We’ll be taping “Teach them how to slide,”  within the next few weeks, you know shout out to cash and 21GSC, and everybody else uptown. Klean, Young Breed, Young Trizzle, DJ Cox, you know the ones who keeps us grounded.

24: Any last words for your fans?

Hawk Jones: Nah, just stay humble, keep following me, you know I pretty much just want everybody to keep growing with me. I know it’s a tough road out there to get on, but just keep pushing the car when I run out of gas.