A Gentleman’s Armour - Recording artiste Zac Jone$ comes into his own as he readies début full-length album
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“Honestly, I don’t usually wear suits,” Zac Jone$ disclosed between wardrobe changes at the legendary Tuff Gong Studio, where Grammy Award-winning international artistes Lauryn Hill, Sinéad O’Connor, and Jay-Z have all laid tracks.
The formidable air conditioning hums inside the hallowed interiors of this Marley-owned temple to sound, newly revamped by project designer John Clarke over eight months. It now showcases natural wood finishes, muralled and wallpapered décor and Art Deco flourishes with the aforementioned climate control as a welcome buffer to the 90-degree weather raging outside on a sweltering Friday morning.
An industry pick for The Rock’s next wave of creatives primed for an international breakthrough, Jone$ has committed to his poses amid the behind-the-scenes dynamics of a classic photo shoot. Decked out in a tropical wool, double-breasted suit jacket, draped over a contrasting double-breasted suit with buckle closure, he acquitted himself in fine form as muse for bespoke tailor Dexter Huxtable’s label Spokes Apparel.
“Being in these suits and ‘fits that Mr Huxtable made for me is amazing. My closet is usually lifestyle-oriented,” said Jone$, who lists hoodies, sweatpants, shorts, graphic tees, and Nike Air Force 1s as staples of his typical uniform.
Summoning the repose of a consummate sitter, the in-demand reggae-rap artiste steadily met Destinee Condison’s camera as the lenswoman captured his svelte profile across a succession of moody vignettes.
And it was not by mere happenstance that Jone$ nailed his angles whenever the Canon 6D Mark II lens was raised. Three years ago, he was scouted by SAINT International’s model-maker Deiwght Peters and has worked on editorial and campaign assignments for the Los Angeles-based Fletcher Models as a notable side quest.
“What I love about fashion is that each time you expand your portfolio [by] wearing something you typically don’t, it gives you a different feeling, look, and energy. I am now inspired to wear more custom suits,” the part-time model asserted.
Talk shifts back to his day job: Jone$ is putting the finishing touches on his first full-length album, Treasure Beach, a homage to his late grandmother Shirley Jones, who died in 2017, and who hailed from the sleepy St Elizabeth enclave of the same name, renowned for its arresting coastal views. “When I got there as a young kid, I didn’t necessarily appreciate it. It felt so far and rural … and there was no big hotel. But [upon] growing up, and when she passed, I started to delve into it,” Jone$ told Sunday Lifestyle of the inspirational bond for his upcoming album.
“I was very close to her. That lady taught me spirituality right across the board. We called her ‘Momsie’, and she passed at [age] 76. She was absolutely the best chef in the world,” he reminisced as his eyes seemed to twinkle at her memory. “She had a deep connection with God that she passed on to us. She would pray for people, and [whatever] she prayed for would come to pass. She was diagnosed with cancer four times. The doctors told her she had a month to live, and she lived for years. I remember one time as a kid, I was kind of afraid for her, and she said to me, ‘Zac, the God I worship is so powerful that it is my faith. No doctor can tell me when [it] is my time. My faith is the determining factor.’”
The album, due out later this year, is mostly produced by Jone$’s long-time creative partner Iotosh, with whom he has made previously released bops Lonely, Miss Jamaica, and The Weed Song. “The tone of Treasure Beach is definitely reggae-rap fusion with R&B elements,” Jone$ outlined of the sonic palette across the 10-song tracklist, which also features producers Ziah and Natural High. “I started off rapping. That is the basis of my style. The musical context now, though, is reggae. That’s the landscape of the album, but you still hear the rap. Naturally, being Jamaican, there is dancehall in the delivery, too. I am a big R&B lover, so there’s a collab with [chanteuse and actress] Sevana on it. And, my bro [reggae-dancehall crooner and songwriter] Projexx is on it as well. I really love music, and I [want to make] the best and most complete sound.”
He connects his pet project to personal philosophy. “It is my Treasure Beach … but for someone else, their Treasure Beach is that special place to go [to] feel safe and just be [themselves]. The music is a callback to that peace. A lot of people with trusted ears who have listened to it say it’s a feel-good album,” meditated Jone$.
While he now thrives in the artistic space, a music career was not originally where he was academically positioned to go. “Music was always my passion, but medicine was what kept my parents away from my passion. I was very good in school. It didn’t take a lot for me to get good grades,” he recalled.
After five years at Wolmer’s Boys’ School, he snagged a scholarship to attend sixth form at Hillel Academy. “Then I got a scholarship to study medicine at the University of Southern California (USC), which was perfect because I really wanted to go to either New York [City] or Los Angeles as they [are] both music cities,” divulged the athletically inclined Jone$, who represented both secondary institutions in basketball and track and field.
However, adjusting to collegiate life in the States presented new challenges for the freshman from Jamaica. “It was overwhelming. ‘Cali’ was far from home, and there weren’t many Jamaicans. Thankfully, there was one [other Jamaican]. That’s how I got into the fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha. [Biologist and Strands Hair Care founder] Eric Delapenha became my good friend just off that link,” he said.
The White Lotus actor Patrick Schwarzenegger – son of politico and Hollywood legend Arnold Schwarzenegger – was in Jone$’s USC fraternity, among other celeb progeny. “I understand a lot of kids, going away for the first time, can lose themselves because there is nobody to ground [them]. I would have been 18 at the time. Everything you see on TV and [in] the movies is about [the] college [experience], and you want to do all of [those] things,” he continued.
Asked if this cultural shift took a mental toll, Jone$ is candid. “I don’t think I ever [fully] lost myself, but I was definitely losing myself and went through a lot of depression. I felt even the way I spoke, as a Jamaican, was not easily understood. You have to start twanging. And if you are twanging every day, it’s like, ‘Who am I?’”
With his grades eventually slipping, he decided to exit medical school and attempted to pivot to USC’s music programme, but was unable to do so. “They wanted classically trained persons or those who played an instrument or produced music. Everything I do in music is by ear, from [song]writing to music production [but] it didn’t fit what they wanted. The other option I was given by my counsellor, was to study psychology with an emphasis in social sciences,” he shared. Jone$ saw value in this recommendation and hunkered down. He would graduate with a bachelor’s degree in psychology three years later.
And while he is yet to formally utilise his scholastic credentials, the recording artiste is not counting out possibilities. “I was a little bummed when I didn’t get into the music programme, but the truth is it worked out for the best. Psychology really [helps] with my music. I really understood how people [feel] and why people are the way [that] they are. My mom always says, ‘You are a great musician, but don’t ever limit yourself to only being a musician because you are multifaceted.’”
His mother, Kerry-Ann Jones, is a liquor distributor who runs the family business, Port of Call, a decades-old duty-free store at the Norman Manley International Airport. Dad, Daighn Jones, is his manager and a software entrepreneur. The Jones clan is rounded out by Jone$’s pre-teen sister Sierra Rose and younger brothers Kobe and Luke.
Of his father, who was watching from the sidelines of the Tuff Gong-based editorial shoot, the solo artiste’s endorsement is swift: “He is a great father first. His attention to detail works well in music. He is able to understand what’s needed and be there for me. In terms of his management style, I don’t need to worry about stuff. To have my dad there, who I have known my whole life, and who has my best [interests] at heart, is one of the most important things for me.”
As Jone$ strategises his next career moves, more has been at play than his album’s pending release. There was his performance at last month’s über-buzzy South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in London. “It was a great experience and my first time in Europe. The United Kingdom [is] a great market,” he recounted. “I also got to go to City Splash as well. I have always known that the United Kingdom has a great reverence for Jamaican and Caribbean acts because of the large diaspora that is there, [but] to see it first-hand at City Splash and for my first show at South by Southwest was an amazing experience and a dream come true.”
There is, too, the roll-out of Soon Come Sorrel, a liqueur that is the brainchild of his mother. “We have been developing it for some time now. We have been selling it in small batches and testing it on the market. The feedback [has] been excellent,” Jone$ teased. His recent appointment as the creative and marketing director at Port of Call is also of note. “I studied marketing [at USC] as well as music marketing and branding. That’s a strong suit of mine, which I bring to my new job. I [get to] focus on creative ideas. We recently introduced the Sound Station. Essentially, we bring the sound-system culture to the departure lounge with deejays, [street] vibes, energy, and music.”
One of the closing shots of the day was at hand outdoors. He was standing before a mural, next door to Tuff Gong’s vinyl pressing plant. “See that there,” he pointed off into the distance. “The hummingbird is my spirit animal. It is indigenous to Jamaica, and I am a descendant of the Tainos. It’s another layer of my spirituality. As an indigenous person, I connect to the land. I feel like the modernisation of the world strips people of the opportunity to connect to nature on a daily basis and really ground themselves.”
It appears that for Jone$, his beloved Treasure Beach – or simply that safe space – is never really too far behind.
CREDITS
Shot on location at Tuff Gong Studio, 220 Marcus Garvey Drive, Kingston.
Creative Directors: Curt Cawley and Omar Tomlinson
Photographer: Destinee Condison
Stylist: Curt Cawley
Clothing by Spokes Apparel.
Special thanks to designer Dexter Huxtable and Oneika Young, group marketing manager at Bob Marley Group of Companies, for her warm hospitality.