Artist on the Lookout: Red Jesse

A writer. A pianist. A painter. A rapper? From Davidson, North Carolina comes Red Jesse (AKA Jesse Boykin Kimmel, AKA Boy King, AKA Boy Kid, AKA Pursued by a Bear)

“I don’t give a fuck. My name is Jesse,” Kimmel said.

Kimmel has an illustrious musical background. Like his older brothers, he started taking piano lessons when he was 5 years old. Although he was playing music at a young age, he didn’t start to appreciate it until later on - when he heard The Beatles.

“I fantasized about being famous, and about being onstage, and about being a star,” Kimmel said.

Throughout middle and high school, he surrounded himself with talented artists of many different crafts who influenced him to learn the saxophone and to paint. Although he was not a good painter, he painted many paintings, Kimmel said.

Kimmel was accepted to North Carolina School of the Arts (a prestigious art school in Winston Salem, North Carolina) to study classical piano, though he only stayed for one year.

The next few years would be rough for Kimmel. Barely making it out of high school (he failed the eleventh grade) and getting arrested momentarily distracted the aspiring MC. But he finished high school in 2005 and now studies English at Dickinson College. Coincidently, he developed his passionate love for Hip-Hop the same year that he failed the eleventh grade.

His initial message as a rapper was about “informing people about injustice”. Now he’s more interested in “rocking the crowd.” With no current album officially in the works, he has enough songs to make an album, but not the concept yet. His current project is in the form of a mixtape called Gravity, which he will soon finish, Kimmel said.

Another project that Red Jess is working on is something that he calls "an open letter to Jay-Z”. He has written, but not yet recorded a song, which he will send weekly to Jay-Z until he gets a response. His message is simple:

“When [Jay-Z] came back from retirement I felt like it was lame as shit that he was spitting any of the same game that he ever came with before,” Kimmel said. “More than that, he has a responsibility to listeners, he has a responsibility to Hip-Hop, as a movement and as a philosophy, and he has a responsibility to me (because he inspired me) to prove that the music is more important than the business.”

This song will hopefully get his foot in the door of the industry, Kimmel said.

Kimmel often performs at Dickinson College in Carlisle, P.A., and he will continue to record music with fellow songwriters and producers Jake Troth, The Shades (his group at Dickinson), and A-Styles as well as anyone else who is motivated and interested, Kimmel said.

Click HERE to visit Red Jesse's MySpace page.

Back Porch Life - Red Jesse