He wants to deliver that theme song you’ve always wanted
Jerome A. Jones II drives a delivery truck for a living. It supplements what he makes as an artist and entrepreneur who goes by the stage name “kidmental.”
Several months ago, Mr. Jones reached out. His pitch was straightforward: “I’m a local musician and I do a bit more than ‘just music,’” he wrote. “I was hoping to create an article that highlights the people in our community that I have had the pleasure of celebrating.”
He pointed to his website with examples of what he meant. “I have an ongoing campaign that I started last year in which I create a song free of charge for willing folk.”
Perhaps anticipating skepticism, he offered to do a theme song for me so I could better understand the process. All I had to do was fill out a form at his site.
Like an Amish farmer or the member of an indigenous rain forest tribe leery of being photographed lest a part of his soul be captured in the process, I passed on the opportunity to have someone compose something as personal as a theme song that represents my life.
Music critic Jordan Snowden at Pittsburgh City Paper did submit to the process. The result, which is online at the artist’s site, is impressive. It features kidmental’s skill as a rapper and a “beatboxer” — a musician skilled at using his or her mouth as a percussive instrument.
A thin, bearded man who wears a Mohawk atop cornrows, the Avalon resident looks nowhere near the 37 years he claims. Because of his vaguely anarchic dress code — punk inspired Tshirts, sneakers and jeans — he presents more like a skateboarder in his early 20s. He’s married with a 15-year-old stepdaughter and two sons, 6 and 8. He’s a doting father who drives his children to appointments all over town for their educational and cultural enrichment.
“I’m from Youngstown, Ohio,” he said filling in a bit of his origin story as the youngest of four brothers. “I was born in Warren, Ohio, but we were living in Youngstown. My dad was a pastor. My mom was a minister with him.”
Mr. Jones had a different trajectory in mind for his life other than composing praise music, although he has an older brother who has worked with Grammy Award-winning gospel artist Kirk Franklin.
Mr. Jones made his way to Pennsylvania 19 years ago. From his earliest days carving out a living in Pittsburgh, he always thought of himself as a freelance artist — both as a graphic designer and a beatbox musician. He managed to find and hold down as many jobs and side hustles as necessary while pursuing his muse.
“When I was 13,” he said with a laugh, “I had a paper route, so I kept busy. When the kids at my school asked me to draw pictures for them, I’m like: Am I doing this for free?” He quickly got into the habit of expecting — and receiving — remuneration for his work. Being creative had its advantages, especially when customers held creative people like him in high regard.
As an independent contractor delivering office supplies all over the region, Mr. Jones spent a lot of time using music as a mnemonic device to recall addresses. He soon realized he was meeting as many as 100 people a week in his travels.
“So I started asking [workers I
met] what exactly they do in certain places,” he said. “‘What are you guys doing here,’ you know? And they started telling me what they did at the place and what their role was in the company.
“And I was, like, ‘Wow, we are all connected, like even closer than six degrees of separation.’ If I don’t deliver what I need to deliver to this persons, these other people are going to hurt,” he said sketching out the interdependence of every stop along the supply chain.
That started Mr. Jones thinking about the individuals he met and about the music their lives made.
It was a eureka moment. It transformed his drives into a daily mental workshop on how to conceptualize theme songs for a cafeteria worker or a forklift driver or the office temp that would be recognizable and relatable because the lyrics touched on details they shared about their lives.
To date, kidmental has crafted roughly 75 theme songs for people he’s encountered and those who have filled out the questionnaire on his website. There is also a waiting list that is many months long and began filling up last year when he debuted the free service.
But just as when he was a kid in high school and other students approached him to do drawings, he is eager to monetize his musical talent.
He encourages customers to support him on online membership platform Patreon or to commission uppertier services for more elaborate music — birthday gift performances, podcast music intros, background music and instrumentals, and company theme songs at negotiated costs. For $1 a month, a subscriber gets access to all theme songs he’s made so far, while $12 a month buys a package that includes an improv beat session recording dedicated to words of the subscribers’ choosing.
Mr. Jones is also on the online freelance service platform Fiverr, which brings him international exposure and clients from as far away as Germany.
None of this has made Jerome “kidmental” Jones II rich. He still has his day job. But he’s rich in opportunities, contacts and goodwill from customers who have been touched by his music. Like any creative person with a family, he is constantly working on life balance issues. It helps that his family is understanding of what he does and that he does much of his composing at a makeshift studio at home.
Though he has fewer than a dozen Patreon supporters, he picks up enough clients at the higher tiers on a regular basis to be encouraged. He’s also aware of how strange the business model may appear to those who can’t fathom why anyone would want a personal theme song.
Mr. Jones is emphatic about not being mistaken as a rapper. He considers himself a “spiritual spoken word artist,” if anything.
“I’m a poet, I’m an artist, I’m a musician,” he said. “I do beatbox and a lot of times I try to just be ambiance in the background, basically. I don’t want to be all up front and everything. I’m not trying to rap unless someone wants me to freestyle or something.
“I’ll do whatever the customer considers fun, but I’m not trying to be about just being in front of people. I just want to celebrate people,” he said adding, “in an intimate way.”