Today we’d like to introduce you to Oboi Jones.
Oboi, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I was heavily involved in church. I got my start in music playing drums for the children’s choir. As time progressed, I began to become more interested in the organization of music and the development of sounds. Around that same time, our church lost our head music director and lead pianist. This gave me the opportunity to step into a new role and develop more as a musician. As I started this new journey, I was also beginning my first year in high school at the Milwaukee Riverside University High School. I started in beginning band and worked my way through Marching Band, Jazz Band and Symphonic Band on saxophone. I eventually got into drum-line and ended up becoming drum major by the end of my junior year.
This propelled me into my collegiate career of music at Bethune-Cookman University on a partial band scholarship on alto saxophone. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I moved my college career back to Wisconsin at the University Of Wisconsin- River Falls. What I thought would be a negative turned into a positive as a become a lot more involved in different organizations throughout our campus. I became President of our Black Student Union my junior year of college. Although during this time, I wasn’t involved in the school’s music programs, I was developing my own company throughout as I was getting familiar with contracts and bookings through my term in Black Student Union. This business later became known as Thrones Of Greatness. Throughout my college career, I was able to make friends and future business partners.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
This road has not been an uneasy road by any means necessary. Before I lived in LA full-time, I took a summer to come and test the waters of the industry on a producer tip while taking summer courses online. That summer took the biggest hit on me as a person. It started out fine and motivational but by the end of the summer there were nights I had no idea where I would lay my head. During all of this, I was still chasing my degree, building my music career and almost lost it all. My grades took a huge hit and mentally all creativeness was gone. I was blessed enough to get back on campus and continue my degree that fall, but I had to leave LA. I would later return once I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in hand and life was much more different but stable.
Please tell us about Thrones Of Greatness.
Thrones Of Greatness is an operating independent record label. We specialize in music publishing, artist management, music licensing and so much more. Independently we have been able to complete a successful national tour with our artist Rob K and a forever label friend Quron Payne. We are also extremely prideful of where we are today with our new talent and the amount of quality content we are ready to release. Our production duo, TheRoyalWaev, has gained some momentum and received major label attention behind their production features. We are just extremely proud and excited of how far we’ve come as a team and the unreleased product we are dying to release. I believe what sets us apart from others is we all have a common goal and we to make sure we all succeed in our own lane. It’s a family environment when we work as a team.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over, I would stick to my own guns rather than trying to please everyone else. I bumped my head a few times trying to do what others thought would work for me. I don’t necessarily regret it because now I can tell my story and maybe stop others from making the same mistake I did. You know your vision and what you want to see come out of your art, brand or efforts in general. Stay strong on your views and get what you want and deserve. I’ve also learned that everything doesn’t happen overnight. Some things take some time and in the process, you may have to go through some battles that prepare you for your dreams. We don’t always realize we may not be ready for what we want just yet.
Contact Info:
- Website: thronesofgreatness.com
- Phone: 4147328388
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: instagram.com/thronesofgreatness
- Facebook: facebook.com/thronesofgreatness
Image Credit:
JP Frederick, Robert Kendall III, Naeem Nelson, Shawn Buford, J. Plaza, Partyat4, Oboi Jones, Weston Rich
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