OG Geno

Irving "OG Geno" Jones, was born the youngest of 6 children on 6/15/1969 in the city of Chicago to Ruby Lee Jones & Creadel "Red" Jones, the original bass singer of the Chi-Lites, (born 9/26/1940- died 8/25/1994- R.I.P. Dad). His first place of residence was the Robert Taylor Homes housing projects (4525 building) on the city's southside. There is where he spent the first 9 years of his life, learning to play the games that the projects play. From there he lived in a few other southside neighborhoods- 57th & Calumet- 56 & Throop and the Ida B. Wells projects. He attended Coleman Elementary, Carter Elementary & Dunbar High School, where he dropped out in the 9th grade. Geno's mother moved to the northside of Flint, Michigan in 1985. After living in Chicago for another year, Geno's brother & sister bought him a bus ticket to move to Flint with his mother in 1986, which is where he still lives today. Geno found Flint to be much different from Chicago, but as any true hustler, he learned to live there, and gain a few friends along the way. Geno was no stranger to gang life. While living in the Robert Taylor homes at age 7 or 8, he and 2 friends of his started a small gang that they named the Black Dragons. When he moved from the projects in 1978 he brung the gang's name with him & got a few other young boys in his new neighborhood to join up with him. A couple of years later he was associating with the Black Disciples, the B.G.D.N. & the Gangster Disciples & would later gone on to form his own street family called the Guntown Gangster Organization in 1988 and ended it in 1994. Geno is no longer gangbangin. Geno says that spending the first half of his life in Chicago & the later years in Flint, has showed him that every city has ghettos and somebody that's starting trouble. This is where he got most of the content for the songs that he creates. Geno always had a love for music. He became hooked to hiphop after hearing Rappers Delight by the Sugarhill Gang in 1980. At age 11 he learned all the words, and would spit it word for word, while his friends would say, how you remember all of that? His reply would always be "I don't know". By age 13, he was writing to other artists songs, changing the words, but keeping the flow and music of some of the top artist at that time. He did'nt know at the time, that would be the start of his G. Style Records. Thru out the 80's & 90's, Geno kept writing & flowin', then in 1998 he bought his first (well, actually 2nd, but that's another story) keyboard for $312 (the amount of his rent that month) and started writing songs to the beats in the keyboard, as well as songs to the beats he was creating. He would record his songs on a tape deck in his apartment's living room. He had a couple of homeboys (Mizzike & D. Rick) that use to stop by & flow to some of his beats. The 3 of them would also get on some songs together. After months of freestylin' over so many beats, Geno saw they he & his homeboys had it, & that he could make beats that other rappers could feel & want to flow on. This was the 2nd stage of G. Style Records. In 2001, Geno moved from his apartment & bought a house, & this is where the studio really came to be. He bought another keyboard, a 24 channel mixer, a digital recorder & a cd recorder. Thru much trial & error, he taught himself how to write songs, make beats, arrange the songs, perform the vocals on the songs & record the songs. (That's determenation for you) He would pass the cd's off to some homeboys, to see what they thought, and they were all diggin' it. Some of them would even remember the words to his songs & flow to it while it was playing, letting him know that his music could catch a person's attention. In 2005, Geno decided to go worldwide with his G. Style Records & posted his music on different websites like soundclick.com, myspace.com, Independent Artist Company.com & a few others. The response from all has been extremly well, once again showing the OG Geno that there is a place for his G. Style Records, & now he's commited to staying in the studio, making beats, writing songs, flowin' on the mic, and handling internet promotions, the G. style way.



A POEM I WROTE ABOUT GANGBANGING
Bangin is a thing a lot of brothers do,
They do it for the red,
They do it for the blue,
They do it for the six,
They do it for the five,
They do it till the day they're no longer alive,
You see a brother like me,
Man I've been bangin for years,
Thru the good,
Thru the bad,
Thru the laughter,
And definitly thru the tears,
But now comes the time that I make a decision,
Will I continue on my gang bang mission?
I'm 50% out, But I'm 50% in,
And it seems like my homies are my only friends,
So do I leave?
Or do I stay?
Until the day I get blowed away?
If I leave my homies, then I'm not real,
But if I stay with my homies, I might get killed,
It's a tough decision I have to make,
Tryna decide which route I should take,
I wanna stay in, because of the love I have,
I wanna get out, because I might get stabbed,
I wanna stay in, cause I'm real as hell,
I wanna get out, before I rot in jail,
I wanna stay in till the day I die,
I wanna get out, and give a new life a try,
See, some of y'all feel me,
But some of y'all don't,
A few of y'all will,
But most of y'all won't,
The life that I have is definitly changing,
All because a brother started gangbangin
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This is a poem I wrote about 15 years ago, when I was tryna find myself in this dark world, and now that I have found my inner peace, I solemly swear to never bring harm to another person because of a gang's name.
My heart is NOW free from ALL hatred, and I'm still not a punk.
I'M A MAN
READ IT & UNDERSTAND IT.
And to all of my brothers and sisters that's still caught up in the cycle of hate,,,,
Free your mind and the rest will follow.
1 LOVE & RESPECT IS ALL I KNOW NOW.
OG Geno,,,
Here Till I'm Gone.



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CHECK OUT THIS ARTICLE I FOUND ABOUT THE CHI-LITES AND MY FATHER CREADEL "RED" JONES



The rest of the story
Posted May 31, 2009 by evandad
Categories: May 2009
Tags: 1971, Chi-Lites
Much of what I know about soul music comes from listening first to AM radio in the early '70s, then FM radio for the rest of the decade. However, mine tends to be a wide but shallow pool at times.
I plead guilty as charged when it comes to the Chi-Lites. I long knew them only for their smooth, gentle love songs, the radio hits — "Have You Seen Her" from 1971 and "Oh Girl" from 1972.
A short while back, I heard "(For God's Sake) Give More Power To The People," a powerfully funky protest song featuring Creadel "Red" Jones' bass voice. A bass? With the Chi-Lites? Head asplode. It's from 1971, done along the lines of the stuff done by the Temptations at the time, and oh, how I dug the Temptations.
So I started digging — and digging for — the Chi-Lites, who came out of Chicago and worked together for a decade before hitting it big in the early '70s. I recently found tonight's record for a dollar. It's a delightful mix of those smooth, sweet sounds and the funkier stuff.
As the liner notes on the Brunswick Records album jacket say: "Eugene Record, Marshall Thompson, Robert 'Squirrel' Lester and Creadel 'Red' Jones are the four stars of this amazing quartet." Record sings lead, Thompson and Lester complement him and Jones' bass anchors it all.
In the late '50s, Record and Lester started out with another singer, Clarence Johnson, in a group called the Chanteurs. Thompson and Jones were in a group called the Desideros. About 1960, they joined forces and became the Hi-Lites. In 1964, they became Marshall and the Chi-Lites, the latter reflecting their Chicago roots. Not long after, Johnson left the group, and they went simply as the Chi-Lites. It wasn't until they signed with Brunswick Records in 1968 that they started to make it nationally. Their peak years were 1969 to 1973.
Thompson and Lester continue to perform as the Chi-Lites along with Frank Reed, who joined them as lead singer almost 20 years ago, after Record left the group. Record and Jones have since died.
JUST TO UPDATE THIS, WE HAVE NOW LOST 3 OF THE ORIGINAL CHI-LITES MEMBERS: Creadel "Red" Jones in 1994 - Eugene Record in 2005 & Robert "Squirrel" Lester in 2010 LONG LIVE THE MIGHTY MIGHTY CHI-LITES