“I’m not saying I’m gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world.” -Tupac Shakur
I come from genuine goodness. The kind with sweet corn festivals, baked apple pies, throaty laughs and the toothiest smiles you will ever see. I come from the Midwest. Where the earth is still soft and the air is crisp and clear.
A place I can only describe to people as the center of the United States, where the weather is changing as often as the clock ticking on my mother’s peach colored wall and where the sincerity of friends is a given.
Why in the world would I leave this magical place that was home?
I followed the yellow brick road and the rainbow. I left Kansas (or Nebraska in my case) in search of a dream. What I ended up realizing was I was never in search of a dream, I was in search of myself.
And boy did I find her.
This insecure, adventurous girl, who had taken the chance on a gut feeling. I found what I was looking for and also what I never planned to find.
I found Los Angeles, and with it all the dazzling beauty it promised. The life I saw in movies and magazines was now mine, I began working wherever they would hire me and was lucky enough to land a job at Universal Studios during their Halloween Horror nights as a show attendant. From there a temporary job at a music publishing company, and landed a gig as a Production Assistant for several student films at the American Film Institute.
I adequately managed to temp a few more times at the music company and ultimately was hired on as a coordinator for A&R and Film/TV. All the glitz and glam of the music industry, the politics, the creativity, the cutthroat-ness of it, the raw talent, the executive ego, the promising new talent, the contracts and meetings, shows and events. Every day I experienced and soaked in every piece I could. Every day came with its challenges and I was constantly learning something new about the way things worked in the music industry. Eventually I showed enough promise and enthusiasm to be promoted to a manager position in A&R. After taking a music publishing course at UCLA and going to more shows than I can count, I had an intense fervor for new music and trending artists. I had found what I absolutely loved and had a knack for. Music.
How we love is how we live. And I choose to live through music. If you’re reading this I assume you do too.
Everything we feel has already been felt. Music is the eternal reminder of that.
Joy, sadness, lust, redemption; were all living it. Beat by stirring beat.
So this is for me as much as it is for you.
I live my life in music, and I want to share this music with you.
New, old, rambunctious, affectionate, passionate, rebellious, teary eyed, celebratory music. All kinds. Because as I’ve come to grow into this person I once wasn’t, I’ve realized now more than ever we need to know we are not alone. This is your beat as much as it is mine and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.
XO,
Jackie
The Drop 