When 9-year-old Coco Jones she was first trying to break into the world of entertainment—by auditioning and sitting in business meetings with strange executives—her mother would sometimes give her a secret signal.
“If my mom grabbed her earring, it meant, 'I have to sing.' And I would sing,” Jones recalls with a laugh. “I spent a lot of time perfecting a cappella.”
That early confidence-building lesson served Jones well. At the age of 12, she began her path to stardom with roles in Disney Channel shows and films such as So Random! and Let it shine; most recently, she won the role of Hilary Banks in Peacock's Fresh Prince restart, Bel Air. And now, it's helped her become one of R&B's most promising rising stars, signed to High Standardz/Def Jam Recordings. “She's one of the hardest working artists I've ever worked with,” says Def Jam President/CEO Tunji Balogun. “Coco is an artist with the confidence of a veteran but the energy of a newcomer.”
As Jones explains with characteristic conviction on the eve of her 26th birthday, she's not just an actress trying out a new career. “I'm actually a singer who pursued acting at the same time,” she says. “But the acting caught on before the music started. Music has always been my comfort, my purpose — the driving force that has kept me in this industry.”
On the strength of her soulful voice and confident moxie, the singer-songwriter made a breakthrough in 2023. Her RIAA-certified single, “ICU,” now has Grammy Award nominations for Best R&B Song and best R&B performance — just two of the five Jones will compete at this year's event, along with best new artist, best R&B album for What I Didn't Told You (Deluxe) and Best Traditional R&B Performance for her collaboration with Babyface, “Simple.”
“It feels surreal,” Jones says of her first nominations. “And to see these other amazing women like it [fellow nominees] Victoria Monét, SZA and Janelle Monáe are blazing different paths for a modern R&B that can be so versatile and genre-less… I commend us. But in another way, this feels like an affirmation of my journey. that there cannot always be a storm. The weather must change.”
Coco Jones was photographed on January 5, 2024 in New York.
Jay Leonard
Jones began this journey 17 years ago in Lebanon, Tenn., as a child auditioning and participating in talent contests, singing songs with raw emotion well beyond her mother's years, Javoda — who, says the Jones, studied music at school and did some studying. singing, too — introduced her to, like Aretha Franklin's “Chain of Fools.”
In 2011, Jones landed a recurring role on the Disney musical sketch comedy series So Random! and the following year, she co-starred in the Disney film Let it shine. Five Let it shine tracks on which he sang – “What I Said”, “Whodunit” (with Adam Hicks), “Me and You”, “Let It Shine” and “Guardian Angel” (the last three collaborations with actor-rapper Tyler James Williams ) – launched her to Advertising sign chart for the first time in 2012, as they all entered the Children's Digital Songs chart.
But Jones wanted to be a singer and songwriter in her own right. And although Hollywood Records released her EP in 2013, Made by (which peaked at No. 10 on the Heatseekers Albums chart), the label dropped her the following year. Two more independent EPs followed (2017 Let me check it out and of 2019 HDWY) in between, Jones continued to act, including in the 2016 film Grandma's housethe 2018 TV series Five Points and the 2020 movie Vampire vs Bronx.
By the time she landed these projects, Jones had dropped out of college, moving to Los Angeles at 17 to further pursue her dream of becoming a singer-songwriter. “That was a key sacrifice: convenience,” Jones says of the decision. “I didn't choose the route I expected and I thought things would happen immediately. But it didn't work out that way. Without a constant source of income, I lived off my savings as a Disney kid. So [as a young adult] it was getting real. I could only be a young girl following her dreams for so long. But I had to live, make friends, fall in love and not fall in love… be normal – which helped me find my own voice, my sound.”
In 2020, a major turning point occurred when a fan from her Disney days took to social media to ask what was going on with her career. Jones answered the question on YouTube, sharing the struggles and speculation she's faced as a black artist while “opening doors for people to see me as an adult.”
“Instead of internalizing this comment, Coco made a video to give fans and others information and context [about her industry experiences],” says Def Jam's Balogun. “Then he started doing covers of popular R&B records [Mary J. Blige’s “Real Love,” Brandy’s “Full Moon”] that she posted on TikTok and YouTube that began to reframe conversations about her as an artist. And when he went up Bel Airwhich gave her a new audience that might not have known she was in music.”
Jones' work ethic, focus and determination are what initially impressed Jeremy “J Dot” Jones (no relation) — the founder and CEO of High Standardz, a joint venture with Def Jam — who signed her in the summer of 2021, before her hearing on Bel Air.
“Before I even got into music, I saw how professional and on point she was about her vision of what she wanted to do and how she wanted to do it,” J Dot recalls of first meeting Jones. “And then came the voice that startled me. So I felt that with the right design, the right producers and time to grow in the market, it would have a strong chance to stake its claim in the game. Among Disney's loyal fans, R&B covers, Bel Air And seeing how much she's grown artistically since being a child star, I definitely think fans who felt like Coco didn't have a good chance early on were ready to see her win.”
With the success of “METH” from her What didn't I tell you? EP, Jones finally graduated from Disney star to adult singer-songwriter on the rise. “This is me off-screen, unscripted,” Jones says of the EP's songs about relationships, love and heartbreak. “These are my secrets, my life.”
Coco Jones was photographed on January 5, 2024 in New York.
Jay Leonard
The clarity and clarity of Jones' full-body vocals are reminiscent of R&B's traditional soul roots and 1990s heyday, but she puts her own modern spin on the process. “ICU,” the painful examination of painful withdrawal and residual feelings after a romantic breakup, spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart. It also peaked at No. 6 on Hot R&B Songs and has earned 175.6 million official streams in the US (as of Jan. 4), according to Luminate.
Track singles “double back”, which samples SWV's hit “Rain,” peaked at No. 21 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay. And Jones is on her way to becoming an in-demand collaborator, too: She featured on Brent Faiyaz's Summer 2023 Top 10 R&B hit “Moment of Your Life,” and most recently teamed up with rising pop singer and fellow actress Reneé Rapp on the remix of Rapp's “Tummy Hurts”.
“Def Jam and High Standardz wanted to make sure the R&B audience understood, accepted and championed Coco,” says Balogun, whose roster also includes rising R&B stars Muni Long and Fridayy. “We also focused on making sure people see her live [either] on her Soul Train Awards tour [or] other performances. The benchmark in R&B is live performance, and what matters to the bottom line is, “Does it sound and feel as good as the album?” He was able to live up to it.”
With the filming of its third season Bel Air Beginning in late January, Jones is also working on her debut album, which will be released later this year. But he says fans shouldn't just assume it will be the second part of the EP.
“That story has been told,” says Jones. “Between this taste of success and the tour, I've learned so much that I can't be anything that I was. The most raw and authentic version whatever you do will win. You just have to be willing to bare your spirit.”
This story will appear in the January 27, 2024 issue Advertising sign.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/coco-jones-icu-rb-singer-songwriter-acting-grammy-preview-1235589767/