Donell Jones is a well-known R&B singer, songwriter and producer from Chicago. He is most notable for his hit singles such as “U Know What’s Up” featuring the late great Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes and also “Where I Wanna Be”. Early in his career, Jones gained notice as a songwriter penning songs for established R&B artistry such as Usher with his 1995 hit “Think of You” and 702’s hit “Get It Together”. He has also written for many other artists to include groups like Brownstone and Silk. Jones later moved on to reach great heights in his musical career and beyond as he has truly blessed us with his talents.

It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from Donell Jones but MMIM had the opportunity to speak with the talented Donell Jones recently and it was a pleasure to do so. In our conversation with Donell, he covers his whereabouts during his hiatus, gives us exciting news of his current release “The Lost Files”, and apprised of his new album coming in 2010. He also discusses his personal feelings about the current state of music. After reading, make sure to share your comments.

MMIM: We’ve all missed you these past few years Donell, how does it feel to come back to mainstream?

Donell Jones: It feels good, I mean it’s been a minute; I just really wanted to get back out and share my music with the world. I’ve been hearing a lot of my fans say they miss that style of R&B so I’m just ready to come back out and share my music with them.

MMIM: Well you’ve blessed your fans with your current release, “The Lost Files” on Nov 24, which I feel is a good prelude to what’s to come next year. This includes some of your unreleased songs spanning from your debut album in 1996 to 2004?

Donell Jones: That’s correct, there’s songs on there that I did when I first got in the game up until then. Because usually what happens when I record an album, when it’s time to start recording, I’ll start over and in that down time, those songs I make in that down time, I usually just push them to the side and just start from scratch so I got so many songs, this “Lost Files”, that’s just volume one. So you’ll be hearing more of them, I just wanted to throw that out there, just so that my fans can get back familiar with my music and the style of R&B that I do.

MMIM: What would you say to be your memorable record on this project?

Donell Jones: It’s a couple of them, “Forever” that’s one song that I love a lot, “Superman” is another.

MMIM: Yes, Yes, that’s definitely one of my favorites too.

Donell Jones: And “Free”, “Free” was a song that I wrote, that was when the World Trade happened. I forgot what year that was, but I wrote that right around that time that those planes crashed into the World Trade Center.

Click more to see the remainder of the interview.
(more…)