Dreams Revisited-Jessica Greene

In the fall of 2007 when the film "American Gangster" was released, it made an immediate impact at the box office.  Grossing $130 million dollars the films' success was publicly credited for what is typically unfamiliar--its' musical score.

I was young in my career and often wondered the impacted of music in everyday life--particularly mine.  As fate would have it, a few months later the opportunity to travel to New York to sit down with Hank and Keith Shocklee presented itself.  Hank and Keith two of rap musics most decorated producers, delivered life-long lessons as it pertained to my world of insight. With both men having been credited to the success of early rap groups like Public Enemy and the famous Bomb Squad, every nugget  of information that they dropped was valuable.  Fresh off producing the hit single "Do You Feel Me", performed by Anthony Hamilton, their ideas and thoughts spoke to my senses.

Within that interview I learned every music artist lives and breathes through his or her own experiences.  I remember Hank Shocklee saying to me," J, the depth of what we do is built on bold creativity and revisiting dreams. Dreams that are often deffered and shaped by life's experiences".  

Recently, I replayed the conversation with Hank and Keith as a point of reference while photographing one of the music industries newest and most passionate artist.  Her name is Jessica Greene.

I'm usually not bias in my views, but this is one of those instances I couldn't be anything but bias.  Why?  I know Jessica's story.  As life would have it, meeting Hank and Keith will soon have more meaning than what I'll share with you in this blog. What I will share this, when a person decides to act on life instead of allowing life to act on them, the bold through creativity and life lessons begin to come alive. They begin to offer solutions for growth and development for others based off of their experiences.   

I've spent countless moments learning lessons from individuals like Jessica.  I've witnessed many artist looking opposition in the face and deciding on how much of themselves they will share with the world.  The in-studio session with Jessica was comparable to that of my time with the Shocklee's.  It provided a window of transparency that few seldom witness.  In both cases I was privy to capture bold creativity.  The raw emotion, and willingness to export all of life's lessons and deferred dreams to a platform of growth for others to become remarkable within their truths.  My take away in both instances was that some artists really do shape the world in which we live.  They are the pulse for how quickly we are able to process life's lessons...      

Below are a few moments that I captured with Jessica and her producer K.P., in one of this week's recording sessions.