Firstperson i to Jonny Awesum

Ok so a few people have asked me about my name change from Firstperson i to Jonny Awesum so I thought it would be fitting to post it up here on my new blog so I could have somewhere to point them to when they ask. 


First off this hasn't been my first name change. I have been through a few of them, but by the time I started to make a name for myself in the public's eye I went by OcWords.  This was probably my favorite name because it does describe me and the meaning behind it Oc and in 8 and 8 is the infinity symbol when it stood upright. So in other words it was a play on having infinite words.  I always seemed to have trouble explaining this to people, but I really didn't care, because I thought it was just too clever.  Anyways as I was trying to establish this name I heard of another emcee with the exact same name, but spelled Okwerdz.  Okwerdz was making a name for himself in the battle scene  and doing a pretty good job at it. So following the rules of hip hop I hit him up for a battle. I could tell right off he was cocky and sure of himself. We had talks bout setting on up, but the distance between us and the fact we were both young meant it could not happen. Okwerdz' name started to grow more and his battles were tight so I decided It was only right for me to change my name. 


Me and my best friend and partner in rhyme Kwas thought it best if we both changed our names and make them fit the direction we were taking our music. Kwas really wanted to tackle some political and social issues so he came up with Citizen Aim.  I was really stuck and hard pressed to come up with something so I asked him for some suggestions. Citizen Aim came up with Firstperson i and I liked it and it stuck. There was no real meaning behind the name, but it fit with my more philosophical approach to music. So we both went on to make names for ourselves doing shows and open mics with these aliases. 


Citizen Aim was my main drive in music. I loved to write with him or write over his beats and I think we made a great team. We completed an eight song project together under two of our other  aliases "The Sentient & The Siege".  Citizen Aim had a horrible disease called Cystic Fibrosis that hindered his lung function and when it came time to record, he just couldn't do it. I knew the project would never be and even though it was hard to accept, I was a peace with that.  His health was fading fast and I knew this was the end of an amazing journey. 


Around that time, I started to host open mics at the Dunes Bar and I really enjoyed it. I was losing my passion to create rhymes myself since Citizen Aim was most of my inspiration and he was the one to help me count my bars and fit them on the beat and time them out. I loved hip hop and the energy and I knew I had to stay with it. As I hosted more Firstperson i just didn't seem to fit as a name for a host. I wanted something more personal and something with character. Growing up I listened a lot of punk rock and I wanted my new name to show of its influence. I have always loved the Sex Pistols and I wanted something that sounded like the name of their front man Johnny Rotten, but with out the self deprecating bite to it. I came up with Jonny Awesum  and I thought that sounded close enough. Jonny is what my cousins used to call me when I was younger and Awesome is my most commonly used descriptive adjective. Awesum also goes back to me being able able to play with spelling and words. Awesum is the sum of all things we hold in Awe, but anyway....  I think Jonny Awesum fits me and the direction I want to take as a promoter, show host, radio host and occasional emcee dropping  8 bars of fire here and there....