Originally from McAlester, OK, 20-year-old JR Patton now resides in Dallas, TX. He’s known around the city as the hot new R&B cat on the scene. His song “Sound of Love” is his first major break on the airwaves, but he’s no stranger to the music biz. Here he explains how he got his start singing as an infant, linking with Fam Life Entertainment, and his future plans to release an official ep. Tell us how you got into music before things started taking off for you. I’ve been doin’ music since I was a newborn almost. Almost my whole life I’ve been with the label Fam Life. They had a label in Oklahoma. Is that where you’re from? I was born in Portland, OR and I moved to Oklahoma. There was a label that was hot out there called Fam Life; that was back in 1997. I was real young but I was into music a whole lot and I got the chance to work with ‘em in 2000. I’ve been keeping the Fam Life Ent LLC movement going ever since. We’ve just been grinding in the streets. So you moved to Dallas after that? We popped it off in Houston first before we moved to Dallas. We had the restaurant Harlan’s BBQ in Houston. Tell us about this big record you have in Dallas. A lot of people are talking about it. Yeah, “Sound of Love.” Jai produced the record for me. We got in the studio, he played the beat, and we went from there. It’s been out for almost a year. It got pretty hot around October. What else was going on before that? Was “Sound of Love” your big break? I was doing a lot of shows. My label has respect in the streets so they have a lot of plugs and mess with a lot of people. I was doing a lot of shows and people were admiring my talent. People knew me ‘cause I could sing, so when I hit ‘em with the “Sound of Love” it took off. Have you had a chance to collaborate with anyone? I collaborated with a lot of Dallas artists, and a couple West Coast artists like Keak da
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Sneak. What else do you have going on right now? I have a mixtape that’ll be out by Super Bowl weekend. It’ll be mixed by Definition DJ Q. It’s strictly an R&B mixtape? Yeah, new age R&B, that’s how I get down. I got my own style, I do my own thang. What are some songs you think people will like from the project? I think people will like the whole thing. Not to toot my own horn, but when you get the mixtape you gon’ see. The mixtape is called I Ain’t Lazy and I live by that. What’s the normal non-lazy day like for you? If I don’t have a show, I wake up and I’m in the studio all day. I record myself most of the time. I don’t have time to be waiting on an engineer so I just do it myself. How did you learn to record yourself and use all the equipment? When I was like 3 years old I knew how to hook up a whole studio, keyboards, and everything. My uncle was an R&B singer and I always looked up to him. He recorded my first song. I wanted to be like him, so I learned from him. Then he bought me a karaoke machine, and after that it was over. Did you ever take singing classes or were you just a natural? No, I never took any classes. I was always singing in church, and just around the house. My whole family sings. What are your plans for Super Bowl weekend? I’m sure I’ll have a couple shows. We’ll be promoting this mixtape real heavy, and my EP. My EP drops April 27th and I’ll be on Wild Out Wednesday on 106th & Park that day. The code to vote is text "A" to 79922. Do you have a Twitter or anything else to let people know about? My Twitter is @JR_Patton. My Facebook is JR Patton. My mixtape will be in the streets Super Bowl weekend. My song “Sound of Love” is on iTunes, Amazon and the Sound of Love EP will be on iTunes and Amazon and select stores. It’s a new age in R&B. Soon as I get the chance it’s a wrap. //