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in the music but I always felt more connected to hip-hop,” Jonathan told Veritas. “So, I was recording a hip-hop album and there was, like, five minutes left in the session and I was like ‘I wanna show you guys a new track.’ So, I did a new song called ‘Try a Little More?’ and I came out of the booth and they were just looking at me. I’m like ‘What’s the problem?’ And they said, “You’ve got to do a reggae album. “So, I decided to just dive into it and
Jonathan Emile
At age 17, Jonathan was given only a slim chance of surviving a rare form of cancer. He underwent three surgeries and intensive radiation and chemotherapy treatments. He emerged from the experience filled with hope for the future of the planet, the future of music, and his own future. “The treatment made me examine what was really important,” he says. “I realized I didn’t have all the time in the world. “The illness put my philosophy to
“People associate hip-hop with negativity. The MPL approach is to make music that is reverent and relevant.” write a whole reggae album over a period of a month.” “We were in Jamaica for two weeks and it was exhausting,” he said. “I went down there with a social media team and some videographers, so they did the video and documented everything, so we just got a lot of stuff and we are putting it out in pieces.” The day he visited Selwyn House, Jonathan was preparing for his Montreal release party for his new album that same evening, sandwiched in between launch gigs in Brooklyn and Toronto. Jonathan admits that he had not fully discovered his musical gifts while still at Selwyn House. “Coming from public school, Selwyn was tough for me, so I really just focussed on academics,” he said. “I was struggling in Grade 7 and I graduated with honours by an inch. So honestly, I just did music for fun on the side. It’s when I left Selwyn House that I found it so easy and I had all this time, so that’s when I allowed myself to get more into it. “After Selwyn House, I went to Dawson in cinema and communications, and then I studied philosophy and political science at McGill. The music sort of took off and took me in new direction. But [academic studies] is something I definitely want to get back into.”
the test, and it has endured.” In 2005 he founded Mind Peace Love (MPL) Enterprises, whose name expresses the intellectual, spiritual and emotional pillars of Jonathan’s personal philosophy. The business has grown into
a “conscious art company” involving not only music, but also film production and a line of “fair-trade” clothing that doesn’t use sweatshop labour. He says he is grateful to his parents, not only for “sending me to the right school,” but for instilling in him the beginnings of his philosophy of life. Selwyn House classmate Nick Tsoukas 2003 is an artist-and-repertoire man for MPL, as well as a partner in a restaurant and a marketing company. Jonathan sees his music as being very different from that of most commercial hip-hop, which, he says, is “saturated with ‘gangsta’ [images] and misogyny. People associate hip-hop with negativity.” The MPL approach is to make music that is “reverent and relevant,” to foster revolution based on re-examination, one that is “more open, less conflicting,” and that looks at everything from the three perspectives expressed in the company’s name.
Jonathan Emile with SHS teachers Jon Merritt (left) and Marty Boyle
Veritas, page 13
