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Who Is Mike Jones?
You know Mike Jones, the gay escort from who Ted Haggard allegedly received meth and massages? Well it just so happens that there is a hip hop artist who is unfortunate enough to share the same name: Mike Jones.
Mike Jones the rapper somehow managed to carve out a career for himself by way of an obnoxiously self-referential media gimmick, “Who Is Mike Jones?” which worked partly by asking fans and would-be fans to call him on his personal cell phone. Go ahead and call him: (281) 330-8004.
Anyway, reviewing information about the rapper by way of the media juxtaposition of this other very different Mike Jones has started to ring some rather odd bells for me. Enough so that I think they are worth highlighting here, even if they really don’t mean anything and only really prove how easy it is to connect any two sets of data when you have a narrative structure to work with. So here are some of the oddities I have noticed. See if you can find others:
- Mike Jones, the rapper, originally was part of a hip hop label called “Swishahouse.” And as you may know, “swish” is a disparaging term for a homosexual man. Coincidence? Yes, probably. But interesting nonetheless…
- The title of his first album (2002) was “Ballin’ Underground” which though it probably is more of a basketball/hip-hop lifestyle reference could also be read as perhaps meaning “sexual activity done in secret”
- A 2005 album, “Who is Mike Jones?” sub-titled, “Screwed and Chopped” which you could make up your own interpretation for, as well as his pose on the cover perhaps. We could also cherry-pick song titles and lyrics. Track 11 is titled “Scandalous Hoes” and features strangely resonant lyrics such as:
Females I don’t trust ‘em, Lord knows I don’t love ‘em
I fuck ‘em, I don’t cuff ‘em, I swear they nothin but trouble
And for that reason there, I keep my shit in my pants
Because (I, cain’t, stand you scandalous hoes)And later:
What’s my business is my business, don’t worry ’bout how I’m livin
I’m gettin it how I’m gettin it, you should do the same
These haters hate, they mad cause I’m gettin cake
That’s why (I, cain’t, stand you scandalous hoes)
Of course, this is all just a spurious connection I am drawing and I don’t realistically believe Mike Jones the rapper has anything to do with Mike Jones the male prostitute (although, hey who knows). But it’s funny the power names have and the ways they can get mixed up between people, and the ways in which we can project all kinds of meanings into the unlikeliest places.
- Mike:
- Mike Ruppert’s Truth & Lies of 9/11
- Mike starts writing… and its good!
- Turkey & Gravy flavored soda
- Mike:
- Prev: Ted Haggard, Meth Hero!
- Next: Podcast 08: Election Day
November 7th, 2006 at 1:21 am
I cross-posted this to MySpace before posting it here. And received a good response, which I wanted to share. It’s from a user named “Angelguts”, who writes:
And the response which I wrote:
—
Hi Angelguts:
Yes, I’m familiar with the term apophenia, and I have written about it extensively. I recommend checking it out:
http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2005/09/13/psychosis-the-occult/
My problem with the standard definition of apophenia is that it usually is given as something like “seeing patterns and connections where none exist”. That whole bit about them not existing is rather problematic. Because how can we prove that they don’t exist? We can’t. And more importantly, we can prove that they *do* exist - simply because we have noticed them.
They may not be ordinary or rational types of connections or patterns, but they are connections and patterns nonetheless. They *exist* when we notice them and don’t when we don’t.
Furthermore, it could realistically be argued that ALL of human knowledge and consciousness is a form of apophenia - because our entire mental realm is predicated upon drawing connections between things. Even more specifically, on drawing connections between our internal thoughts and emotions to external objects. How can we ever really be sure these outer things actually correlate to our inner states? We can’t. We have no way of knowing for sure, because we are trying to measure the instrument with itself!
November 7th, 2006 at 11:39 am
Yes I agree, this dude aka Jones is some sort of strange.
I guess he is just trying to market himself and his album no metter what.
This story is very entertaining.
Thank you for sharing this story with me !
November 7th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
I’m pretty much 100% sure that comment above is spam, but I think it’s so weird that I wanted to keep it
November 7th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
By the by - Screwed and Chopped is hip hop re-mixing term, for a specific style of re-mixing.
November 7th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
Still funny
November 7th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
When I read the title: “Who is Mike Jones?” in the beginning I wondered why you would be talking about a rapper on the website since I listened to that song…a lot.
November 8th, 2006 at 8:18 am
In my experience, people see the non-linearity of the process and reduce it to free-association nonsense.
On those rare occasions that I point out connections in a lucid and organized manner, I usually hit a wall. If I’m lucky, it’s blank stares or a change of subject. Other times, I’m percieved to be desulsional, ill, or “high.”
I think that those who can detect and process a higher order of coherence out of certain non-linear, multicontextual thinking processes AND function properly in the consensus reality embody what the Temperance Tarot key represents (to me) :it depicts an angel with one foot on the water and one foot on the ground: http://dim.com/~randl/tree/esa/samech.jpg
JKr
November 9th, 2006 at 6:25 pm
lol..
swisha is swisher sweets, cigars… you use em for rollin herb…
and ballin is having money… or the act of spending it…
and yeah chopped & screwed is remixed, but basically like playin a 45rpm record on 33rpm, mad slow….
i do like the idea of how easy it is to make connections when you have a narative though
one
human?