In all fairness, it would have been hard to tell Marcus Jones plays in the NFL for those who didn't already know at The Record Co. in the south end of Boston last week.
Still, it gave Keithen Foster a good laugh when a woman asked why Jones and a few others were wearing New England Patriots jerseys at the Covered By Music Foundation's R.E.A.L. workshop.
"The cool part about Marcus is that when he comes into this setting, he's literally Marcus Jones the producer," said Kirjuan Freeman, who along with Foster, started the Covered By Music Foundation that Jones serves on the board of.
"He's Marcus Jones the engineer. He's Marcus Jones the songwriter. He disarms himself in a way where you can think of him outside of just being a football player. He's a creative just like these kids, and he's just as relatable to them as their peers would be. I think that just shifts the perspective of people when they think they sit down with someone like him.
"Kids are able to really connect in a way they probably didn't think. Meeting him is really cool, yeah. But then he's actually able to help you with your songwriting, and he's actually able to produce a beat. Like, the dude actually knows what he's talking about. He does this in real life."
Jones' passion for music has been well-documented since he arrived in the NFL.
He released music before he was even drafted, dropping his latest song "COME THRU" in early June. His 2023 single 'Make It Right' even trended in the Top 10 of the United Kingdom's Music Week Commercial Pop charts.
After getting acquainted with Freeman and Foster, two local musicians and industry professionals, Jones decided to share his gift with more than just listeners by joining the board of Covered By Music, a non-profit dedicated to nurturing the next generation of creatives and showing them what's possible.
The Realistic Expectations for Artists & Leaders (R.E.A.L.) workshop was programming they had in mind since the foundation's inception.
"It was something that we imagined in the programming structure when we started Covered By Music," Freeman said.
"The idea was to give a real, stimulating, concentrated touch point for aspiring creators to see all the different phases in the journey of making music – whether they are just coming into a particular talent, just graduating college, or looking to explore how to deepen their talent. This program has just been our North Star in all honesty."
The three-day program was just a pilot for the R.E.A.L. workshop that Covered By Music plans to continue. The goal was to give local students, ages 13 to 18, a sneak peek into how the music industry works from accomplished instructors. Thanks to Foster and Freeman's network, kids learned from the best.
While Freeman served as the program director, Jones helped gather sponsorship partners like Bose, Boston Medical Center, and Cali Water, and was hands-on with the students at the event.
Foster, a Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum-selling producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist in his own right, was featured as one of the educators. That group also included Grammy-winning producer, songwriter, and professor D. Arcelious 'Swagg' Harris, Grammy-winning writer and vocalist Keli Nicole Price, educator, musical director, arranger, and musician Alonzo 'Zo' Harris, as well as international radio personality DJ Pup Dawg.
Between the five of them, they've worked with renowned artists like H.E.R., Nipsey Hussle, Timbaland, Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Wyclef Jean, Erykah Badu, Lenny Kravitz, Aretha Franklin, J. Cole, Alicia Keys, Sean Paul and more.
"I'm in the music space, and I know a lot of the ins and outs, so we're trying to help give these kids the knowledge of what goes on in the music industry, what jobs come with it, and just information they wouldn't have otherwise," Jones said at the workshop.
"We have people in the industry -- Grammy-award-winning instructors, educating them in ways school or a class never could."
With the programming structure, they showed kids how to make music from scratch. It was a lesson that Jones hopes they carry beyond music -- the ability to make something from nothing -- and one of the many analogies he makes between football and music.
"I love being a creator, whether it's on the field or in music," Jones said.
"I see football as an art as well, knowing how to make plays, all that stuff. And when it comes to producing and songwriting – you're starting from scratch. It's an idea that builds and eventually comes together, so having kids know how to start something from the bottom up is very important in life. Hard work, dedication, staying down, and messing up. You can't be a perfectionist. The saying I live by is practice makes permanent. People say practice makes perfect. I don't. Perfection is never going to happen."
The workshop wrapped up on Friday, -- a massive success that went better than the organizers had even hoped it would. While Jones will take a temporary step back as the football season ramps back up, the pieces are in place for Covered By Music to build off the momentum of the program's success.
"I would definitely say he's an anchor to all of it," Freeman said of Jones.
"He's the glue – not only because of who he is or what he does on the field, being this Mr. Versatile – but he's able to adapt those same skills to help us. It's a testament to who he is and what he's done. This community work will not only pay dividends for him in the long term, but it's going to help change these kids' lives. They'll remember this forever and it's not without him. He's going to continue to make this successful."
Learn more about Covered By Music here.
