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Houston hip-hop and R&B artist. Every record written, produced, engineered, mixed, and mastered by Ray himself. Over 2 million streams across all platforms. "Trail Rides" was added to TIDAL editorial's Best New R&B playlist. Featured on Lyrical Lemonade. Recognized by TDE, Slim Thug, and Paul Wall. Distributed through Roc Nation Distribution; Ray owns his masters. Founder of From The Soil, LLC.
Ray Jones was nine when his mother, putting herself through barber college, brought home a folder of hundreds of CDs from her shop: Michael Jackson, Prince, Outkast, A Tribe Called Quest, Minnie Riperton, Curtis Mayfield, Whitney Houston, Mary J. Blige. That folder became his foundation. Not long after, he heard Kanye West's The College Dropout at the library and started writing his own life over those beats in a journal. At thirteen, a guy in his Acres Homes neighborhood gave him a copy of FL Studio, and his godfather, a former recording artist, taught him song structure, sound selection, and the business.
His debut Somas and Salem 100's (2014) took its name from the muscle relaxers and cigarettes his late grandmother kept close. Chasing a deal, he moved to Chicago, where he landed an extra's role in Spike Lee's Chi-Raq and recorded Vol. 2 before coming home. A country club regular's standing refrain, "you can be in my position one day, only time will tell," became Only Time Will Tell (2016). Its viral single "I'm On" drew recognition from TDE and Houston legends Slim Thug and Paul Wall, and a Vince Staples retweet during VMA weekend introduced the music to a new wave of listeners. Labels called; Ray chose himself. A year of guitar and vocal lessons shaped Sophia's Beach House (2017), whose track "After Dark" was featured on Indie Shuffle. After a road trip to LA came Acres Homes (2019), rooted in the neighborhood that raised him and featured in Lyrical Lemonade.
In 2023 he worked professionally in touring operations and artist support through a major arena tour cycle. In 2025 he returned with "Trail Rides," added to TIDAL editorial's Best New R&B playlist, followed by the EP I Guess Summer's Over with "Empty Habits." Now he is finishing his sixth project: Nobody Loves a Genius Child, a ten-song album named after the Langston Hughes poem "Genius Child," reflecting everything the come-up has cost and taught. From the soil, still rising.
Ray Jones is a Houston, TX hip-hop and R&B artist who does it all himself. He writes, raps, sings, produces, engineers, mixes, and masters his own music. That hands-on approach has defined his catalog since he dropped Somas and Salem 100's in 2014, moved to Chicago long enough to record its sequel and appear as an extra in Spike Lee's Chi-Raq, and returned home to release Only Time Will Tell (2016) and the vocally focused Sophia's Beach House (2017), for which he taught himself guitar and took vocal lessons. In 2019 he released Acres Homes, an album rooted in the Houston neighborhood that raised him. His music has been featured in Lyrical Lemonade, and his song "Trail Rides" was added to TIDAL's Best New R&B playlist. Along the way, he's earned love from Slim Thug, Paul Wall, David Banner, and Nick Grant. A 2016 Vince Staples retweet during VMA weekend introduced his work to a new wave of listeners. He's focused now on the next chapter: sharper writing, fuller production, and songs built to sit with you.
“Ray Jones wants you to know he didn’t give up. Ray Jones wants you to know he did it all by himself. Ray Jones wants you to know it’s possible.”Ray Jones, on the release of Sophia’s Beach House
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