It’s been almost a year since I first wrote about Ronald Jenkees and his “unique mix of nerd, Kentucky hick, and spare bedroom hip-hop gangsta.” At the time, I was not only mesmerized by Ronald’s genius keyboard skills, but the unique YouTube personality that is “Ronald Jenkees.”
But over the past 4 months or an undercurrent of controversy surrounding Jenkees has started to creep to the surface. It seems there are quite a few people who have a problem with Jenkees’ persona on YouTube. In fact, some of them think that Ronald Jenkees is a blatantly fake character, that was created with the sole intention of gaming the YouTube crowd.
This has led to lively discussions in forums, Fresh Peel comments, and in the YouTube comments section.
Out of all comments I’ve read in regards to Jenkees, very few criticize his music. The point of confrontation seems to always stem from differing opinions of just how authentic Ronald Jenkees is.
I’ve found there to be three very different opinions on Ronald’s authenticity:
- Ronald Jenkees is an outright fake.
- Ronald Jenkees is a talented musician that has created stage personality.
- Ronald Jenkees is totally authentic. All the hats, funny voice, and stupid sayings are 100% Jenkees.
This again begs the question, what is the true definition of authenticity?
Is there no place in the conversation age for characters, fictional stories and stage names? Must everything be presented with a disclaimer in order to truly be authentic?
If that’s the case, transparency could make things pretty boring.
—
What do you think?
One of my favourite ever web personalities is Sacrum. http://www.thekaiser-edition.com/topics/author-sacrum/page/5/
Not only could he do and say things that “real” people would not dare to, he willingly pushed the limits of credibility and storytelling. In the end, when he was “killed off”, it didn’t matter. I still grieved in some small way for the loss.
While he may not have been “real”, my emotional attachment to him was. And my online world is smaller because he no longer inhabits it.
Personas are everywhere, though, aren’t they? We speak differently to our bosses than to our employees. We speak differently to perspective love interests than to those we love. The interesting thing is that personas tend to deteriorate with time. There’s no escaping the real you!
yeah he plays with fake prescription glasses 1 inch thick too. are you retarded?
Despite all the controversy and disagreement about the persona, I think we can all agree that the man’s talented!
Youve obviously never met a music nerd before. Ive seen stranger types than this who are alot more buttoned down and play jams that are so far off from what youd expect. He may just be an eccentric who found his thing in life that he has a natural mastery of. I think hes genuine to tell you the truth. I used to hang with kids like this in highschool who would stay after class in the band room til 9pm playing the jams their parents wouldnt let them listen to. But even if he is just a persona, the man can play!
Sorry but I don’t belive for one second this blogger has much personal interest in Jenkees or the man behind the show. More up on those hits from google, yeah?
That said. His shit is good no matter how you look at it. He is a MULTI-talented artist. All aspects of what this man does merit many a discussions but how sad and SO typical that the focus is a hit-getting “contraversy” and not the brilliant show he gives us “youtubes”. Upload more ads and cash in mate! Maybe do a 3rd blog?
Akeem,
Charging money for mp3 downloads isn’t cashing in?
Not to mention doing it with songs you don’t own copyrights to. (ie. “Rocky Remix”)
Get real, at least this blog doesn’t claim to be all for fun. All the while taxing a dollar for each “original” work you download for your personal enjoyment.
But seriously the first blog posted Jenkees subscribers at 5 or 6 thousand, as of now he has over 50,000 and this blog helped promote him no matter how you try and spin it.
Sorry but I don’t think Jenkees gives a shit about his fans, the fact that he wont address this clear cut issue after all this time is only more evidence that he’s running the act for monetary gains. Another would be the fact that his album is available for free on the torrent networks but he never once mentions this or links you to anything buy the purchasing page. He only states that sharing his music is okay.
I guess fooling the already befuddled masses into purchasing digital music (that should be available for free if it truly is SOOO much fun to make) falls under ‘okay’ in Ronald’s morality book as well.
You do NOT need to be the copyright holder to monetize a remix or cover. He encourages every fan to be creative and just enjoy music. Saying he doesn’t care about fans is the stupidest thing i’I’ve heard on the internet ever, and that’s saying a lot.
I suppose you think Kanye cares about his fans, since he writes 100% original songs, and is 100% not fake… oh wait…
He may be playing up “Idiot Savant” as a character… but you sir… are the true imbecile.
With Ronald Jenkees, what you see is what you get. He is 100% genuine. For anyone who might think otherwise, look at this video on youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-QCA9Ta9N4, and tell me that he’s faking it. There is no way he is faking anything.
There’s an intrinsic quality that escapes viewers of musicians two feet away and 200,000 miles away. it was the case with “fun-two” and other music personalities that followed. You become a dancer at a certain level.
Dancers know-just like magicians- the art of illusion.
-the ability to portray that you are doing two things that are scientificly only possible doing one at a time.
Poof! At this point you’re worthy to be called an entertainer.
Ronald Jenkees is as humble and as entertaining as it gets.
He calls it “fun”. But in actuallity the man is balls-to-the-wall Hard Work.
His monetary gains are simply tacked on to his giving to the YouTube community way before a thought of his CDs succeeding in this iTunes world would even work!
Anybody that complains about Jenkees is deep-down just asking “How does one not be miserable in life?” Jenkees not only answers that but takes you beyond your current level of awareness. Thats a true genius. And he did it by being a student “fun” not “music”.
Jealousy is ugly.
If you look at all of the videos that Ronald has posted from the beginning you’ll see that this guy was posting stupid “daily life” videos LONG before he started posting his incredible music.
Also, I don’t think it’s realistic that someone would plan for well over a year to create a bogus persona just to muster hits on Youtube. He’s just a talented musician who is a little eccentric. I could listen to his stuff all day long, the fact that he has that mix of “geek, Kentcucky redneck, and spare-bedroom gangsta” going on just adds to the wonder of his music.
Jay,
I’m going to guess that you voted for Obama in this election cycle? Do you really believe that RJ should not be able to make money for his talent, and that just because he has fun making music, he should have to give it away to not be labeled a fraud by the likes of you? Give me a break man. You’d sell it to if you had half the talent he has.
Whoever’s responsible for the music is talented and inspired. I personally don’t care about the personality, unless it’s just a complete asshole, racist, etc.
By the way, you know what really “begs” the question? Why people continue to think that “beg the question” is equivalent to “raise the question.” Or how some folks freely exchange “your” and “you’re” indiscriminately. Stuff like that really raises the question: Have the verbal communication standards expected to be met by those who work in advertising/design really sunk so low so quickly? It’s amazing.
Sorry, man; just really gets on my nerves.
I think he’s great. A lot of people with a lot less talent than him are making millions. I hope he goeas as far in life as he wants to.
….. fake or not fake ……. who cares! The man is good at what he does. If someone can make a fool of them selves and still be taken seriously on youtube… wow!! E-Props!!
p.s. I bought 2 of cd’s all ready.
Finally a youtube video that shows how Ronald Jenkees is a fake.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlXJsd9BT20
Spread this vid.
Here is the new video for Ronald Jenkees’ “Loui”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcMIf70fAHU
Enjoy
RJ is totally legit. This is exactly how he is when he’s making youtube videos, simple as that. A goofy guy will be more goofy to entertain people on camera. A corny guy will be more corny to entertain people on camera. The fact that he hasn’t “addressed” the authenticity issue for his fans isn’t controversial to anyone who enjoys what he does. It irritates the naysayers, though. He’s under no obligation to answer critics of any kind nor does he have to abide by anyone’s idea of what ought to be done besides his own. Whatever happened to the land of opportunity? He saw one and he took it. All of this shrill bleating from the peanut gallery reminds me of those people who spent their free time screaming themselves purple and hoarse that all that WWF wrestling was fake. The WWF didn’t bother to answer those clowns, either. They had a vision and they had a job to do, and replying to self-appointed authenticity experts wasn’t in the job description. RJ is just as fake as everyone else is. He’s on camera, he knows it, and he has a job to do…and he just happens to love it so much that it’s spreading all over the world.
Always this fascination with peeking to see what’s behind the curtain! Whatever the case may be concerning his “true identity/personality,” Jenkees is a wizard on the keys. If he affects a fake personality to get more attention, that just makes him a good salesman, because clearly people are paying attention.
If it’s all him, hey, he’s cool in my book.
who gives a f***? if he’s real, fake, or an alien, does this alter the sound waves coming out of your speakers? shut the f*** up.