Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series. 
 
BATTLE CREEK, MI — Ramone Jay Person is filling the many losses in his life with art and music through RealLifeProductions (RLP), the nonprofit he founded to offer others opportunities to unleash the artist in them as a way to thrive.
 
His own unleashing began after the murders of his brother in 2008, his biological mother in 2009, and his sister, Tianna Hunt, in 2015. His brother died in East Lansing where he was operating a recording studio. His mother was stabbed to death at Liberty Market. His sister was shot to death by her boyfriend outside of her home in Battle Creek.
 
“I was hospitalized in 2015. When Tianna was murdered, I tried to kill myself,” Person says. “I was dealt a really crappy hand. It was going to mold me or I was going to mold it.”
 
He chose the latter and has thrown himself into mentoring those who want to fulfill their artistic aspirations. This, he says, is his way of moving forward from the traumatic events in his life. His artist's name is #Solid.

Ramone Jay Person runs RealLife Productions, Inc."I came up with the artist name #Solid because in my lifetime. I have had to make really tough decisions and this may sound weird. But being there for someone else & helping people no matter how much time it takes. Is really the way to feeling wholesome and #Solid."

To work with clients, he literally meets them where they are because he does not yet have a physical location for RLP
 
“I meet up with other creatives and go to their studios. I’ve actually had people try to get me to come to their homes and their properties to build actual studios,” Person said while taking a break from work he was doing to secure a location in southern Michigan to build a studio.
 
RLP began to take shape in Northern Michigan when Person, 29, moved there several years ago from Battle Creek where he was born and raised. The move was a result of his now ex-wife’s decision to be geographically closer to her mother. The couple share a six-year-old daughter and Jay also has a daughter, 11, who was born when he was 17.
 
“Originally, we moved to Charlevoix and I also spent some time in East Jordan and that’s when I was able to put out music professionally. I got a feel for what my company would look like to work one-on-one with different artists. I would be able to look up DBAs (Doing Business As); how to talk to them about different venues; and look through contracts to make sure they’re not getting scammed.”
 
He also became a vendor at different festivals in Michigan and worked with the DJ.FEST app and appeared on the South of the Straits podcast broadcast from Traverse City. He says he spoke to women who were listening to his music while going through trauma like divorce and rape therapy and men who were going through custody battles.
 
In 2020, he moved back to Battle Creek where he found work with tree-cutting companies in the warmer weather and factories in the winter. This is how he supports himself and his daughters while continuing his commitment to shore up RLP.
 
Through Battle Creek’s Small Business Development office, he was connected with a Northern Initiatives location in the city.
 
“I’m working on trying to find funding to manifest this dream,” Jay says. “The jobs that pay the bills are part-time. My career is full-time.”
 
In August, he participated in the New Wave Festival at Leila Arboretum and continues to connect with creatives in the Battle Creek area.
 
A self-taught creative
 
Person dropped out of Battle Creek Central High School in 2014, the year he was meant to graduate, to care for his newborn daughter. He attended trade school and found work with area roofing companies followed by tree service companies.
 
Adopted as a baby, his name was changed to Brent Allyn Person. His adoptive mother was a pianist and his father served as a minister at several area churches, the last one being Grace Missionary Baptist Church. He was the youngest of 14; many of them were nieces and nephews who he refers to as brothers and sisters from a “weird, crooked” family tree. This led to the moniker he was given, Young Solid because he says he was the youngest and “solid as a brick.”
 
Caption: Ramone Jay Person, aka #SolidHis adoptive mother enrolled him in the Sojourner Truth Children’s Choir and Branch Gymnastics and he also took acting classes in high school. It was during his youth that he developed a love of poetry and classical music and was using audio therapy to get him through the Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder he was dealing with.
 
“I feel like music is the universal language of love and peace. I remember having a Walkman and I’d rap my raps over old beats,” Person says. “When I saw my brother building his studio, I figured out how to do it myself. You don’t have to be super cool or super popular, it’s all expression. A lot of people are tied down by unneeded pressure.”
 
Augmenting learning through organizations and at school, he took deeper dives into areas that interested him including photography, technology, and writing. He sought out mentors and says the late Kirk Latimer, co-founder and Education Director of Speak It Forward, was a huge support to him.
 
“I got my dream because of Kirk. He believed in me.”
 
Ramone Jay Person runs RealLife Productions, Inc.In the tributes to Latimer posted on social media after his death in 2020 at the age of 40, there was a common theme. He helped people when they were at their lowest point, in a dark place, when they needed someone to let them know they were important to this world.

This was true with Person who wants to pass on what he learned from Latimer.
 
“I meet people wherever they are and help them with what they need,” he says. “I’ll be learning from them while they learn from me. I want to provide a safe space for them to cry and be vulnerable. I want to be that person in their ear saying I believe in you and you can do it.”