Jarekus Singleton was a college basketball star, the NAIA player of the year in 2007. Today he’s a rising blues star who brings to his music much of what he brought to the basketball court.
“I take the same mentality I had in basketball, as far as work ethic and stuff,” Singleton said in a recent phone interview. “Music is more of an emotional thing to me. It’s therapeutic as well. Basketball, it’s more the competition thing. I’ve got to run faster than that guy, I’ve got to jump higher. With music, I don’t have to jump higher than anybody; I just play the music.”
Singleton draws some parallels between hoops and music.
“I look at writing songs like watching film or running a play, putting the pieces of the puzzle together, the X’s and O’s,” he said. “I look at the band members as my teammates. It’s the same, but different.”
So who’s the coach?
“Bruce Iglauer, of course,” Singleton said of the Alligator Records president. “He’s a great coach, man. He’s accelerated my maturity a lot when it comes to music, being an artist and writing. He challenged me in the studio and had me doing stuff vocally I didn’t know that I could do. With his traditional approach and my modern, contemporary approach, it’s a really good mix.”
That mixture can be heard on Refuse to Lose, Singleton’s Alligator debut, which was co-produced by Iglauer. This disc is filled with Singleton’s combination of incendiary guitar, soulful vocals and contemporary hip-hop-influenced songs.
Those songs likely wouldn’t have existed except for a severe ankle injury that ended Singleton’s basketball career and sent him to the blues.
Singleton grew up in Mississippi, discovering music and basketball almost simultaneously. “When I was 9 years old, I started playing bass at my granddaddy’s church and I was playing basketball at the same time,” he said. “Music was forced on me at the beginning. Basketball wasn’t.”
After high school, the 6-foot-3-inch Singleton landed at the University of Southern Mississippi, then transferred to William Carey University with basketball and only basketball on his mind.
“It was so hard for me to keep my grades up, do study hall, do basketball, do weights, all of that. I didn’t have any time for music in college,” he said. “I was focused on basketball. I was rapping and stuff back then, having fun with music rather than being an artist.”
Singleton then spent 2008 playing with the Sporting Fatoons, a professional team in Beirut, Lebanon, a hotbed of basketball where many aspiring and former NBA ballers go to play.
“I was scared; there ain’t no lying to you,” Singleton said of his time in Lebanon. “I was following my dream. I had to do what I needed to do.”
Then came the 2009 NBA tryout camp that changed Singleton’s life when he got hurt in a scrimmage.
“I came down on my ankle wrong,” Singleton said. “It was a freak accident. I was going up for a layup and the guy ran up under me trying to draw a charge. He didn’t mean to do it. I got an x-ray and the doctor said it was OK. But it kept hurting and I got an MRI and it showed the cartilage had to be removed.”
The cartilage was successfully removed. Singleton, however, continued to have pain in his ankle, which effectively ended his basketball dream.
By the time he determined his years on the court were over, he’d found his new direction.
“When I had surgery, I laid up in my bed,” Singleton said. “I went to my mama’s house and I had my guitar there. The first song I played was Albert King’s ‘Play The Blues For You.’ I’d play that song over and over, laying there in the bed with my foot up to prevent blood clot … That’s what got me through the surgery.”
He started writing songs which were grounded in traditional blues, though his autobiographical lyrics, which detail his hoop dreams, are largely rooted in hip-hop.
“That’s where I get my lyrical ability from is being a rapper, watching rappers, being a fan of the music,” he said. “The way they put words together is top notch. They challenge your mind. That’s what I always like as a fan of music. I try to write the story but write in a way that people can be challenged and feel good about it at the same time, push the envelope a little.”
Singleton put his band together in 2010, released his first album in 2011 and began competing in the International Blues Challenge showcases held annually in Memphis. That’s where Iglauer discovered Singleton.
And whether it was in basketball or now as a professional musician, the title of Refuse to Lose rings true, summing up Singleton’s philosophy for his life and a career that figures to win over blues fans with every show.
Jarekus Singleton plays the Cedarburg Cultural Center on Saturday, Jan. 16 at 7:30 p.m.
