KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas city raised and Grammy-nominated music producer is putting the Kansas City area in the limelight.
You can find Joseph “Jo Blaq” Macklin in his studio in Northmoor.
“I’ve been blessed to work with people like Ariana Grande, Jill Scott, Justin Bieber and Stevie Wonder,” he said.
But now, he’s putting himself and Kansas City front and center, with his new album "Blaq Gold" — shot and produced in the Kansas City area.
“I wanted to have something soulful and [that] represented the jazz culture,” Macklin said.
Macklin also wanted to highlight that there's much more to the Kansas City area than meets the eye.
“A lot of people think KC is farmland and all this crazy stuff,” he said. “But our city is big like anybody else and our people are amazing.”
He also highlighted his father and the rich diversity in the Kansas City area on the album.
“We are a world of different cultures, different background and different ethnicities," he said. "I wanted to make sure we embodied that and show that part of Kansas City.”
He did so in his song “Imgredients” with lines like: “‘I know it’s hard for you to grow when you don’t know who you are.’ I think the very best thing for healing to start is to go back and learn your history, even your family history there are a lot of things that we don’t know have been passed onto us that we need to address. I think the healing starts there.”
