Marvin "Krondon" Jones III, member of Strong Arm Steady.
To some Krondon is just Marvin Jones III, that bad guy from that show on Netflix. For many others, he is just that Albino guy that's in all those videos. For the heads he's the razor sharp West Coast Emcee that is part of The Strong Arm Steady Gang.
For many the emergence of Krondon would be on Strong Arm Steady's member Xzibit's fifth album "Weapons of Mass Destruction." The album includes Krondon on 5 tracks including "Criminal Set." "Klack," and "Beware of Us." Previous to this some knew of him from the SAS mixtapes that were tearing up the Westcoast or few larger releases that were floating around
The first time I heard Krondon would be around 2000 on either DJ Rhettmatics - The World Famous Beat Junkies Vol. 2" or DJ Muggs - Presents Soul Assassins II. Rhettmatic's album has the 1998 Krondon track "The Rules" while the Soul Assassin's album has "Heart of the Assassin" with Chace Infinite, Phenam and Ras Kass. Krondon credits the OGs, B Real and Cypress Hill, DJ Quik and Chace in showing him the way and giving him the shot. The Soul Assassins album will be the first officially released album that featured Krondon.
Strong Arm Steady originally consisted of around 8 members making a name for themselves by pioneering the use of mixtapes as the primary method of sales and promotions. The group narrows to 4 including Xzibit, Krondon, Phil Da Agony from LA and Mitchy Slick from San Diego. As the group grows so does the tensions, and eventually Xzibit does what he has tended to do in the past and leaves the group. Krondon has nothing bad to say of Xzibit, and from what I gather Xzibit left over the details of the group signing with Talib Kweli's label Blacksmith Records. From what I gather Xzibit had it right all along, The Strong Arm Steady gets shelved, unable to put out a record for 7 years. The group would release 13 Official Mixtapes, 3 Albums and 3 Eps as well as an extensive solo careers from each member including Krondon's "Everything's Nothing" in 2013.
Krondon is one of my favorite artists coming out of the west, he has managed to remain underground, highly active and consistent while staying relevant. Many artists don't have a 20+ career with the respect and catalog that Krondon has. Part of this I think is due to the company he keeps, he often credits the OG's B Real, Chace Infinite and others like Snoop and DJ Quik for putting him on. The favorite thing I like about him was that at a time he was the West Coasts best kept secret. Without a lot of digging until recently very few knew that Krondon has been ghostwriting hits for Hip Hop and the West for years. He is reluctant to speak on who he has written for but has either been mentioned or mentioned Xzibit, Dom Kennedy, The Clipse, Raekwon, Dre, Snoop and even the golden boy himself Kendrick Lamar.
Krondon has recently dropped a few projects "Green & Gold" with Chase N. Cashe and "neighbourhood Wonderful" with Sa-Ra as White Boiz. About halfway through his newest project, a project that is to be solely produced by Evidence, Krondon got the part in Black Lightning as the villain Tobias White. With the show doing so well, signing a second season I hope he finds time to polish off the album. I have been waiting for the season's finale before jumping into Black Lightning, but from what I hear, he does a great job.
@KRONDON on all social media.
Originally posted on The Hip Hop Librarian.
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