GmonE

GmonE (a.k.a. Gregory Baughman) is an underground artist who has created his own unique urban sound by combining rap, hip hop, funk and jazz. The 28-year-old Canton, Ohio-area native -- a self-described “average guy from the suburbs” -- has repeatedly been discouraged from trying to succeed in a urban musical genre. But his lyrics, which focus primarily on relationships with women and just plain having fun, are more appealing to a mainstream audience than harrowing tales of gang warfare, domestic violence and prison life. “I’m not talking about shooting people, killing people,” he says. “I maintain a positive vibe.” As a child, GmonE remembers listening to anything he could get his hands on -- a diverse mix ranging from The Fat Boys and LL Cool J to Poison -- in his toy tape recorder and staging concerts for friends and family members. By the time he was in grade school, he was writing poetry good enough to win a state competition and studying the saxophone. He quickly discovered that he wasn’t a musician in the traditional sense. “You could put anything in my hands, and I could make music with it, but not to its fullest potential,” he admits. “I wouldn’t say I’m a master of any instrument but myself.” GmonE continued writing poetry and began reading his poems to rap songs. He received some validation of his talents during cipher sessions with other students at the University of Cincinnati, where he enrolled to study aerospace engineering. Those who thought a suburbanite couldn’t rap changed their minds after hearing him in action. “They were like, ‘Yo, you got skills, you got flow!’” GmonE returned to the Canton area and worked a series of jobs, everything from a BMW dealership carporter to a telemarketer to a waiter. During that period he met national recording artist and fellow Canton-area native Big Balls (a.k.a. Mike Owens). Under his tutelage, GmonE honed his songwriting and performance skills, appearing both alone and with Paleface Players, the group he formed with Big Balls. GmonE has performed both alone and with the likes of the late Roger Troutman of Zapp and Zapp & Roger, Sticky Fingaz and Luni Coleone. His first CD, “The G Spot,” features two-time Grammy winner Billy Beck of The Ohio Players, Blaq Rose of LeVert II and Big Balls. Such successes once seemed unlikely. Yet GmonE persevered, driven by a constant vision of his father, a promising Triple A pitcher who gave up his dream of making the Philadelphia Phillies to join the Army and support his fledgling family. “I can see it in his eyes, that he’s just not satisfied, that he lives with the regret,” GmonE says. “That’s my main ambition in life: to not live with that regret. I’ve always seen myself performing for people. Now I finally have a product.”