Among the thousands of students at school, many of them carry aspiring dreams and ambitious passions. Some even pursue their passions while still in high school. At school, the electronic music class enables students with a particular interest in music production to enhance their music-producing skills. I met with three students who are currently pursuing careers in music.  

Jaime Jamarillo III, a senior, is a music producer known as Juniior Produced It.  Born on July 20, 2006 in Fairfield, CA, he grew

up in Stockton for most of his life. He has worked with numerous artists such as JayDaYoungan, SOB X RBE, and members of EBK. He’s currently signed under Sony Music.

Seniors, Anthony Ramirez and Paris Houston, both are from Stockton.They are a part of a band called WESTCLIFFHOLT, creating rap and hip-hop music. WESTCLIFFHOST has released 4 singles, 1 EP, and 1 album (as of March 2023), with their latest release being a single titled “Can I Pwease Be On The Breakfast Club”. Their music is available to listen to on Apple Music, Spotify, Soundcloud, and YouTube. My personal favorite songs are “Sweet Music” and “IMAGINATION”.

Jaime started his career because he “loved music” as it was “my way of expressing myself,” he says. “I was just in a dark time, and I really love music. I was like, let me get a computer and start making some beats.” Currently, he produces from home and goes to recording studios. Meanwhile, Paris started his career when his friend wanted to make a video game and needed someone to make music for it.  “To be honest, I never really had the idea of doing music,” Paris describes. “I just did it because my friend needed me and then after a while I was just bored. I met other friends that wanted beats so I kept producing.”  He met Anthony during their freshman year and started making music together.  Anthony says that they “were trash at first” but “once quarantine [hit], we didn’t have anything to do so we kept grinding.” 

Their goal of not being broke is something we can all relate to because who wants to be broke? More specifically, Jaime aspires to

become “a DJ Khaled type of figure” similar to “Metro Boomin” as well, which are two notable figures in the music-producing industry. Some of us may be familiar with DJ Khaled and Metro Boomin. We hear their producer tags (words/phrases that producers input in a song to let listeners know that the song was produced by them) in famous artists’ songs, such as Drake, Chris Brown, Future, and Justin Bieber. “It’s not basically the producers aren’t getting credit, they’re getting a lot of credit,” Jaime adds. “I feel like they’re making boundaries, and I want to go deeper than that.” For the members of WESTCLIFFHOLT, their goals are quite straightforward. Paris Houston wants to work “with the most random people like Morgan Freeman, Will Smith” and Anthony Ramirez wants to “tour a lot.” Anthony describes, “I want to travel around the world and tour with a bunch of crazy crowds. That’s my main goal.”

I concluded the interview by asking them to give advice to other students on pursuing your dreams: 

1. “What is your advice to other students on pursuing their dreams?”

Jaime Jaramillo III: “I feel like everyone has the potential to do it. It’s just, are you willing to sacrifice working on it? Because I’ve lost countless years of my life just staying in my room. You got to be prepared to make the sacrifice. If you’re not going to put effort in, then you’re not going to see no outcome. So, just be prepared.”

Paris Houston: “I think you got to get over the fear of being corny. Making music is lowkey corny, being yourself is corny, so get over the fear of being corny and just try to have fun with it. And work hard. It’s not corny to me to work hard.”

Anthony Ramirez: “I think you should start as soon as possible. A lot of artists be starting now, and think they’re hot right now. But really they’re not. They’ll start right now, and then there [will be] a freshman that’s starting right now, and that freshman will be way better.”

Paris and Jamie added in by saying,

Paris Houston: “Because the person that started right now got to deal with work after high school and the freshman is still in school.”

Jaime Jaramillo III: “Less responsibility.”

WESTCLIFFHOLT and Juniior Produced It are currently working on a project together set to be released in the future, the latest being in August.  They gave me a sneak peek of their project titled, “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” They teased that

we can “expect something crazy,” but kept it real by saying that “or it can be garbage.”  Jaime concluded, “If it’s trash, best believe we’re not dropping it.”

The Lincolnian staff wishes the three of them good luck on their careers! If you have something you want to pursue, start doing it now. What are you waiting for?