Mike Jones Lives "The American Dream"

When rapper Mike Jones needed advice on marketing, he went directly to someone he trusted: his grandmother.

It was her idea for Jones to use his real name instead of a stage name. It was her idea for him to name-check himself in his songs. It was also her idea for him to market himself in a not-so-grandmotherly venue.

"My grandmother told me to hit the strip clubs with my music, so I hit the strip clubs and it started really taking off. Then the DJs was, like, at first not showing me love, saying 'Who is Mike Jones?'," Jones told The Showbuzz. "I used to tell her and she said, 'use that Mike Jones who?' I didn't want to say my name over and over again, but I wound up doing that and it took off."

Jones also handed out shirts with the words "Property of Mike Jones" printed on the front and his cell phone number on the back.

"She said, 'that way the fans can reach out and call Mike Jones, that's how you can be accessible to people,'" Jones said. "I get crazy calls all the time. People call me all the time. It's crazy, but it's all love mainly."

The Houston-born rapper achieved mainstream success with his 2005 double platinum debut album, "Who is Mike Jones?" which included his singles "Still Tippin'," featuring Paul Wall and Slim Thug, and "Back Then."

His sophomore album, "The American Dream," comes out April 3, packaged with a feature film on DVD loosely based on his life.

"The whole concept of 'The American Dream' is basically showing that I'm a guy that came from nothing to having something — like a zero to a hero," he said. "Now I'm able to finally live the American dream. To have good space, have money, not want for nothin' and being able to help other people with the dream that I've accomplished. At the same time I put a movie together and I want people to see how I really came up, where hopefully the movie will motivate people to ... go live the American dream themselves."

He continues the theme in the album's first single, "Mr. Jones." The video for the track uses a split screen to show the two sides of Mike Jones.

"The 'Mr. Jones' single is about me coming from nothing to something and when I finally came to something I wanted to let the world know I didn't forget where I came from," he said. "When I came up with the video concept, I wanted to show Mike Jones, who's an average guy, an average person, and Mr. Jones who finally made it and is all about business and when you put both of them together you got me."

One thing that Jones said he's left behind is his former beef with fellow Houston rapper Chamillionaire.

"That was way back; we both was young, we both said stuff at the time," Jones said. "Now we cool. I see him, he see's me. It's all good. Now it's all love."

In addition to the release of his album and movie, Jones was featured on the Fox TV show "Prison Break," and has his own night club in Houston called Ice Age.

Jones' grandmother, Elsia Mae Jones, passed away in 2003, before the rapper achieved his current level of success.

"I always told her that I was going to give back to her, buy her a house and everything, but she died before I really took off," he said.

He acknowledges, though, that somewhere she's looking down on him, proud that people are learning exactly who her grandson is.

By Judy Faber