Malcolm Jones was born in Chicago March 6, 1974. He was raised near Wrigleyville until he & his mother moved to Oak Park when he was still in elementary school. He was very smart & did well in school. He had a big heart & gave freely of his talents & gifts to others. He liked sports, was artistic & could draw sketches that looked like photos… Probably because he was a single child with no father in the home, he liked working with kids in the community. .. teaching them to breakdance, draw, etc., His mother had alcohol addiction issues, she had been in foster care & yet she went on to nursing school & became an RN. He did not want for anything materially & he worked while in high school. Malcolm was biracial, a handsome child & a young man who had lots of friends but did not have any children. He got mixed up in selling marijuana while in high school & he & his mother fought. He left home early & was on the streets. His friend Payton asked his parents if Malcolm could stay with them until they graduated. They talked to his Mom & she agreed. He graduated OPRF high school early & because his mother was moving to California, he seemed to be directionless. He was smoking & working & rapping with his group, ‘DaStink Onion Sounds’ when first out of HS on the West Side of Chg. He kept saying his goal was to go to college but he got busted & had to do 2 yrs of time when he was still a teen. Again, his problem seemed he didn’t have strong family support & feeling he belonged. When he got out from doing his time, he went to Wright College & got his Associates Degree as an Electrician. He also went to Malcolm X & he learned contracting for construction jobs & how to bid for jobs. He was always a hustler & he got a job as a supervisor of a factory that made huge industrial fans. The co owner gave him a truck & the keys to the plant & paid him fairly. Malcolm then began to also take on contractor jobs … he was very good at teaching others & supervising workers. He had so many talents & so much potential but behind the scene he seemed to have a real insecurity. He got into a relationship with his father after he did those 2 years of time. He used to tell me that going into medium security lock up actually saved his life because he didn’t have any structure & he was using drugs…being locked up, he had a lot of time to think about his future. He did very well for several years after he came out, got himself established in his business & began to enjoy life again. But he seemed to never leave and by living in a tough part of the West side where drugs were easily available, he lost accountability to himself. For some years he would go to his fathers house every Sunday to have dinner with him. His father lived on the West side & he had a good business but drank a lot as well. He got Cancer & fought it for a few years…Malcolm would spend time at the hospital sitting with his Dad. Malcolm’s dad passed away shortly before Malcolm also died Like within a few weeks. I think Malcolm had gotten back into drugs & he was working on a restoration of a house in Oak Park. It took him about a year to do the whole job & the city came to inspect & the house passed inspection. That would be a good reason to celebrate 🎉 so he & his ride to die homie got a lot of food from their fav restaurant & went to another school buddy’s house to eat. It was pretty late & Malcolm was going to sleep on the futon while his ride to die went home cause he had to be at work early the next day. Malcolm told no one but he snorted heroine & we believe it was laced with Fentanyl that night. When his friend, whose house he was sleeping at, tried to awaken him the next morning … he was dead. Rigor Mortis had set in. It was such a SAD day for hundreds of people who knew him. They came to his home going where a long line of folks had stories to tell about Malky Jones; Casanova Brown; Redrum, Riff Raff& all the alias’ of Malcolm Ruchel Pierce Jones At Repass, that his friend, whose house he passed at, gave for him, With his jacket wrapped @ a chair, boots on the seat & his cap on the table, his homies made toasts & played his favorite sounds from the evening to the wee hours of the am. Everyone agreed there will never be another like West Side Malcolm J.