Simone Amelia Jordan is Australia’s most successful hip-hop journalist. It’s a large part of the story she tells in her newly-published memoir, Tell Her She’s Dreamin’.
Of Greek-Cypriot and Lebanese heritage, Simone was born and raised between Australia’s Central Coast and Sydney’s Inner West. At 23, she founded Australia’s first major newsstand magazine dedicated exclusively to hip-hop and R&B, Urban Hitz. Though now defunct, it remains the highest selling local hip-hop and R&B publication to date.
Her time at Urban Hitz was the training ground for the next phase of her career, one that found her in New York. Initially working as the content director for DrJays.com, she then ventured into the world of radio, becoming a host for one of America’s biggest hip-hop networks, Hip Hop Nation. She co-hosted Invasion Radio alongside DJ Green Lantern on SiriusXM. After eight years of hustling, she reached what at the time she considered the pinnacle of her career: becoming the editor of The Source.
The timing of this pinnacle coincided with the height of a private battle she’d been fighting for years. Crohn’s disease had entered Simone's life in her early twenties. While living in New York, she dealt with increasingly severe, stress-induced flare-ups that at times were near-fatal.
After roughly 18-months at The Source, she had to come home to Australia to receive affordable medical treatment. Despite crafting a distinguished career as a host, editor and journalist, leaving The Source when she did was devastating, and a dream cut short. Healing from this heartbreak, she tells Complex AU, took her years. Recovering physically was one thing, but finding a way to reorient her life was another.
Simone stayed in Australia following her recovery. These days, she’s the Director Of Special Projects at Media Diversity Australia, runs Higher Ground Consulting agency, mentors First Nations women and women of colour in entertainment and media, and is the mother of her daughter, Leila. In the seven years she’s been home, both her life and career have continued to flourish.
This is perhaps the core of Tell Her She’s Dreamin’. It’s a story that gives readers a glimpse of what can be achieved when one is bold enough to give their dreams a chance, and equally, what it looks like when those dreams are taken away prematurely. Most importantly, it’s a story about how we can learn to dream again in the aftermath of tragedy, and hold on to the hope that things aren’t over for us.
In an interview with Complex Australia, Simone Amelia Jordan speaks about writing her memoir, career highs and lows, and what her future holds.
Tell me about the process of writing a memoir, there would’ve been so much to recall.
As cliche as this sounds, it was so cathartic. When I came to the end of it, I found it very fulfilling—it felt like a full circle moment in my life. When you reflect on personal and professional highs and lows across decades, the experience is definitely a rollercoaster, but at the end of it, I realised why I’d sat down to do it. I’d also never written creative nonfiction before, so this was a whole new ballgame for me. When I learned about the Richell Prize, I did a crash course in learning what a memoir entailed. Finding a theme that weaved my life together was a big part of it—thinking about what ties my story together. When I was going over old interviews with artists, journal entries, Facebook updates and editor's letters, the idea of having a dream and holding onto your dreams was so prevalent. It actually blew me away.
Was there a part that was particularly tough to write?
There were a couple of parts. Writing about my relationship with someone in New York was one, because I’m married now to someone else, and they’re married to someone else. I didn’t want to disrespect either union, but I felt it was an important stage in my life to share. I learned so much about myself going through that, and hopefully other young women can learn from my lessons. Writing about the loss of my grandmother was extremely difficult, because it hadn’t happened too long ago. So yeah, I'd say those two were probably the two hardest parts for me to write about.
You've had a glittering, extensive career. You’ve interviewed some of the biggest artists in the world as a radio host on Hip Hop Nation, and became the editor of two successful magazines. You're also doing amazing work with Media Diversity Australia. Has there been an ultimate career highlight for you just yet?
Urban Hitz magazine was a huge highlight. I was young and everybody told me that I couldn't do it, and when you prove the naysayers wrong that glory stays with you forever. I was told by countless people that I would never be able to start and sell a newsstand hip-hop and R&B publication in Australia and New Zealand.
A successful career naturally comes with its lows. What was one of yours?
I stressed myself out so much in New York City that I almost killed myself through bad health, by letting my body run ragged. When you're single-minded about pursuing a dream, there’s going to be times when you beat yourself up so badly that you almost don't make it. With the stress I'd put myself under, I kicked off Crohn's disease and had so many near-fatal flare ups of this incurable condition. It literally took my loved ones to pull me out of this almost dream-like state of, “I’m hell-bent on making it in this career.” Without the support of true people in my corner, like my mother and my sister, I don't think I'd be standing here today.
Without your health, there's no dreams and there’s no career—there's nothing. That was the toughest pill for me to swallow, coming home to Australia, and taking advantage of the very enviable healthcare system we have here. But that was so, so hard. I was bitter for a long time.
When you say you were bitter, what did those thoughts look like?
Oh, I felt like I’d worked my way to the mountaintop. I got the role as content director of The Source, and as soon as I got there it was stripped away by ill health. It just felt so unfair and I was angry, angry at myself for letting myself get to the point where I’d run my body ragged. That role came too late in terms of my condition.
So yeah, when I came home to Australia I was angry with the world because I felt that it was a premature ending, even though I'd been there ten years and had major success. I felt I had only scratched the surface of where I could go. And that's a really hard feeling for someone who's dedicated their entire life to their career.
There’s often a lot of pressure put on people to make meaning out of tragedy, which sometimes happens and sometimes doesn’t. All these years later, have you found any meaning in what happened? Or do you think it just is what it is?
Yeah, I still don't know where my life was supposed to go, but I'm just riding through it, pushing through it. Vin Rock from Naughty by Nature is one of my closest friends, he’s in the book a lot. There's a part where he was telling me to go home to Australia, he knew I wasn’t well. He told me I had nothing to be ashamed of and that I’d done incredible things in New York, but that maybe it was time to go home and nurture the next generation—take the skills I learned there back home.
Deep down I knew in many ways he was right, but I’m a stubborn MF and I guess I had to learn the hard way. So look, you make lemonade out of lemons is the saying. I was so fortunate that I was able to come home and meet my beautiful partner in Australia who’s from New York, which is insane in itself. I got to spend my grandmother's—who I call my sita in Arabic—final years with her, which I wouldn't have been able to do if I'd stayed single-minded about my career. I became a mum, which is the greatest blessing. Ideally in this next phase, I’m going to continue to mentor and help professionally develop women in the music industry from marginalised backgrounds. So, yeah, I do think everything happens for a reason.
With everything you've achieved so far, what are you most proud of?
I'm most proud that I can still show up as my authentic self in any environment, and also that I can still have faith that people are going to be good and kind and open. Even through a lot of personal and professional BS, I'm most proud that my heart is still open. People will really throw you, people will disappoint you, people will hurt you deeply. But then five minutes later, you'll encounter someone that will reignite that hope immediately. That's the beauty of life.
What do you want people to take away from your memoir?
I want people to walk away from reading this book feeling inspired and re-energised about their dreams. I especially want children and young people, who are perhaps considered the underdog, to know that your magic will see you through your darkest moments. You may not realise what your magic is for days, weeks, years into your career path, but it's always there guiding you. Don't ever lose faith in yourself.
