Mic Jordan Visits for Wingman Week

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Sean D. Smith
  • Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  Jordan Brien is a speaker and hip hop artist known professionally as Mic Jordan, and he works to discourage suicide. On Sep. 23, as part of Team Minot's Wingman Week events, Brien came to Minot Air Force Base to perform and give a talk to the Airmen.

Brien speaks all over the country at schools and university campuses, using his own personal stories of the difficulties that he has overcome to illustrate his message against suicide.

Brien focuses his speaking and outreach on areas with high levels of unemployment and suicide. He explained that on Indian reservations like the one where he grew up, these statistics often exceed the national average. Brien believes in turning pain into purpose and using that purpose to help people.

"We're all in this together," he said. "We should always be able to lean on our neighbors for the things that we need."

He began by thanking the Airmen for their service and performing two songs, before talking about his life growing up in North Dakota.

"I get the opportunity to talk to a lot of underprivileged kids, and that's what I do," he said. "I get to visit kids who are going through the same stuff I've gone through."

Brien's lyrics focus on dealing with depression and adversity, and his message is one of encouragement.
"Music saved my life," Brien said. "I'm living proof of what hope and hip hop can do for somebody."

He went on to tell the Airmen about how he learned to forgive, and to take the pain in his life and turn it into something positive to propel himself forward through music. Brien emphasized the value of getting help, and the role that treatment and medication played in his recovery from troubled periods in his life.

"I learned to love my pain," he said. "And I used it to push forward and do the things I needed to do."
Brien said that he prefers to approach life as an opportunity rather than an obligation.

"When things come up, now I feel like instead of it being something that I have to do, it's something that I get to do," he said. "Now I appreciate having that opportunity."