Janine (Mason Brooks's mother)
Janine was the mother of Mason Brooks. She lived with Mason and his father, William “Bill”, during Mason’s high-school years.
Family and Core Relationships
Mason Brooks
Main article: Janine and Mason Brooks
Janine and Mason were close, and her pride in him and his music was wholehearted and unconditional. He usually called her “Mom” or “Ma,” reserving “Mama” for moments of particular distress. She loved how happy music made him and wanted him to succeed. Her concerns centered on how hard he might have to work for little return and how few people achieved a sustainable career in music. Her attempts to mediate his arguments with Bill sometimes left Mason feeling that she agreed with his father and opposed his DJ ambitions. During senior year and the first years after graduation, he spent roughly a year or two avoiding going to his parents with career setbacks because he expected those difficulties to become arguments against his plans.
When Mason called from his Richmond hotel to share the online success of “Summer Moon” in summer 2025, Janine celebrated the response to his work. She replayed a video of listeners using and singing along to the track and asked Mason to send more, without making the conversation about its financial prospects. After the call, she kept reading the tags, reposts, and comments, then showed Bill what had happened. He listened to the recording and sent Mason his own message of pride. At that point, Janine did not yet understand the full extent of the hurt Mason carried or how completely he believed she did not support him.
When Janine later learned how much she had hurt Mason, she was heartbroken. She recognized that hurt even though she had been proud of him throughout.
Personal Life
After Mason graduated in 2025, he remained at home in Baltimore and began music-production work in the basement. Janine and Bill had bought equipment for the space, although Mason still felt that they did not support his artistic vision. When he returned exhausted from the Richmond wedding engagement where “Summer Moon” took off, Janine had lasagna, garlic bread, and Caesar salad waiting for him.
Janine and Bill surprised Mason with Tiny, a male Siberian–Maine Coon kitten, for his fourteenth birthday. Tiny grew into a large cat and was particularly affectionate with Mason, who named him for his small meow. Janine usually looked after Tiny when Mason was away.
Mason belonged to The Ride-or-Dies, the childhood friend group that included Logan Weston, Malik Carter, Jordan Wells, and James Pennington.