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DAILY NEBRASKAN
Fad to furor Rap music graduates
to world of big business .
_ By Alan Phelps
uper DJ Clark Kent; a rap producer and
_New York City DJ, scratched his way into
the rap world
"I’m true to hip-hop," he said from his Brooklyn
apartment,
Kent, 26, who has worked with such artists as Large
Professor, UPMD and Diamond D, played in clubs
nearly every day for two years before several record
companies approached him to be a rap producer.
Kent’s dedication, his love of the music and his
flavor exemplify what artists need to break into rap. It
isn’t easy, but with rap sales booming and more and
more rappers becoming household names, the devo
tion can prove worthwhile in a new world full of rap
superstars.
Tm very, very well-paid,” Kent said. "A whole bunch
of labels came at me at the same time. I’m telling you,
I’m one of the top DJs in the world."
Merlin Bobbe, senior vice president for Atlantic
East-West Records, said rap music, once looked down
on as a fleeting inner-city fad, has indeed become big
business.
"It’s as competitive as any other form of music," he
said. "At one time, it was known that rap artists wouldn’t
get the same type of budgets or production fees as
R&B, pop or any other form. That has changed.
They can get as much or sometimes even more
than mainstream music," Bobbe said.
Even in medium-sized Midwestern towns such as
Lincoln, far from rap's birthplace, rap has caught on
and commands a large following.
In only two years, I’ve seen sales in rap increase
dramatically,’ Janet Froschheiser, manager of Twisters
Music and Gifts, 1401 0 St., said. "People who used to
hate it are buying it on a weekly basis."
That’s not the way it used to be, Kent said. During
rap's infancy, record companies were reluctant
to invest in the street
based art form.
Because rap was centered in the inner cities, it was
looked upon as a very limited, cultural phenomenon
that lacked widespread appeal. It simply wasn’t consid
ered serious music.
But rap fans became more numerous, and the
music kept pounding louder through the nation’s cities.
A 15-year-old phenomenon, Kent said, ceases to be
a fad.
Bobbe said the breakthrough was in the large
amount of rap music sales despite limited radio airplay.
"It was amazing to many record companies and
music lovers to see music with virtually no airplay gain
such sales and reach an audience the way it did through
streets and DJs and parties," Bobbe said.
Nowadays, Kent said, rap has taken its rightful place
beside other forms of music.
"It's a very big business — very competitive,
extremely competitive — like all music is."
But while rap becomes more and more competitive,
Bobbe said he thought it now was easier than ever to
break into the scene.
"Every record company is looking for some type of
rap music to represent their commitment to young
people, and to music they have really brought to the
limelight of this industry."
But Kent said would-be rappers still needed an
edge. It used to be easy for artists to sign deals, he said,
because all of the large record labels were scrounging
for rap.
Now, he said, an act has to be different to make it.
1 find out what’s special," Kent said. If I have anything
to do with an act, I want it to be right."
Kent said he looked for rappers with a style all their
own, with a "hook" that sounded different from any other
rapper’s. A unique flavor can be difficult to find, he said.
That’s why you don’t sign on the first thing," he said.
"You look around, weigh the differences, ask, 'Why is
this special?'
PHOTOS: JEFF W ALLIN G/DN
I nere s reasons ror someDoay 10 De a na or noi
a hit.’
Bobbe uses the same reasoning.
It’s just like a good vocalist or
good musician — not something you
come across every day*
Bobbe's company, East-West At
lantic, thought Da Youngsta’s, a group of
three teen-agers out of west Philadelphia,
were special. Members of the group readily
agreed.
1 think that my style, my flow, our
look, is good,’ Qur’an said.
His cousin and fellow group mem
ber, Tarik, agreed.
*1 think most (record companies)
look for new acts that have their own
flavor," he said. *We have a lot of flavor.’
Along with a special flavor, suc
cessful rappers must know where they're
coming from. Da Youngsta’s got their
start on the streets, listening to their
friends rapping on sidewalks.
It was just something I grew up
- : around,’Tajisaid.lwrotesomeverses
down on paper, just started rhyming,
rapping.’
’A lot of people like doing it,* Tarik
said. ’It’s a way you can express your
feelings. A whole lot of people want
to do it, from being around
it so much. You be like,
man, I got flavor, let
me try and do mine *
Kent, too,
was raised by rap.
When he was a
^ teenager, he
used to hang out
with his uncle,
who was a New
York City DJ.
1 just went right along with it, just listened to what
was happening in the streets, at a very young age."
It's that type of background and devotion that Kent
believes is important for any act he considers working
with.
■What I look for is something I can really believe, a
rapper who’s rapping about streets and how hard life is.
I want somebody who's through and through.
“When I get someone like that, I can’t really make a
mistake," he said. “It's easy if you have a record that no
one can deny."
The lack of a real background can be a hindrance
for white rappers trying to make it, Kent said. There are
some white artists who are true, he said, but those are
few and far between.
When rap began to take off in the mid-1980s,
record companies recruited white rappers to help
“mainstream" the music, Kent said. But now that the
form has established itself, white rappers have a more
difficult time.
“Now, people really understand that rap is true shit,"
he said, “and there aren’t many white rappers who
really, truly know this shit."
Bobbe said whites weren’t necessarily at a disad
vantage in the industry, but many rap fans tended to see
them as imitators rather than true artists.
They’re not looked upon as sincere and real," he
said. "But if you have artists, for instance, like House of
Pain, who pretty much have their own style of rapping,
and their lyrics pertain to their Irish background, they’re
more accepted and get more respect for doing some
thing unique in itself, instead of imitating what is already
out."
but tne realness or rap — rne very aspect mar
makes the music popular with so many fans — can
turn off some listeners. The violent lyrics some artists
use came under fire as rap entered the mainstream,
and led in part to the parental advisory stickers sported
by many tapes and CDs.
Kent defended the lyrics as true to life.
"If you think about it, the city of New York is a violent
place. It was violent before rap music started," he said.
The street kids are going to be violent whether rap
music is playing or not.
“How can you blame anything on what music is?
This is New York, man, it’s a criminal place, and rap
music started here."
Kent said that while he didn't mind the record
companies' warning labels on graphic rap albums, he
was very much against censorship.
"How can you take a curse out of what somebody
is saying, because it’s true. How can you disrespect a
record like that?"
Bobbe said warning labels were a cure for potential
censorship.
They should be used. It’s up to that consumer to
decide whether or not this is for them," he said. They
can pick and choose what they want. All rap music
doesn’t contain profanities."
Kent saia lyncs ana wneiner a song was proiane
weren't always as important as they are today. The
emphasis of rap used to be on the music spun by the
DJ, he said, not the lyrics rappers have become so
famous for. Kent said he wanted to see rap move back
to how it once was.
“In essence, what else can rapping be but about the
rapper now? You can see that’s happening. The DJ is
fading. Some are true and some aren’t true to the whole
rap form.
"Before, it was if a mike was on, everyone got on it,
and the DJ was the DJ."
Kent said rap might be starting to revert to its hip
hop roots. Bobbe said that wherever rap was headed,
it would be young people who took it there.
"Rap represents, in many ways, our youth," he said.
"Rap music is music about youth. Young people have
put it on the map. Its popularity will continue to grow as
young people find new and different ways to
appreciate and produce it." '
m
Action: something
going good, bad or
otherwise
Ain’t half steppin’:
going all the way
and doing the best
job possible
Ain’t no joke: a
good appraisal or 1
being serious 1
Ain’t no thang: not
a big deal
A.K.: AK-47 auto
matic rifle
Ave: avenue
B-Boy: break boy, a
totally devoted male
fan and participant
in hip-hop music
and culture
Back in the days:
the past
Bad: excellent,
good, stylish, cool
Base head: cocaine
addict
Basin’: taking free
base drugs
Beat down: a
serious physical
beating by one or
more persons
Benzo: a Mercedes
Benz
Believe dat: telling
someone that some
thing is the absolute
truth
Bet: an emphatic
way of saying yes
Biting: to copy
someone