Hip-Hop in St. Louis...

[Piotr]

There's a great article in this week's New Yorker magazine about the Trackboyz and the current hip-hop scene in St. Louis. They are now producing one of the hottest up and coming acts in hip-hop in J-Kwon, with his single "Tipsy."

I couldn't find a URL, but the New Yorker issue is April 5, 2004.

Here's an excerpt, just for fun:

"Both (Mark) Williams, who is twenty-five, and (Joe) Kent, who is twenty-six, started out as performers. Williams rapped, buying his background music...from a producer in North St. Louis, who charged three hundred dollars for a four-minute track--too much, Willimas thought, and decided that he needed to get his own equipment. He raised the money any way he could: "I had a job, sold drugs. I worked everywhere--bagging groceries, cutting the grass in the summer, handing out flyers. Anything that was a hustle, I did." He bought a keyboard and a drum machine and began selling beats at a discount--two hundred dollars a track--undercutting the competition. "That is basically how I cornered the market in St. Louis, selling beats to everybody for cheap," he says.
Williams was into drum machines, raw beats, and hard-hitting rap lyrics. In 1997, a rapper friend introduced him to Kent, who was raised in a family of musicians (his younger brother is an opera singer, his sister plays piano, and his father plays guitar), and preferred gospel music, percussion instruments, piano, and singing. "My old dude was a minister," Kent says. "When I was a kid, we went to church three to four times a week, in the evenings." Kent played drums for the church choir from the time he was seven, learned keyboard when he finished high school, and thought for a time of becoming an R&B singer. The combination of Williams's hip-hop and Kent's R&B worked, so they named themselves the Trackboyz, and started making beats in an impromptu studio that Williams had set up in his mother's basement. Soon they were doing a brisk business. "Our name started getting around," Williams says. "It was almost like selling drugs. You don't advertise, but the word gets out and people find out what you do. Before long, everybody was buying beats from us."

[marqueemoon]

I read that. I thought it was pretty cool, but parts of it made it seem like the "engineers" were doing all the work, and all they did was promote the artists they work with.

[wayne kerr]

What is this St. Louis?

[clamp]

Hey so like I work in a music store in St. Louis man. I know and have talked to people working with the up-and-coming and all I have to say is start grabbing old drum boxes and assemble some retarded beats. Then kick some mics and make gold platnum diamond.
Also have a fucking greedy connected lawyer ready to go and never work without a contract. 'Cause the spirit of smash and grab' is alive and well.
As far as the engineer doing all the work...WTF...of coarse the engineer is doing all the work.
The scene is pre-assembled. If you're looking for cred go to a third world nation where people carry real weapons and are really desperate. Or just be really impressed with tough looking 'urbans' (be they black or white) who just barely bore you.

[Bear]

I expected to see 'word' and 'represent' a lot more in this thread.

[JohnDavisNYC]

word.

better represent, son.


j-shizzle.

[Bear]

Much better.

[Shawn Simmons]

"I think my butt's gettin' big (it's gettin hot in herre, so take off all yer clothes)"

That shit is retarrrrrrrded.

Yo.

[jca83]

What?!?!

[jca83]

Oh KAY!

[Kilroy]

YEEAAHH!!!!

[EasyGo]

I kinda dig that song 'Tipsy.' That shit is all over the radio. That dark kick drum and messy loud handclap sound. It's kinna cool.

Err body inna club get Tipsy

[Rick Hunter]

Errry body in the club writen' hikus


St. Louis Rap sucks.
Nelly spawned a monster that
makes my skin crawl, dog.

[wenzel.hellgren]

I don't understand all this supposed new St. Luis slang the rappers use. I never heard any of this shit when I lived in KCK. But then again, the scene was more guys wearing shower caps and boom boxes on their shoulders back then... but come on...

Errry body I know over thur don talk like that. I dun axed 'em.