Rappers Eager to Knock Down Barriers, Build Up Local Scene

By CHRIS BOECKMANN

Lennon and McCartney heard Chuck Berry. Iggy Pop witnessed the Doors. And Jimmy Spits? The local MC’s first inspiration came not from a legend but from an odd and perhaps slightly embarrassing source: Shaquille O’Neal, the basketball star turned critically unsuccessful rap star.

Though Spits – nee James Fitzgerald – is long past his Shaq Diesel days, he’s not past hip-hop itself. The 20-year-old theater student is a reckoning force in the local music scene, becoming something of a staple at Mad Real Mondays, a weekly showcase for local rappers. He’s just put out an album, “Leaps and Bounds,” on local label LemonDrop Records, and he’s even considering a regional tour.

Unsurprisingly, his way of getting to this point and his advice for young talents align.

“Persistence is key,” he said after a busy day of flier distribution before his recent show at The Blue Note. “I started performing at Mad Real Mondays, where you have all the MCs in the city, and you had to prove yourself over and over. You have to be persistent.”

In 2003, Fitzgerald decided to introduce his skills to others in a rap battle.

“I won, and I was the underdog,” he said, “the ultimate underdog.”

Fitzgerald credits his victory to his theater background; because of it, he’s used to performing in front of others.

“With music, you are an actor,” he said. “It is a performance, and it is a stage. It’s not reality. In that sense, it is fiction.”

Fitzgerald also captured titles at Kewpie Idol, two Roc Da Mic events and the first annual Rock Bridge-Hickman High School Battle of the Bands.

Today, Fitzgerald has found an audience and a place in the local hip-hop scene. He’s optimistic about the scene’s future, acting as a success story for Columbia’s young, aspiring hip-hop musicians.

“Hip-hop is a movement,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s the movement of our generation.”

New talent, new shows

For 17-year-old Nick Rodriguez, music is “another reason to live, a way to express” himself.

“It’s an easier way to communication,” he said. “People can get to know who you are without them needing to know you.”

The Hickman High School junior has been performing as an MC for a year; like Fitzgerald, his first performance was at a competition – Roc Da Mic, a high school event. Today, though, don’t count on seeing Rodriguez in any competitions.

He’s somewhat pessimistic about Columbia’s current scene, not that the talent isn’t there: He simply would like to see more of a community aspect to the scene.

“You can’t” play music “just for the people who like it,” he said. “You have to perform for everybody.”

For the hip-hop scene to thrive, Rodriguez said it needs to reach more people. So Rodriguez is working on a block party for the city, an event open to performers of all sorts of genres. His band, Disrupted Perceptionz, would no doubt find a spot in the lineup; Rodriguez’s six-person act already merges several genres.

The band features three MCs – one raps in Spanish – and three instrumentalists. The other MCs include Atlante Guajardo and Marcus Miller.

“People say, `You’re so different; you don’t belong together,’ ” Rodriguez said, “but we all agree. We all look different, but we all get along.”

With Disrupted Perceptionz, Rodriguez already has tried to reach out to different sorts of audiences, but sometimes the crowd isn’t as welcoming. The band placed last in a battle of the bands event in Ashland. It was the only hip-hop act.

People “are afraid to hear something different,” he said. “They don’t want to step out of their comfort zone. People need to stop judging. People judge before they know.”

Rodriguez takes both his musical group and his dance group – Poetry in Motion – and combines them for a show April 8 at Mojo’s. His goal is to sell out the venue; he wants to see a variety of faces.

“Young and old,” he said. “Everyone can benefit from it.”

Also performing at the event is Brian Lloyd, an MC and student who performs under the alias “Fist-a-cuffs.” Lloyd, like Rodriguez, thinks the local scene is dying. Talented people, he said, are moving to St. Louis and Kansas City. And also like Rodriguez, Lloyd is trying to revive it through music.

“What I do is something people can connect with,” he said. “Everyone’s had love, everyone’s had problems in high school.”

Lloyd also feels it’s important to blur the lines between genres.

“I want there to be a place where hip-hop is rock,” he said, “where rock is country, where country is jazz.”

Lloyd first started performing two years ago at a Mad Real Monday event; the passion stemmed from his love for poetry, which he started writing at 13.

“There’s so much diversity,” he said. “You can tell a life story, you can tell a fable, you can tell anything.”

Chris Boeckmann is a freelance music reporter. Reach him at chrisboeckmann@gmail.com.

Originally published by CHRIS BOECKMANN.

(c) 2008 Columbia Daily Tribune. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.