Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Article On Messy Marv And The San Francisco Rap Scene

This is taken from SFGate.com, read the entire article here: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/15/DDG47PPKBT1.DTL

It talks about Messy Marv, why it's difficult for an artist from SF to blow up, and the role of violence in the city.

Here's just a small section of the article:

But instead of promoting his album, Messy will spend the next nine months behind bars. (At first, says SMC's Will Bronson, the rapper was facing 10 years; the relatively short sentence, he claims, is proof the judicial system believes "he's not a career criminal.")
According to Bronson, Messy's work ethic is such that he doesn't have time for extracurricular activities. "Every time I call him, he's in the studio," Bronson says, adding that the rapper has put out four albums this year and has at least three more scheduled for 2007.
Even so, the company he keeps has gotten Messy into trouble on at least one previous occasion; in 2000, he was riding in a car in Kansas City with local rapper Fat Tone, Sacramento's C-Bo and Vallejo's Mac Dre when an unknown vehicle opened fire, wounding Fat Tone. (Fat Tone was later implicated in the 2004 murder of Mac Dre, and was himself slain in 2005 in what police have called a retaliation killing.)
As Epps explains, street credibility means everything in the rap game. With gangster rap especially, listeners want to know, "is this n -- real, where's he coming from?" When your entire persona is based on being in the streets, he says, "you can't just cut the cord" and remove yourself from the community altogether.
For his part, Messy's well aware that his run-ins with the law haven't helped his chances of scoring a major-label contract. However, he says, "You have to understand that we're human beings, man, and you can't blame a person for being a product of their society." He's thankful to SMC and its distributor, Fontana/Universal, "for giving us an outlet to even stay out here and provide a way to feed our families."
But frustration is evident in his voice as he talks about the state of San Francisco's rap scene. "It's like, damn, when is somebody gonna give us a chance to reach that plateau so we can really start reaching out to the people in the community and start turning this s -- into something positive?"

2 comments:

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