Rhymefest – From the Point of View of a Naptown Loc

Lose the gloves, dawg

Rhymefest - Brand New

Rhymefest - These Days

Kanye West (w/ Common & Mase) - Jesus Walks (Remix)

Last Thursday I went to the Vogue Theater and saw Rhymefest open up for Common. It was a really great show, which is rare for live hip-hop. It must be really hard to do the sound for hip hop shows because the mix always sounds muddy. Maybe it’s the people doing the rapping because both Common and Rhymefest brought it and for the most part it sounded pretty clear…and pretty awesome. I’d never seen Common before, and he was every bit as great as I hoped he’d be. One of the things that I loved about Rhymefest is how much the marketing surrounding him and his upcoming album, “Blue Collar”, reflects his reality. He’s being marketed as an everyday dude, a workin’ man. I asked my buddy Paloz to share some of his stories about seeing Rhymefest around Indy’s hip hop scene over the past couple years.:

[Koopa],

Yo man. Cool idea. Yeah, I got a couple stories...I'll try to keep them brief.

The first one is about when I used to watch Rhymefest get his ass handed to him at the old Melody Inn battles. He'd come in there with what looked like regular old hand-me-down lookin' clothes and just get demolished! Then I watched him SLOWLY get better and better... along with his style too! [Rhymefest would go on to out-freestyle some dude named Eminem at 1997 Scribble Jam]

The other is right after he started getting big. He was sitting on the hood of a car right outside the now gone Patio and was chillin' out waiting for his show to start. He looked kinda down and to himself... no one was talking to him. I was drunk! I decided now was the time to go and berate him for giving me his manager's phone number when I asked him for his personal number earlier in the year. I got in his face about how I wanted HIS number not his F'in' manager's! I told him that I'd have my girlfriend fix us a chron meal and that I just wanted to kick it with him for real... have some beers and be real; be my guest for real! I told him I didn't want his F'in' manager's number... all the while I'm stumblin' drunk. He sat there and took all the abuse without saying a word...looking me right in the face. When I was done he simply said, "Man... go get me a pen." He wrote his real number down and I never called him to hang out.
Now it's too late.

Rhymefest's album should be droppin this May. Here's his Myspace page with some more streams. Here are some cool interviews with the guy here, here, a Newsweek write-up, and a Rolling Stone write-up. Did I mention he wrote Kanye's Grammy-winning "Jesus Walks", yet got his verses left off the album version, as well as the remix? And, he's still tight with 'Ye, which is either very shrewd or very forgiving. Rhymefest is the genuine article and is an example of what you can do if you work hard at something.

Oh, and, don't believe the Kanye-Common-related hype, Rhymefest is Naptown, not Chi-town. Alright, so the marketing isn't ENTIRELY accurate.