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Admin Note: The following article appeared in the KC Star and to the founders of this site "SPELL OUT " for all who are listening, what MUST be done to unite and build the hiphop scene locally. The Venues, everchanging audience,free-spirit attitude and unity in Lawrence, UNITED with the discerning hesitance, historical longevity and seasoned skills of Kansas City scene, WOULD mean a one two punch that can't be stopped. This is understanding that lead to the establishment of HIPHOPkc as an on line partner to Lawrence hiphop and StLouis.com sites. Now let the games begin!

Posted on Fri, Nov. 28, 2003

By JENEE' OSTERHELDT
The Kansas City Star

Tupac Shakur once said that if you were walking down the street and saw a rose sprouting through the sidewalk, you'd have to admire its beauty, even if it were battered and wilted.

In Kansas City that "rose" is the city's hip-hop scene, which is beginning to flourish, despite so many barriers: the lack of live music venues, a shortage of radio airplay and the false stereotype that equates hip-hop to thugs, drugs and all things negative.

How does hip-hop stay alive in Kansas City despite its environment? Some thanks goes to its neighbor: It gets lots of nourishment from the scene in Lawrence. In fact, some of Kansas City's hottest rappers have hooked up with the Lawrence hip-hop community -- crews and artists like Deep Thinkers, SoundsGood, Ces Cru, Mac Lethal, Approach, Taha and the Guild.




Why Lawrence? The college-town factor -- the University of Kansas and its student body of more than 28,000 -- makes all the difference, says DJ Sike Styles, 25, hip-hop buyer for Recycled Sounds, a midtown record store.

"College kids tend to like hip-hop more than your average dude who's going to work," says Styles, a native of Brooklyn. "A college kid is going to have the Beastie Boys, Cypress Hill and Jurassic 5 next to Nirvana, Coldplay and Radiohead."

Because of its Midwest location, Lawrence attracts a wealth of local hip-hop artists with an eclectic sound -- a sound that's too versatile to be labeled, says C.J. Wilford, a disc jockey at the university's radio station, KJHK-FM (90.7).

Wilford, a St. Louis native who us host of "Hip-Hop Hype" from 9 p.m. to midnight Saturdays on KJHK, proves his own point. He looks like an East Coast head -- his hat cocked hard, his brim bent -- but his vernacular is dirty South and his annunciation ("thurr" instead of "there") gives away his Midwest roots.

"One of the best reasons to be in the Midwest is you get a bunch of different flavors from everywhere, and people here use all of those influences to create their own sound," Wilford says.

Location, location, Lawrence

Wilford says that even more important than location is the help the community gets from KJHK and the Web site lawrencehiphop.com, which was founded by KU students Miles Bonny, Andrew Giessel and Kevin Greene.

Wilford isn't just blowing his own horn. Rappers also agree that the radio station and the Web site -- two things Kansas City lacks -- have contributed to the boom of the hip-hop scene.

"You can cut a song and go right to the station 10 minutes later and get it played," says Kansas City rapper Approach, 25, who has a funky fun partylicious flavor to his rhyme style. "The station is very accessible, and the DJ's have a real open format for you to come and promote yourself."

The Web site is a valuable resource, too, he says.

"Before lawrencehiphop.com, there wasn't an up-close and personal place for artists from all over the area, from Kansas City to Lawrence, to convene," Approach says. "It gave us a way to provide visuals, audio and a place to speak so people know who the artists are and who they are dealing with."

That was precisely the motive behind the site, says Bonny, 22, a New Jersey transplant and an American Studies major.

"It started out as a site for local acts to plug their music," he says, "but I wanted to do more than post music."

Now the Web site, which is 4 years old and gets several thousand hits a day, hosts forums, posts artist profiles, promotes local hip-hop venues and shows, among other features.

"The idea was to bring together all of the separate individuals who were into hip-hop," says Bonny, also a producer for the hip-hop group SoundsGood. "And I think the scene in Lawrence is becoming more unified every day, from the underground to the commercial. It's coming together."

And from the Web site and radio promotion, the various crews from all over the area have worked together and formed a community -- a common bond -- which has made the local hip-hop scene stronger, Wilford says.

Some people in Kansas City have noticed. Necia Gamby, 50, a Kansas City hip-hop activist who moved to Lawrence, says the college town has all the right components for a thriving, progressive hip-hop scene.

"It's easy to have shows -- there are more hip-hop venues and organizations," Gamby says. "There's more exposure."

There's also more of a live-music infrastructure, says Kansas City lyricist Joe Good of the crew SoundsGood.

"There are more venues, shows, promoters, fans and people willing to pay for shows," Good says. "They have 18-and-up and all-ages clubs. Everything about performing is better in Kansas."

Those venues include the Granada Theatre, the Bottleneck, Abe & Jake's and La Tasca, all on or very near Massachusetts Street, and the Pool Room, on the edge of West Lawrence. Some of those venues also bring in national acts, such as KRS-One, Jurassic 5 and the Roots.

Just as critical, say promoters and rappers, is the ever-changing crowd in Lawrence.

"There's such a great possibility for a large audience when you do a show in Lawrence," says Approach, who is also the co-owner of Lawrence-based Datura Records. "You get young people from all over the map coming to Lawrence to go to school. You get a rotating audience every year."

KC clique

But don't get it too twisted: Not only has Kansas City produced some of this area's freshest lyricists; it has its own scene, too. It's just very particular, Good says.

"The scene in Kansas City is nonexistent to anybody outside of it," he says. "It's almost exclusive in a way, and that really hurts it. The people in this scene don't really warm up to outsiders real quick."

"People (in Kansas City) are very serious about what they do and what other people do," he says. "It's an attitude thing here, and it's very competitive. You either step it up or step it out."

Good says the Kansas City scene is much older than the young and free-spirited scene in Lawrence, which makes a difference in the attitude.

Go to open-mic Mondays at the Hurricane in Westport, and it's about survival of the fittest, Good says. Kansas City isn't going to open their arms to just anyone because they claim they're "into hip-hop." You have to be consistent, and you have to prove yourself to be down in Kansas City, he says.

But Kansas City emcee Profit says that lack of hospitality hurts the local scene.

"Honestly, it saddens me when I think about the scene in Kansas City," he says. "There is so much talent, but there's not enough hometown love from the fans, the clubs or the radio stations."

Profit says people compare the Kansas City scene to a bucket of crabs: "You have to pull someone down to get yourself up, and that's messed up. There's no reason why all local hip-hop heads can't unite.

"I just want everybody to come together, form one big community and do mix tapes and compilations. In Kansas City, fans have to get behind the artists, and artists have to get behind each other."

Perhaps the very opposite stereotypes of hip-hop in both cities attribute the different scenes.

"Lawrence hip-hop is stereotyped as white kids who only want to hear spaced-out beats and songs about politics. Kansas City hip-hop is stereotyped as gangsta," says Josh Powers, 30, a DJ from Kansas City who now lives in Lawrence.

"But it's not true," Powers says. "All types of hip-hop exist in both cities."

And the key to changing those false labels is through shows, he says.

"Promoters and artists have to start broadening their definition of what a good hip-hop show is. When they do a show, they have to start mixing what might be considered political hip-hop with what might be called gangsta to gain mutual respect from both types of audiences.

"Kansas City and Lawrence coming together benefits the scene by bringing light to everybody's talents," says Powers, who promotes artists from both cities on his album, "Josh Powers Presents sceneboostersoundsystem, vol.1."

Aaron Sutton, lyricist with Deep Thinkers, says Kansas City also has to maintain a sense of hometown pride -- represent KC wherever they go and stay in town once they're successful.

"I'm not trying to take anything away from Lawrence, because it's cool to go out there and do shows and be a part of the scene," he says. "But we as emcees in Kansas City need to be here helping to build a hip-hop community that fans here have access to. We have to break down the walls and make Kansas City the place to be."

Now is the ryhme

But if you head down to Wyld Style Wednesdays at Kabal in the City Market or Listen Up Thursdays at Recycled Sounds in midtown, you'll see a different side of the Kansas City hip-hop scene.

It's bright, friendly and interactive. Those two spots are definitely working hard to make Kansas City the spot to be for hip-hop. At Kabal, you can catch the Buggin' Out break dancers defying gravity downstairs on the dance floor while DJ Smooth C spins everything from Lakeside to Brand Nubian to Rakim. You might even hear a lyrically deft emcee like Kansas City's Taha freestyling on the microphone.

And at Recycled Sounds, DJ Sike Styles spins the wheels of steel every Thursday, promoting both local and underground hip-hop, his specialty at the eclectic record store. On occasion, local acts will come through to perform.

At a recent Listen Up, about 40 people of all ages, colors and backgrounds gathered in the record store along the aisles and at the back of the store to see Deep Thinkers, the Guild and SoundsGood.

It looked and felt very much like a small, hospitable community. Joe Good and Gun Jack kicked off the event. Good, who exudes a confident swagger, wore a burgundy Jimi Hendrix T-shirt and a SoundsGood trucker cap as he rocked the mic with tracks like "Leavin Again" and "In the Mornin'."

Kansas City emcee Taha says the collective of hip-hop heads in Kansas City are merging with Lawrence and forming a supercommunity -- younger brothers to a group of older heads that tried to make hip-hop happen in Kansas City many times before but got shut down.

"Now the younger generation has learned the business and learned how to support each other's ventures," Taha says. "The more artists that put stuff out and make a name for themselves and branch out and work together, the more we will be able to connect it the way we want it to be."

And when individuals come together and connect in the name of hip-hop, a community forms, Gamby says, and unity means everything.

"The quality of life, the art of expression and the future of hip-hop is impacted by collaborative spirit."

And maybe by Lawrence and Kansas City joining forces, the hip-hop scene will be mighty like a dozen roses.



Note: its been a couple years now since to genesis of hiphopkc. This article continues to be the inspiration, hell the definitive call to arms, for me as the creator of this site. I have watch closely, as the many talented,creative, and resourceful individuals who contributed to this article, have build both indiviually and collectively with out much support from the kc metro, and often in obscurity. To them all, I say Hooray for you. I am proud to know you ALL and am very often inspired by your continuing drive as people to create and share your vision with us.

we are the lucky ones, becuz there is YOU