Lawrence/KC area hip-hop, long regarded as just a blip on the national hip-hop radar, may just become:
THE NEXT BIG THING
by Kevin Kampwirth, Jayplay writer
Listen. Don't just pretend; really listen hard. Still can't hear it? All right, don't go running off for a Q-tip just yet. You'll hear it soon enough.
It started as nothing six years ago; a faint hum heard by only a few devoted fans. But it started to grow. The hum slowly turned into a mild buzz. It grew even more. The buzz got louder.
Listen. Still can't hear it? Now you're just not trying. The buzz, today, sounds more like a ticking clock on a time bomb waiting to hit zero, and it's damn close. Brace yourselves. The Lawrence hip-hop scene is about to explode.
About six years ago, while still in its relative infancy, the hip-hop community in Lawrence was diminutive. There were only two or three artists that consistently performed in Lawrence. The Guild, made up of members Amen, Clever and Vertigone, were one of those.
The three members of The Guild met by chance through a mutual friend and began free styling together in their dorm rooms. Their style started to develop and soon enough, they were performing in public. Vertigone, or Vert as he is known, says that basically, there was nothing when they started: only those couple groups and a few die-hard fans.
So it began. Every year since then, the Lawrence scene grew. "It shifted from this secretive, underground type of thing to a more mainstream scene pretty quickly," Amen says. "The appeal for this type of music in a college town began to be recognized."
The Pool Room, 925 Iowa St., began hosting live hiphop shows about two-and-a-half years ago. Aaron Sibler, manager at The Pool Room, says that the bar's involvement with the scene played a big part in bringing hip-hop to the forefront of the Lawrence music culture. The Pool Room quickly became the place for live hiphop in Lawrence as a fan base for the music continued to develop.
Vert says that Lawrence became especially appeal ing because, in Kansas City, there aren't many venues that are willing to take chances on underground hip-hop. In Lawrence, on the other hand, all a group has to do is drop a couple of fliers and the shows will get packed. "It's hard to break through in Kansas City," Vert says. "In Lawrence, college kids will go to these shows just for something to do and then, hopefully, word of mouth will spread from there."
Edwin Morales, a booking agent and tour manager for several local groups, is also co-founder of Downplay Productions, a company that promotes and produces hip-hop shows in Lawrence. He was around in the early days of the scene as well and says he notices just how much it's developed since then. Part of the reason for this, Morales says, is because the local artists today are starting to get the recognition they deserve and are getting their names out to the masses.
With the influx of artists performing in Lawrence or Kansas City on any given day, the question of
rivalries or competition among the groups is something that could be considered a concern. Not so. It's just the opposite in fact. Amen says that groups like his, along with the other groups that they came up with over the past few years, decided early on to cooperate with each other and back one another up. This camaraderie played a huge part in bringing Lawrence/Kansas City hip-hop to where it is today. In fact, the national recognition that many local acts are beginning to receive is a direct result of collaboration with one another.
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