About Me
Local hip-hop artist wheels and deals
By Emily Price • LINK STAFF WRITER • June 13, 2008
When local musician "Scram"--dubbed Sylvester Latimer by his momma -- walked into the building with his brother "Tha Gooch," he 100 percent looked the part of a hip-hop artist.Wearing his sunglasses in the elevator (and during the interview) and a shamelessly self-promotional hand-painted T-shirt bearing "Scram" in large letters, his cell phone rang often with an arranged beat that could easily be in a rap song. He answered with, "Qik Entertainment."
And that's where Scram the businessman, not just Scram another-rapper-in-pursuit-of-making-it-big, starts to show himself.
Qik (pronounced Quick) Entertainment is Scram's record label that he built himself back in '99 while still in his "partying" days in Atlanta.
The former Marine who spent time in Japan casually says to do so, he just got a copyright and sent off for a business license; that there's "not a lot involved."
He has released all four of his albums on that label, and he fosters other artists on it as well while consulting with producers around Greenville -- where the Easley native now lives -- such as Black Swag Entertainment, BeatBangas Productions and Malibu Productions.
Making music in the studio and collaborating with other artists is only a small part of Scram's rapper gig.
"Then you hit the road," he says. "We on the road a lot. That's where your money comes from. And then when your music's good. It's really just like balls to the wall. You get out of it what you put into it. You ask anybody about Scram, they say, 'He's on the road.' You go to a gas station up the street with this C.D., they say they already got it."
And he certainly puts the time in. For instance, he got rotational radio airplay on 107.3 JAMZ for the single "Momma" off of his appropriately named "Back 2 Tha Streets" album after showing up to the radio station three times asking for them to listen.
He and his team have even managed to sell 20,000 of Scram's albums in Georgia, and the Carolinas.
The "Independent Grind of the Year" nominee for July's 2008 South Carolina Music Awards and his camp constantly seek to bring positivity to a genre that isn't typically heralded for its good nature.
In 2006 Scram organized and performed a concert at The Handlebar to benefit his 5-year-old cousin who was dying of cancer. The concert raised money to pay for chemotherapy and later, the boy's burial.
"I like to do those kinds of concerts. Not those concerts where people say hey, let's do a concert, drink and smoke. Let's have a meaning behind it. That way people can see that we're doing something positive."
Tha Gooch has the same outlook. "You got good hip hop, you got bad hip hop. You got good rap, you got bad rap. We don't talk the about shootin' up your family, shootin' up your dogs, fighting them, all that crazy stuff," he says.
"We talk about our life experiences. Once we talk about personal life experiences there are going to be more people that understand you than those who create drama in their minds that aren't true, than some kind of make believe character. A lot of people pretend."
Scram keeps it all in perspective. He discusses plans of moving to Houston to feel out the scene there and how if it doesn't work out for him he'll come right back home. He tells of how if you aim for the sky, you might not make it as far as you want to but at least you'll always be "comfortable."
"Yeah MTV and all that, but if at the end of the day if I can provide for my family with this talent I got, then, you know what more could you ask for? And I love to do it."
You can catch Scram July 13th at The Gathering Spot's Battle of the Bands.SCRAM can be reached at 864-329-7557...Business related calls only! plain layout powered by HOT FreeLayouts.com / MyHotComments
