DCist Interview: Tyrone Norris

You’re behind one of the most comprehensive sites dedicated to D.C. hip-hop, DC Rap. How long have you been working on it and why did you decide to launch it?

I purchased DC Rap about 5 years ago. I buy domains whenever I find ones I like and hold on to them until the time is right to develop them. About 4 months ago, I finished hammering out my concept for the site while I was in the shower. It’s my favorite place to incubate thoughts.

I’m honestly too busy to run the site, but I’ve put myself on a regiment to make sure I update it. I consider it one of the various contributions I plan to give back to the community. D.C. has always had the talent, but never the media outlets to propel an artist out of the D.M.V. With artists like Wale and Tabi Bonney getting heavy rotation on a national level, a lot of new eyes are looking at D.C. But where do you look?

There’s never been a D.C. media outlet that has solely focused on D.C. hip-hop. Any publication that has covered D.C. hip-hop has had to cover mainstream artists also to sell copies. Every web site I’ve ever seen that covers D.C. hip-hop only captures a chiseled out niche. The blogs who push Wale don’t push Educated Consumers. I think that’s ridiculous. Why should people in Arizona care about D.C. hip-hop when people in D.C. don’t care about D.C. hip-hop? We have a lot of rappers who’ve literally toured the world performing and hip-hop heads who live on their block don’t know they exist. My goal is to figure out how to eventually change that.

Have you received any feedback from artists (or local hip-hop heads, generally) about the site?

I’ve received a lot of feedback from local artists. A whole lot actually. I’ve yet to receive a bad comment. I tread water very deep in the D.C. hip-hop scene. It’s my biggest advantage and it’s also become my biggest obstacle. People can’t digest sometimes that I have a brain, that I’m a computer whiz, or that I’m good at business. The stereotypes people have when they approach me as a rapper would be hilarious if I didn’t have to deal with them regularly.

Also, I didn’t want the site to turn into just me just pushing my friends and pissing my peers off with bad reviews. I took a Swiss approach and stayed neutral. I eventually plan to expand my site to include opinionated editorials but the overall purpose of the site is to become an encyclopedic reference on D.C. hip-hop. Check out the Twitter Directory I just built this week.

Apart from your web site, you’re also active as an emcee and promoter. When and why did you decide you wanted to take up these roles?

I started taking music seriously when I met Chris Carr (Stoney Ashes) & Vincent Campbell (Grey Matter). Not only are they two of the dopest emcees period, they’re two the nicest guys I know. We formed up a group called Rosetta Stoned in 2006. Chris and I are both obsessive, workaholic, insomniacs so eventually we became a duo as Vincent settled down and entered the married with kids phase of life. We all still rhyme together, he’s just the secret weapon we hide under our tongue like razor blades.

I never chose to become a promoter, I chose to become an independent artist. Some people think that choosing to be an independent artist means that your music will be underground until someone discovers you. To me an independent artist means that you have complete control over your art. That means you create it, you market it, you invest your blood, sweat, time, and money into your art.

Emcees have been rapping for 5 years and still can’t pull out 20 people because they never learned that an independent rapper is a promoter. A lot of people know about Rosetta Stoned because we canvassed the area with shows. We did 100 in 2007 alone. That meant we had to promote a lot of shows. I can’t tell you how many thousands of fliers I handed out that year.

Becoming an independent artist meant I became my own manager, booking agent, promoter…everything. I actually just started managing The Five One, which is literally the best band in the DMV. I pretty much know everyone, so I was able to take my pick. My immersion into hip-hop became a college course in marketing, project management, and business. I’ve been waiting my entire life for magazines, TV, and radio to stop the bullshit. The growth of the internet means that niche markets can be catered to and the media giants that want our kids to believe that all black men are thugs and sell drugs are watching their empires crumble.

I’ve taken my 10 years of web knowledge and flipped it into various multi-platform, guerilla social media marketing excursions. My 4th grade teacher made sure I understood what Malcolm X really meant by “…by any means necessary”. One day I’m going to bump into her and show her the dent she left in my brain.

A comment that's been voiced from people in the area (including artists) is that the hip-hop scene in D.C. is somewhat disjointed (i.e. lack of consistent venues for shows/coverage, the transient nature of the city as it relates to artists and fans). Do you agree with this assessment?

Once I started touring and visiting other cities more often, I realized D.C. has one of the most segregated art communities in existence. “Crabs in a barrel” is what D.C. artists call each other as they claw and pull on the limbs of their peers. Not realizing that by stopping others from succeeding, they limit their own growth.

They don’t call D.C. the “Chocolate City” because our workforce revolves around a Hershey’s plant. We are one of the few predominately black major cities in this country. Why don’t we have a well known hip hop scene?

No seriously. Think about that.

There are no media outlets really in D.C. except when BET used to be here. Even when it was centered here, people weren’t being exposed to D.C. hip-hop. In order for artists to come out of D.C., they have to be legitimized by other cities. When I first started doing music, I was told that I had to leave D.C. and get a name to become accepted in D.C. Those words were very real.

Also, D.C. is a go-go city which makes doing hip hop here even harder. I never knew any D.C. rappers until I was an adult, but I’ve been listening to go-go bands since the crib. Being a go-go city also makes booking hip-hop shows that much more difficult. Since go-go has such a violent history, D.C. clubs pass that same association over to hip-hop as often as possible. I think it’s racist and a lot of clubs will admit they “don’t want the locals.” I shut them up by bringing out crowds of peaceful people and good music.

What efforts can be made to remedy the situation?

The problem is not an easy one to remedy. The artists need to step up to the plate and grind harder. That includes promoting their shows and marketing their music. The clubs need to stop treating rappers like second class citizens. Don’t skip our sound checks! The promoters need to stop raping rappers. They’re probably the worst part of this all. They all claim it’s for the love but wear bloody brass knuckles.

The local government needs to intervene and provide venues where youth under 21 can be introduced to their local artist communities. Does every performance venue in D.C. have to be driven by alcohol sales? Students at University of Maryland or Georgetown come to D.C. for 4 years and never experience the rich art scene here because they’re too young to enter bars.

The simple solution is fostering enough forward thinking and creativity to have a system where unity is not just an empty chant, but the mantra that all D.C. artists share. I’m starting a monthly festival called Engage to try to do just that. Until D.C. artists start working together to create platforms to elevate the entire scene no distant souls will be able to catch their glimpse. You can catch the Food Chain Collective walking around U Street with tool belts. Jesus as a carpenter is a beautiful metaphor.

What aspect of the music scene here in D.C. do you enjoy the most?

I love that there are people like Flex Mathews, like Stoney Ashes, like Ardamus, like Grey Matter…that legitimately should just be doing art. I know that if they don’t rhyme for a certain amount of time that life begins to lose some of its value. There’s a gorgeous amount of diversity and talent in this city, but there’s also a social movement going on here that most people aren’t going to catch for a few more years.

There are artists here who literally train in dojos. Freestyle sessions that don’t stop until palettes are Mojave dry and brains are squeezed dry. There’s something in D.C. that’s still really untapped, that’s original. As grandiose as it sounds, I think the world is waiting for D.C. to be ready. Possession of the ball is ours if we want it. I’m inspired everyday and I plan to die inspiring others.