Blue-Collar Poppin'
The Grammy-winning coauthor of 'Jesus Walks' is ready to step out from Kanye's shadow and make some noise of his own. America, meet Rhymefest.

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Brian Braiker
Newsweek
Updated: 7:52 a.m. ET Aug. 19, 2005

Aug. 19, 2005 - It's hot in Hollywood but it's absolutely stultifying in Rhymefest's trailer, where he is taking a break from filming his first video. You won't catch him complaining, though. Cool as a Pacific Ocean breeze in his white T shirt, the rapper cracks a window and pops a piece of chocolate into his mouth. “It's going very smooth,” he says of the shoot with a disarming grin. “Kanye is being a very pleasant individual.”

Yes, that Kanye. “Brand New,” Rhymefest's hook-heavy single, co-written and produced by Kanye West, whose debut, “College Dropout,” was 2004's breakout album. The unlikely smash owed its success in no small part to the Grammy-winning single “Jesus Walks,” which was co-written by Rhymefest. And if you think you might detect just a hint of irony in Rhymefest's voice as he calls his notoriously self-assured collaborator “very pleasant,” you're probably not far off base. After all, you've heard of Kanye West and you've probably heard “Jesus Walks.” But had you ever heard of Rhymefest before the last paragraph?

Mind you, he's not bitter. Or so he says in interviews. “Kanye and I have been working on the soulful sound that Chicago has for years and years,” he tells NEWSWEEK. But on “A Star Is Born, Vol. 1” a mixtape produced by DJ-to-the-stars Mark Ronson, Rhymefest raps his own version of “Jesus Walks” with this intro: “I had the ‘Jesus Walks' sample and a dope idea/If K hooked it up this could be the song of the year/So I gave my nigga the sample and the joint took off/But the verse that ‘Fest did somehow got lost/ ... Homie I ain't mad at ya, doin' your thing/Let every man be his own king.” On the soundstage for the "Brand New" video shoot, a cavernous empty set illuminated by a large green screen, there is little more than perfunctory interaction between Rhymefest and West. (In the video West plays the straight-man superstar to Rhymefest's blue-collar buffoon). Earlier this month when Rhymefest performed at his “Brand New” single release party in New York, West, who was unavailable for comment for this article, wasn't on stage with him—he was across town hosting his own party for his new album, “Late Registration.”

Rhymefest's debut, “Blue Collar,” is due out this winter, after months of delays. Eschewing pimp fantasy and thug glory, the record will chronicle a week in a working-class blue-collar life. Born Che Smith, Rhymefest hopes he will live up to his namesake as a radio revolutionary. “You got gangsta rap, you got R&B, you got crunk and these are all ways to separate markets,” he says, leaning forward, as if proselytizing to a hip-hop comrade. “You've got this station and that station, and this station don't play that kind of music. I think that hurts music and that hurts people who love music. I guess you sell more when you can divide and sell to a particular market. I guess it's called capitalism. But I'm not in agreement with that kind of capitalism. I want a social music.” It was with that in mind that the former substitute teacher left the classroom for good two years ago to bring his lessons to a more receptive audience.

Rhymefest launched his little coup de rap several years ago, even as he was completing his GED and teaching inner-city preschoolers. A native of Chicago's Southside, he's known West—and fellow rappers like No ID and Common, who after a decade underground has recently had his own breakthrough as a West protégé—for years. At the 1997 Scribble Jam, Cincinnati's huge annual hip-hop festival, Rhymefest battled a ferocious unknown white freestyler named Eminem and won. Two years later Eminem was the biggest rapper in the country and Rhymefest was still anonymous. “He should have blown up years ago,” says Scribble Jam cofounder Mr. Dibbs, who deejays for the Minneapolis hip-hop group Atmosphere. “He deserves it more than half the people out there making millions.”

If the “Brand New” single and his two Mark Ronson-produced mixtapes are any indication of how good “Blue Collar” is going to be, Rhymefest may make his millions soon enough—and not as anyone's protégé. The collaboration dates back to 2003, when Ronson released his party album “Here Comes the Fuzz” with a roster of established stars. The standout track, though, was “Bout to Get Ugly,” a countrified synthesis of rock, funk and hip-hop featuring Rhymefest's boisterous flow. The unknown emcee's name said it all: “Rhymefest” seems to promise a hip-hop party—less bling than swing.

And, with charisma bouncing from every verse, a powerful voice and a keen wit, he delivers. “Rhymefest's voice—it sounds corny—it jumped out of the speaker,” says Ronson. The producer brought Rhymefest in to work with Ol' Dirty Bastard before the Wu-Tang Clan court jester died at 36 last November. “Whenever Dirty would be stuck on a rhyme he'd be like ‘get the kid,' and he'd send for 'Fest,” says Ronson, who offered Rhymefest a deal with his Allido Records, a subsidiary of Sony BMG's J Records.

Rhymefest, 27, signed with Ronson even though Kanye West, his longtime arm's-length ally, offered him a deal on his own label. He says the decision was easy because Ronson is a good fit musically and because he wanted to preserve his friendship with West. “It was best that we look at each other in a mutual peer way than an employer-employee situation,” he says . “I would hate for it to be a thing where I looked at Kanye like ‘Man, maybe he's taking all the light'.” He needn't worry. Sitting in his trailer on a blistering summer day, Rhymefest generates plenty of light—and just enough cool—all on his own.

Click below to to preview a sample of "Brand New"!
"Brand New" - Rhymefest feat. Kanye West

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