A Hip-Hop Hopeful

Just five years ago, says Meiselas, rappers signed to labels for advances as low as $50,000. "If you did better than $175,000, you were doing very well." But of late, fees have doubled. "Because hip-hop artists are so multimedia, they're tapped into that young audience, whether it be through commercials or selling sportswear," says Elektra's Bobb. Major labels, which once eschewed rap, "feel having this type of artist is an asset." As several companies got interested in Shyne, the bidding got heady. "After Puff," says Pitts, "they got dirty." Shyne ultimately signed with Bad Boy for a deal reported at $900,000 and a furnished Manhattan condo. With Sunkiss, the same team hopes to repeat the magic. "Shyne's deal changed the industry," says Pitts, who signed Sunkiss to a production deal. "Now a lot of people say, 'I want a Shyne deal'."

With a big advance, Sunkiss can court name producers, who command up to six figures per song. Their cachet, in turn, should attract radio programmers, a boost for an unknown. Yet success is far from guaranteed. Unlike rock bands, hip-hop acts don't build their audiences on the live circuit. Instead, they try to create a buzz through cameos on albums by established stars, then through the underground mix tapes peddled by influential deejays. The window for blowing up is brief. "If you just consider yourself a street prophet with great rhymes," says Schwartz of RuffHouse, "those guys are a dime a dozen. You have to have identity, image, what we used to call a shtik."

Barzey is undaunted. Already, he cut a cameo for the multiplatinum Big Punisher. He lowers the car's tinted window to chat up a young woman. "You probably seen me in my silver Benz," he lies, not without some charm. The woman does not give him her number, but writes down her address, which he promptly tosses out. Never mind. Someday, he says, "when I see people dancing to my s--t, enjoying it, it'll make all this worthwhile." He closes the window, and Don Pooh pulls out, rolling high under the warm Harlem sun.

© 1999