Kansas City’s hip-hop wants a piece of Hot 103

In a squat, red-painted storefront near 17th Street and Summit, just up the street from a home for elderly Hispanics and across from the swank Blue Bird Bistro, the sickest hip-hop records in Kansas City are made.

Jaz Brewer answers the door of 64111 Studio in his socks. A gold chain around his neck dresses up his guy-at-home appearance. He’s between sessions on this Monday afternoon, and the studio is quiet. Past the Coke machine is where the beats happen — a control room stocked neatly with mixers, computer monitors, speakers, amps and a multitude of other devices.

Brewer estimates that he has recorded roughly 2,000 hip-hop artists in the dozen years since he set up a mic in his mom’s living room in her house on 39th Street. Given that Brewer’s mom is hiphopkc.com pioneer Necia Gamby and his brother is the rapper Joe Good, Brewer had no trouble starting up a business. He moved to the brick building in the 64108 zip code five years ago but kept the original 64111 name.

Here he has engineered albums for some of the biggest names in local rap. Some songs that Brewer has produced, such as Cash Image’s “In My Chevy,” have made it to Kansas City’s only commercial hip-hop station. The vast majority, however, have not, and it’s not because they aren’t up-to-par productionwise. “When I go to other markets, I hear local music on the radio,” Brewer says.

One day in October, while running errands and listening to the daytime stream of commercial hits on KPRS 103.3 (Hot 103 Jamz), Brewer wondered aloud, via Twitter, why the biggest urban station in the market — a privately owned station with 60 years of local history, no less — so rarely played Kansas City music. A flurry of re-tweets and discussion ensued among Brewer’s friends. All of the chatter inspired plans for a live meet-up.

On the evening of October 19, two dozen rappers and DJs met at 64111 Studio with Hot 103 DJs Kenny Diamondz and Brian B. Shynin’, who host Underground Heat, the station’s only show that plays local music. Another 100 or so artists and supporters participated in a conference call on speakerphone.

“People expressed their concerns as far as the lack of support radio’s showing the urban-music scene,” Brewer says. Discussion continued over the next few days, especially online (52 comments appeared on a Wayward Blog post about the summit on Summit Street, many by people who had participated in the conversation).

The issue of Hot 103’s relationship with local musicians had reached, to use Brewer’s phrase, “critical mass.”

But was it enough to move Carter Broadcast Group to change the format of its station?

By all accounts, Diamondz and Shynin’ were game spokes­people on behalf of Hot 103, but they made it clear that their hands are tied when it comes to programming decisions. That’s the province of program director Myron Fears. (Fears did not return a phone call or an e-mail requesting an interview.)

Over the phone last week, Diamondz pointed out that during the past 30 Arbitron rating periods, Hot 103 has held the number one spot in the local market all but six times. The subtext: The station will do whatever it takes to keep its hold.

Commercial radio is not a democracy. Stations do what they must to remain competitive, not just within their local markets but nationwide. If that means playing Miley Cyrus “Party in the USA” alongside the new 50 Cent single, that’s exactly what the station will do — and what it has been doing, to the chagrin of discerning listeners.

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Furthermore, Arbitron has just begun implementing Portable People Meters to measure ratings in Kansas City and other markets. PPMs are wearable devices that can detect audio streams from radio and TV. This replaces Arbitron’s “diary” method, which relied on people telling the truth about what stations they listened to throughout the day. Diamondz says in other markets, the use of PPMs has caused a drop in rankings for urban stations, prompting program directors to create more consistently hit-based playlists. (Many believe the introduction of PPMs in St. Louis led one of the town’s two urban stations, KATZ 100.3 the Beat, to fold.)

This pushes locals even further from radio play. 

“Ron Ron is not competing with Rich the Factor,” Diamondz says, using two prominent local rappers as examples. “Ron Ron is competing with Jay-Z, with 50 Cent, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys. Those artists are competing for the same slot local artists are.

“In Kansas City, as far as hip-hop and urban music goes, we are the only outlet,” he continues. “Nationally, those record labels — the Def Jams, the Interscopes — they look to us to get their records played in this market, too.”

Diamondz says locals do have hope but only if they hustle like Jigga.

“Jay-Z — everyone knows who that is. At one point, people did not know who he was, until he promoted his record label, promoted his music. There was a starting point for him, too.”

Or to use two examples closer to home: Tech N9ne and Nelly.

Tech N9ne’s latest single, “Leave Me Alone,” is enjoying regular rotation on Hot 103. But most local heads (including Tech himself, based on a conversation I had with him last year) view him as an outsider to Hot 103’s usual format. In Kansas City, the story of Tech and his Strange Music label’s DIY-style rise to worldwide renown atop the indie charts is often cited as an example of an artist ascending without radio support.

James Christos, who took part in the 64111 summit, points out: “I have never seen anyone local who got spins on KPRS driving a Mercedes Maybach. I have seen [Strange Music president] Travis O’Guin driving a Mercedes Maybach.”

Conversely, across the state in St. Louis, Nelly and his St. Lunatics crew are typically brought up as an example of how radio support can lead to a major-label deal and worldwide acclaim. 

But the truth is, Nelly and the Lunatics had built up tremendous buzz before St. Louis radio stations played their records.

Charlie Chan Soprano was one of the first DJs to play Nelly in St. Louis clubs. A member of the exclusive Core DJs organization and the touring DJ for DMC (of Run-DMC fame), Soprano hosts the Throwback at Noon show  on St. Louis’ surviving urban station, WHHL 104.1 (Hot 104) 

“They already had the city on their side,” Soprano remembers of St. Lunatics. “The one single they had, ‘Gimme What You Got,’ banged on the radio like crazy and on the streets. So when Nelly came with his solo joint, it was like, ‘Boom, we got you.'”

Nelly’s 2000 debut, Country Grammar, was released by Universal.

Unlike Hot 103, Hot 104 lets its DJs do live mixing during the day; this involves taking listener calls and coming up with playlists on the spot. Soprano says three or four times a month on average, he and his fellow DJs bring new songs (not necessarily local) that have done well at their club gigs and test them with listeners on the air. “Nine times out of 10, we win with it,” he says. Like Hot 103’s Underground Heat, which is on at midnight Friday and Saturday, Hot 104 has an hourlong Sunday show that breaks local music.

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His advice to artists echoes the advice of Diamondz.

“They need to promote themselves as if radio don’t exist for them,” Soprano says. “Then, once the streets and everybody is demanding the record and wants to hear it, Arbitron will show it. It’ll reflect the fact that the streets wanna hear that song. You gotta have some followers and some fans, and that way if radio don’t play you, the streets is still on you, so when you put something out, they’re gonna buy it.”

Forget radio? Many musicians already have.

Absent from the 64111 round was Stik Figa, one of Kansas City’s most buzzed-about MCs. The recent Pitch Music Award winner says during the past two years, commercial radio has been suffering, and when it comes to getting their music out, artists like him are better off taking advantage of online avenues such as blogs and social-networking sites. 

“I’m not saying I wouldn’t appreciate it if they came around,” he says of radio, “but it’s not a make-or-break thing for me. I’m always gonna make my music and make it available to people however I can.”

Back at the 64111 Studio, the doorbell rings. Brewer lets in a mid-20s-looking white guy with dark, cropped hair, who flops on the couch in the lounge area.

“That’s Double AA,” Brewer says, out of Double AA’s earshot. “He’s on his fourth mixtape, and you still haven’t heard of him.” 

Though he’ll never abandon his belief that Hot 103 should play more local artists, Brewer understands more than anyone the need for area musicians to promote themselves better — to be business-minded, to register their songs with ASCAP, to play live as often as possible.

And not to expect the radio to play their music just because they cut a record.

To that end, he and many of the 64111 summit’s key participants, including Diamondz, are organizing a series of seminarlike forums to educate hip-hop musicians on the right ways to hustle. The first is scheduled for January 23 at the Southeast Community Center (4201 East 63rd Street).  

“The first one will be pretty much to clear the air and relieve tension,” he explains. “There will be radio personalities there. Artists will be there. DJs will be there. So we can have all sides of the story. It’s gonna be an open discussion to figure out how to proceed.”

With any luck, they’ll get some play.