Brown Boy

  There’s more to Brown Boy, a newcomer to the world of Chicano rap, than meets the eye.  The first single from his debut album, the title track from last year’s “Livin’ Shady,” was a track about cheating with a confessional tone.  It got quite a bit of radio play on Top 40 and hip-hop stations, but his true breakthrough came with the album’s second single, “Superman,”  which shot up the Billboard charts with a meteoric quality, and continues to grow with each passing week.

  Without a doubt, the California native is turning heads, and without the resources available to artists with major record deals.  Brown Boy’s story is truly a testament to the value of a few good songs.  Fellow rapper Mr. Capone-E, in a recent interview with “Pulse,” expressed his respect for the new kid on the block.  “The thing about Brown Boy…he just popped out of nowhere.  He came with a single, and people started requesting it—where people are putting millions and billions of corporate dollars into marketing to make an artist blow up.  And Brown Boy comes with a good song, and shows that there’s a fan base for it.”

  It’s a remarkable story about a remarkable man, who, early in his career, is taking his role model status seriously.  For some artists, hip-hop is their golden ticket out of a bad situation.  It is the one basket where all of their eggs are kept.  But for Brown Boy, his new career in hip-hop is just one of his paths to success.  I caught up with him and we talked a little about the other side—the little known side—of Brown Boy.

  “I have a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, and I was working as a teacher for two years, and I was working voluntarily with the probation department, where I was just hanging out with the kids, talking to them, trying to get them out of trouble.  And trying to get them to stay in school and stay drug-free,” says Brown. 

  Art is a fickle venture, and is generally not one to plan your retirement around.  I was struck by Brown Boy’s grasp of this.  “You’ve definitely got to have a backup plan.  You’ve got to stay focused and you’ve got to live [in] reality.  Tomorrow’s never promised, so you live for today, enjoy today.  But just in case it doesn’t work out, you have something to fall back on,” he says. 

  As a role model, Brown Boy’s primary message is the importance of a good education.  “School is basically the way to go.  Whether you want to do make-up or whether you want to do music—I mean, you’ve definitely got to go after your dreams, but definitely have an education to fall back on.  It’s the key.  Because when music’s done, I don’t want Brown Boy to be working at McDonald’s or working construction.  I want to have some kind of a career where I can use to focus back on the children coming up these days. They’ve looked up to me [as a rapper,] at the same time they can look up to me [if I’m doing] a different profession.  It’s very, very, very important to stay in school.”

  Brown Boy will be performing at the Too Hot, Too Fast, Too Low Concert & Custom Car Show this Sunday at the El Paso County Coliseum. For my full interview with Brown Boy, log on to www.lcsun-news.com/pulse.

-From Pulse
   October 19, 2006