Walk this way

Kanye West-contributor Rhymefest’s album woes

Che Smith, also known as Rhymefest, is in a temperamental mood. The Chicago MC should be talking about his debut album, Blue Collar. Instead, he’s doing what so many rappers tend to do: rail against the music industry.

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Ever since Blue Collar hit stores in July, Rhymefest has been on fire. On his MySpace page, www.myspace.com/rhymefest, he posted a long bulletin titled “First Week Sales.” He addressed the snickering among rap heads over the mediocre first-week sales of his album (around 15,000) and relatively low chart position (No. 61 on Billboard’s album chart). He compared himself to Akon, Lyfe Jennings and Maroon 5, artists who initially suffered low album sales but eventually went on to become platinum-certified stars.

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“While none of these artists that I named are rappers, they all understood the ingredients of success: good music, touring & great stage shows, humble attitudes (checking their ego at the door), and finally, never giving up,” he wrote. “This is something that rap artists today have yet to fully understand the importance of.”

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When asked about that post, Rhymefest says, “I feel like first-week sales are so important because hip-hop is so disposable.” He adds, “This is about more than the first week. This is about balancing hip-hop.”

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Until Blue Collar, Rhymefest was best known for co-writing “Jesus Walks” with Kanye West (and violinist Miri-Ben Ari). The track won him a 2004 Grammy Award for Best Rap Song. Rhymefest’s career, however, goes back further than that, and he toiled in the Chicago rap underground for years. He battled on the freestyle rap circuit, and crushed other MCs at Midwest hip-hop festivals like Scribble Jam (where he won a prestigious MC battle in 2003). He issued mix tapes like Raw Dawg, a 2001 independent album. He contributed to underground hip-hop compilations such as Ritual of the ... by Chi-Town production squad the Molemen.

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Well before the “Jesus Walks” collaboration, popular New York DJ and producer Mark Ronson sought out Rhymefest. He included the rapper on his 2003 album, Here Comes the Fuzz, and signed him to Allido Records, his J Records-distributed imprint.

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With influential tastemakers like Ronson and West backing him, it seemed like Blue Collar would be the prototypical happy ending, a generator of massive record sales and critical acclaim. Theories abound as to what went wrong. Some people accuse J Records of postponing the album’s release for more than a year, and failing to capitalize on the buzz generated by Rhymefest’s Grammy win and “Brand New,” a swaggering 2005 single he recorded with West. A follow-up single issued just before the album dropped, a riff on the showbiz chestnut “Fever,” didn’t do nearly as well.

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“I feel as though J Records is learning how to work hip-hop. Hip-hop can’t be worked the same as R&B,” says Rhymefest of a label whose roster includes Alicia Keys and “American Idol” stars such as Ruben Studdard. “While they’re learning, they’re sticking with an artist that they believe in and they signed. As long as they stick with me, I’ll stick with them,” he says.

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That’s why Rhymefest stays on the grind. He’s currently on a tour with A Tribe Called Quest and the Procussions that reaches the Tabernacle on Sat., Sept. 23. After that, he’s heading out on the road with Public Enemy. Meanwhile, he’s planning his second album, tentatively titled Che. “It’s about revolution throughout every ghetto in the world,” he says.

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“You know what’s funny? A lot of people didn’t know my album was out in stores because the promotion is so bad. But once they know it’s in stores, they go get it. Once they go get it, they say this is the best album I’ve bought this year,” he says. “The people want something new. We’re just being programmed. So I refuse to say that people are choosing this crap that’s being propagated to us.”