By Alicia Wagner Calzada | 210SA Contributor
Caption: The emerging scenemakers in San Antonio include: (standing) Big Easy, Big Tony of 2 Brothers, Kyle Lee, Fade Dogg, Natalia B, Question?, (front) Kid Rome, Devon Wilson, Mystery.
Sitting in the back of Supafly Streetwear, an urban clothing and music shop on Ingram Road, local rapper Fade Dogg doesn’t mince words when asked about San Antonio’s urban music scene. “Radio stations are a bunch of bulls**t,” he said. Local artists get minimal airplay compared with their counterparts in other cities, Fade Dogg said. And, what’s more, the scene here is hindered by rivalries among local artists.
“Everybody cannot be happy for nothing, for nobody. Somebody else hits that other step on that ladder, and that motherf**ker a couple steps down is straight hating on them. We just need to come together and blow this bitch up.”
With the globalization of hip-hop and rap more than two decades in the rearview mirror, the San Antonio urban music scene has not produced a nationally recognized star and is not considered an urban music center like other cities such as Houston, Dallas, New Orleans and Atlanta.
There are a multitude of reasons why San Antonio has not yet emerged, said Chuk Jones, publisher of S.A. Urban News. But he believes the lack of mainstream radio support and a unique San Antonio sound are among the most important factors that prevent the city from making its presence known on the national scene.
“We have always said and we have always seen that the local radio stations here do not really support local artists in the way that they should, in our opinion.” Jones also said, however, that artists tend to copy what is happening elsewhere. “Right now, San Antonio does not have a unique sound in the hip-hop and rap genre because a lot of the artists hear a sound from Houston or they hear a sound from California, and they see that’s getting big, and they want to mimic that.”
In August, The Beat hosted its third annual Beat Bash. The concert featured established and up-and-coming artists from across the nation. Only one local artist was featured on the bill.
Eric Sean, program director at the Cox Radio-owned Power 106.7, has worked in several large markets in the United States, including Los Angeles, and said that his station is not opposed to playing local urban music. He said he just hasn’t found a lot of music in San Antonio that he feels is good enough to put into regular rotation.
“We just haven’t found anything to the caliber of what we’re kind of looking for,” Sean said. “As far as San Antonio stuff, we haven’t really found an artist that stands out, that could draw an appeal to the masses.”
Sean agrees with Fade Dogg, however, and said that local artists do not support each other here like they do in other cities including Houston and Dallas.
“Here, it’s like everyone tries to jump in front of the line, and no one looks back. It’s like it’s ‘me, me, me, me,’ and it’s not San Antonio,” Sean said.
Even so, local insiders say the scene made some progress in the past couple of years. Evidence of this includes local artist Question? signing a four-album deal with Sony/Epic Records. Add that to the fact that S.A.’s Famous also has been signed to Chamillionaire’s label, and local record stores say they’re selling more local urban music today than they did five or 10 years ago because of customer demand.
“I think we are selling more local music because the local radio stations are playing the same old sh*t,” Roman Cuellar, music buyer for Flip Side Record Parlor, said. He added that he’s likely to stock more Fade Dogg records than those of Chamillionaire and other nationally known artists. “People are looking for something different, and San Antonio artists have really stepped up over the past couple of years in that regard.”
Other insiders say there’s evidence of growth in the number of artists in the city. Local rapper Kyle Lee said the scene was nonexistent when he landed here in the late 1990s on a University of the Incarnate Word basketball scholarship. Now, he said, there are more than 200 artists working and making music.
“There was never any local groups performing in town in 1998. And if there was a local group performing, it was because they put their own money together and threw their own show. It wasn’t because they got booked,” Lee said. “I guess you could say (the scene) was dead, and you know, for the last 10 years we’ve been reviving it. Well, I guess it was never dead. It just wasn’t born yet here.”
Promoter Ken Lewis echoes Lee’s comment. The president and founder of Bubble-Rap Inc. said he rarely booked gigs in 2004 and 2005 for local artists in San Antonio venues. Today, he says he books shows for about 40 artists a week.
“It’s very simple. Money, money,” he said. “Looking back to 2004 to now, it’s (urban music) everywhere. So all the bars and clubs are picking it up because they do make money.”
Additionally, S.A. Urban News was created three years ago and provides a monthly look at urban culture in San Antonio. The publication also has an Internet radio station that features six talk shows and dedicates 60 percent of its feed to local content.
Undeniably, the local scene has grown over the past couple of years. But why is it happening now and not in the 1980s or ’90s? Lewis offers a cultural perspective.
“I think this community got hip-hop late. If they get hip-hop late, it’s going to take time. Houston has been having hip-hop there forever,” he said. “I can go to a lot of major cities in the country, and they have had hip-hop radio stations for 20 years, you know, because hip-hop has been out since ’81. ..... And San Antonio didn’t pick up a hip-hop radio station until about seven or eight years ago.”
Regardless, urban music is here now, and the scene is ready to bust at the seams, Jones said.
“In five years, I actually see our urban scene really growing up, basically. Right now, we are in the elementary stages, and we’re learning and we’re figuring out exactly what it takes to get the business done, and by that time we’ll be there. There is only two ways to go. Either we get better, or we get worse,” he said.
By contrast, Fade Dogg offers harsher words and a less hopeful message for the current and future urban music scene in San Antonio. He said until everyone unites behind each other, including the fans showing proper support to the artists, the scene is not likely to grow.
“I f**king step out of Texas, dog, I get so much love. I go to New Mexico, and I’m like Jay-Z,” he said.
Dustin Coleman | 210SA
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