Chubb Rock - 1994 The New York Times

Moving Rap From the City to the Island

By Thomas Clavin

• Feb. 13, 1994

THE East End has long been home to a variety of musicians -- Broadway composers and lyricists, pop songwriters, cabaret singers and rock, jazz and blues performers. Recently it has had to make room for one more genre, rap.

Two years ago Chubb Rock, the performance name for Richard Simpson, moved to East Hampton. His wife, Carla, was born and raised in the town, and East Hampton is where they want to raise their 18-month-old, Raspberry. It is also where he wants to make records.

"I don't want to be dependent on heading to the city to record," Mr. Simpson said. "It's a two-hour drive into the city where there's a more pressurized environment. You're tired and stressed, and then it's a two-hour drive back. For me now that's not the way to make music. Now I tell people I work with, 'Hey, meet me in East Hampton.' This is where the recording scene is for me."

Now 25, Mr. Simpson is in a position to choose where to live and work. He began performing at 12 and in the intervening years he has had seven records reach the Billboard Top-10 list, with four achieving No. 1 on the rap charts. One song, "Treat-Em-Right," was voted by Billboard readers as the top rap song of 1991, and the year that he was second in a Rap Artist of the Year poll.

His most recent album, "I Gotta Get Mine, Yo!" has also sold well, and he has made numerous television appearances, with seven videos having played on MTV and a half-dozen performances on "Arsenio Hall." He has also contributed music to soundtracks, among them "Boyz in the Hood" and part of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series.

Mr. Simpson said he was not concerned about being away from New York City, adding:

"I grew up in Brooklyn and I'm back there and in Manhattan three days a week. So I keep up with what's going on. But out here there's fewer calls. The doorbell doesn't ring as much. So I can actually think about what I'm doing. It's a great combination of being able to breathe a little, be part of a family and get a lot of work done."

Mr. Simpson is planning a studio in East Hampton. "Some musicians in this area might want to do some demos," he said. "There isn't much in the way of available recording facilities here. Yet there's a lot of up-and-coming talent. I'd like to do what I can to give these talented people a shot. If it wasn't for somebody willing to take a look at me when I needed a break, I wouldn't be making records now.

"I've learned a lot out here. When you're in the city and you're writing songs about the urban black street life and struggles you're not aware of the suburban black life and what they're into. You're missing an important aspect.

"So now, with next record, 'Dolo,' due out in April, there are going to be some urban listeners who are going to say, 'I don't know what Chubb's talking about.' But the suburban kids are going to say: 'Yeah, I get it. I know what he's saying.' It's expanding the music and expanding the audience. Rap music is evolving to where it's no longer playing to a so-called rap audience, but to a wider entertainment audience."

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Mr. Simpson said he was working on a writing project on black youths who live in resort areas like East Hampton, Virginia Beach and Atlantic City. "They live there all year-round, and when people leave after the summer, they're still there," he said. "The stores and the clubs close up. There's no outlet for them, and that can create certain situations. When you're growing up in Brooklyn and you say, 'I want to strive to get this, I'm going to get my mom out of the ghetto,' this and that, you don't know exactly what that means because you don't know what the definition of rich is because you never see it.

"The resort kids, they see it, it's right in their faces. They see the Porsches drive by. They see the $1 million homes and everything else. It causes a certain amount of anxiety. It's at you all the time, emphasizing that you're not part of it. When I come with my rap now it's not just one-sided. Now I know how the city kids and the suburban kids feel, and it can be very different. Being here has been a great learning experience."

Among his projects are writing children's books, planning a tour for his new record, developing a magazine called The Truth, writing songs for a stage show and producing rap and hip-hop acts. His production company, Funkhamptons Inc., has under contract performers like the Ruffians, M. C. Shast; Kirkpone; the International Vibe Squad, which is from Riverhead; Freedom, from Southampton; Lyrical J and others.

His label, Rocktown Records, is forming subsidiaries. One is Rock Reggae, which will feature music from Jamaica, where Mr. Simpson was born. Rock Kids will offer children's music.

Like many rap performers Mr. Simpson is aware of the criticisms of the industry, that it extols mind-sets and actions that are often not considered wholesome.'That's the White Establishment'

"Rap music is the scapegoat," Mr. Simpson said. "It's the media saying: 'These problems exist, and who can we put it on? Let's put it on these young guys, because there's nobody else we can away with putting it on.' You're not going to put it on Aaron Spelling or Steve Bochco, who's done millions of shows where you hear the word 'bitch' and people are hurting each other left and right. Schwarzenegger's running 

around killing people with guns and Joan Collins is on 'Dynasty' saying awful things about folks.

"But that's O.K. That's the white establishment, like the media is. So they blame it on us, street guys from the Bronx and Brooklyn. We have the right to express ourselves and what we see going on. Many men and women in this country have died to preserve that right, and Tipper Gore and those others can't interpret those rights for us. We're totally scapegoats. But it's a lame threat, really, to hip-hop. As long as there's kids we're going to be there."

On record covers and in publicity photographs Mr. Simpson can appear imposing. He is a stocky man well over 6 feet tall, and rap artists often deliberately project dangerous images.

But Mr. Simpson said his image was not a problem. "My music doesn't have glitter, pretense or superstar stuff," he said. "People come up to me after a show, and it's like they know me. That's cool, because what they see is what I am. And I've had the privilege of having that kind of relationship with the public."

He said he preferred to be known as the silent terror, a low-key approach that allows him to maintain an accessible image with the public and to make records that promote nonviolence and peaceful coexistence among people. He said he wanted to become more involved in East Hampton. One example was a panel discussion that he participated in recently at the Jewish Center of the Hamptons on the relationships between blacks and Jews.

"Most people don't known about the four No. 1 records last year or the gold and platinum records, but it's there," Mr. Simpson said. "I like it like that. Too much of the spotlight is a bad thing. I know where I came from. I know where I am. I have a wonderful wife and daughter, and there's the music. I'll keep locked in on that. The rest will take care of itself."