Nick Lacy Photo

A-1 Aficial

Windsor resident Jerome Campbell, aka A-1 Aficial, has built a global hip-hop network. The 22-year-old Jamaican-born MC's manager lives in Yugoslavia and is working on launching the Web site hiphopbalkan.com. He has fans and collaborators throughout the world.

Not bad for a guy who lives with his mom in a fairly remote Connecticut town, doesn't own a car, hasn't put out a complete record and has only played a few scattered concerts. While he's undeniably a good MC, with a fluid style and an authentic feel that's been likened to MCs like Cam'ron and Juelz Santana, his most valuable skill may be his ability to manipulate MySpace.

With over 8,000 online friends connecting with him through his page, myspace.com/a1aficial, Campbell has built anticipation for his forthcoming independent release The Never Ending Paper Chase. In a recent issue, hip-hop monthly Vibe magazine named Campbell as one of the 51 greatest unsigned hip-hop MCs on MySpace.

"I think he's a very proud, honest, street portrayal of hip-hop. He's clearly very sharp and realistic with a cutting tone," Vibe editor Sean Fennessey says. "We identified with that and wanted to feature that."

For a culture that prides itself on its urban origins, hip-hop has taken to the modern internet landscape surprisingly well. The reason, some hip-hop watchers say, is that music is increasingly coming from places other than hip-hop's traditional power centers of New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta. "The thing to consider is that with the increasing regionalization of hip-hop, people need these sort of virtual identities to connect with other people," Fennessey says.

Originally, Vibe planned on running an article focusing on the growing number of cities producing rising hip-hop talent. After deciding to narrow the story to emerging artists, they noted that MySpace was the most effective tool to find smaller-market performers. The scope of the article shifted.

The final version of the piece, out in the December issue, focuses on the top unknown artists on MySpace, with 51 artists representing each of the 50 American states and the District of Columbia.

Fennessey intimates that the traditional delivery systems of hip-hop are becoming less practical with the changes in the recording industry. The dip in sales for many labels coupled with the recording industry's apparent obsession with busting copyright infringement has backed many artists into a corner. "Mix tapes had a rough time this year, with regard to the RIAA [Recording Industry Association of America] cracking down. Artist development is also in a state of disarray in the labels right now," Fennessey says. "I think it's almost a necessary thing to have a MySpace presence."

The Hartford-based hip-hop duo The Paper Boyz have been recording and promoting their music, an infectious mix of R&B and hip-hop, for the last seven years. They've toured in Europe and Africa and met with some success with their most recent single, "We Rollin.'"

"We've got a record right now that's being picked up by major radio. It's on in 14 markets, including our home market of Hartford," Paper Boyz singer Mike Charles says.

"We started doing it in the real way, the old school way. We had a limited number of CDs that we made by hand and we sold them ourselves," says Paper Boyz singer MC Kiandre Gillespie, aka Fatal. But street-level promotion became secondary to promoting themselves on the internet. "Basically, that's where everything is going now—online," Charles says.

Both the Paper Boyz and Campbell were bullish on the prospects of Hartford's hip-hop scene. Still, as they acknowledge, there are challenges. "Being from Hartford, you're an outcast," Gillespie says. "You're always in New York's shadow."

Gillespie believes that the regionalization of hip-hop described by Vibe's Fennessey will benefit Connecticut hip-hop artists. "There are things going on in Connecticut," Gillespie says. "It's time to show the world that. Connecticut knows, but the world doesn't know."

editor@newhavenadvocate.com