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Cast T.R.O.Y.
Coming from Laurinburg, North Carolina, this artist is certainly worth a look…stay tuned:)

BY BRIAN McCOLLUM
FREE PRESS POP MUSIC WRITER
On a June afternoon in 1999, Marshall Mathers married Kimberly Scott in a small ceremony kept painstakingly private, an attempt at showbiz image control as the rapper aimed for fame.
At 5 p.m. Saturday in Rochester Hills, the couple plan to remarry in another small ceremony, again painstakingly private, this time because Eminem’s global fame demands it.
There will be a few differences between that quiet wedding in St. Joseph, Mo., and this evening’s nuptials, which a source with close knowledge of the wedding planning says will take place at the venerable Meadow Brook Hall on the Oakland University campus.
There was no army of security manning the perimeter the first time, no high-tech floodlights illuminating hundreds of surrounding acres to deter would-be interlopers. Nobody had to sign the strictly worded confidentiality agreements required of the caterers and valets and servers on call Saturday.
In ’99, with Eminem’s first album selling steadily, about three people watched the former teen sweethearts exchange vows.
Saturday night, more than 50 million sales later, the intimate guest list of about 80 — mostly family — includes rapper 50 Cent and members of his G-Unit hip-hop crew.
Detroit rapper Proof, Eminem’s right-hand man onstage for years, will be aside him tonight as best man.
Hailie Jade Mathers, the couple’s 10-year-old daughter, will stroll down the aisle as flower girl. Eminem’s mother, whom he has battled in court and in song, was not invited, a source close the wedding said Friday.
Before Eminem and Kim Mathers became one of the most storied couples in entertainment — with the tabloids lapping up their famously rocky romance and 2001 divorce — the couple agreed to hide the news of their first wedding in his grandmother’s hometown of St. Joseph, Mo., figuring it was best for his budding public career.
Saturday’s event, which follows the rapper’s December announcement that the couple had reconciled and would remarry, has been kept so secret that even many of Detroit’s music power players were clueless about the details.
Reporters and photographers from a host of national media, including People magazine and the Star gossip tabloid, dug furiously around metro Detroit for details — mostly coming up short as the Eminem camp maintained a tight grip on wedding information.
Contact BRIAN McCOLLUM at 313-223-4450 or mccollum@freepress.com.

With his awaited solo album release that is due to release sometime in January 2006, D12’s Swifty is making the headlines. He is featured on More Hip Hip Dot Com.
Swifty speaks out about his projects, local Detroit rappers, Obie Trice’s health condition…the interview is definitely worth your interest…
Swifty McVay
Interview by Stefanie Philippou
1) MH2- What have you been doing since the D12 world album and the AM3 tour, are you currently working on anything?
“Yeah, I’ve been in the studio working with my production team, called, The Fyre Dapartment, you know what I’m saying, I’ve been in the studio everyday recording the songs getting touch-ups with my solo project, got a couple of projects coming out, we got an album called, Forest Fyre, that’s dropping the end of this month which, is just me and my production team, and we just trying to keep the ball rolling we are going to go and do a D12 album this year too. Ever since this tour ended I’ve been in the studio all fall and all winter going to put it down for all ya’ll.”
2) MH2- What inspires you when you are writing lyrics to your beats?
“My people that surround me, my production team, I pretty much grew up with them, and we got a chemistry so strong, and they understand me, all around, when they play beats, I catch on to the mood, and then I take it from there, the spirit of hip hop is on me, I hear one of them tracks I get busy.”
3) MH2- Is your solo album coming under Shady Records?
“No its not coming under Shady, this project is coming under the Fyre Dapartment productions, its independent, hopefully in the future I’ll put something out with Shady, but right now we are concentrating on the D12 album, up under Shady, and this one is going to be under the Fyre Dapartment Productions.”
4) MH2- So tell us a little bit about the album?
“Well the Fyre Dapartment they are cats, from Detroit that I grew up with, we got the Fyre Marshall, we got the Fyre Battalion, and we got the Fyre Inspector, we also got the Fyre Dispatcher, we all came up together, way before the D12 days and when ever there was time for us to get a break and work on our solo projects, I just came back to the hood and scooped them, and formulated this formula, and put it together, they always knew my style since day one, so they ride with me on this solo line.”
Fan Questions
1) What do you think about other local Detroit artist getting national deals like Trick, Trick and Hush?
“I think its beautiful, they try to call Detroit the new ghost town, way back in the days ever since King Gordy, and them left and all them cats I see them come up and make things happen in the D, so for them to go in a get that push that gets me more motivated, more pump to see them.”
2) You appeared on Hush’s album Bulletproof, how did it feel collabing with an old friend, you guys did a track together back in 97′.
“Oh yeah, yeah it was like second nature, like I said I’ve seen Hush perform, he has seen me perform, I have recorded with him back in the days and to do that it felt like old times, everything came together real smoothe, we had fun we had laughs, and we just came together like butter.”
3) Many artist don’t get along do you have any beef with anyone in the industry?
“Well right now I don’t have any beef with any artists; I’m just focused on doing my thing man, trying to stay in tune.”
4) I recently saw a picture of Proof and Royce Da 5’9,” does that mean you guys are cool now?
“Well you know we squashed the beef between Royce Da 5’9”, me and Royce we don’t talk we don’t hang we don’t see each other all I know is we squashed the beef from over the past and he is doing his thing and I am doing my thing.”
5) A lot of artist they go from the music business, to the movie business, would you ever consider going into the movies?
“Oh, yeah man I’m working on a movie right now. Its called “7 days on 7 mile,” it’s a film that’s coming out late this year, I’ve been working on that movie for about 7 or 8 months, I’m about to get everything on the ball, its not a deep hip hop movie it’s a movie about a cat that needs a donor, cause he caught leukemia, it’s a real serious movie. I just doing a lot of auditions for other things, you know other than working on my album, cause that was one thing I always wanted to do, to get in the movies, so I am definitely am in affect with that too.”
6) Obie got shot how is he feeling?
“Damn, he is feeling real good right now, the lord definitely blessed him I went to check him out, and he was laughing, walking around, moving, like nothing happened which is a good thing.”
7) Is there anyone that you would like to work with that you currently haven’t worked with already?
“Yeah, I’d love to work with Ludacris, I’d like to work with Busta Rhymes, I’d love to work with Missy, I’d love to work with Rakim, I’d love to work with KRS-One, there’s a lot of cats, I like listening to them cats, I like a lot of artist but them cats got so much energy lyrically, they just get me pumped I’d like to work with them.”

Two gifted Detroit underground rappers, P.A.C.E (Fullklipp group‘s producer and lyricist) and King James 3, have complained about jealousy and hatred among their fellow Detroit rappers.
King James 3 has even dedicated his haters a brand new song, « Internet Fags » that is available on his my space account.
No matter if you call them « Internet Fags » like King James or « Low key haters » like P.A.C.E, those angry and bitter people who keep attacking their fellow emcees are the ones who destroy the rap game.
Detroit is full of gifted emcees with an original sound and some hot lyrics. However, Detroit rap is so much underestimated, unknown and even sometimes hated within the USA. You might ask yourselves why. Part of the answer lies in people who, instead of helping the game and working together on the common goal of putting the D on the map, spend their whole time in spreading demeaning and hateful comments about their rap rivals.
I’d like to address to those haters today: you are the main threat for Detroit rap. You are dividers, you ain’t no positive contribution, since you are trying to constantly demean people who are trying to make it- just like you.
You won’t reach the top that way. If you think so, you are totally wrong. The best way to reach the top is to remain humble and to always remember where you come from. If you really think your fellow emcees are not that good and that you are better, then why not collaborate with them and help them to improve their technical or lyrical skills?
Generally speaking haters and bitter people who prompt to criticize you (I am not against criticism when it is done in a constructive way and when it helps people to go forward) have a bigger problem then they think you might have. I have been told about the different places I have been working on for years: « Anybody can do this! »
-« Ok, if anybody can do this, so why don’t you do it? » was my response.
I silenced them bitter people in one second, because they found no reply to my ironical question.
When you are angry, jealous or uncomfortable about a person, you should definitely take an attentive look at yourself: are you uncomfortable with your own person? Probably yes.
Only people who feel unsure and who are bitter about their own failures spit much venom and try to destroy people who are trying to build up something. Heal yourselves from your bitterness and jealousy by trying to give a sense to your own lives until your envy eats you up literally.

It’s a mild, 60-degree November day and D12 member Swifty McVay is drinking hot tea the way a 10-year-old might drink grape Kool-Aid.
Tea?
“I ain’t got the flu or nothing,” Swifty says. “I’ve just been on this tea-drinking kick for the last few weeks.
What’s more, the emcee’s stocky build, clear complexion, black T-shirt and jogging pants make him look more like a member of the UAW than of the most notorious rap group ever to come out of Detroit.
Later, he scurries up a narrow stairway to a room that’s converted into a recording studio. It’s cluttered with instruments, computers and speakers. Swifty’s new production team, Da Fyre Dapartment — Mark Fenton, who owns the East Side bungalow he’s in, Marlin Benson and Teresa Creggett — are busy tweaking tracks, smoking squares and watching football. There’s warmth here. It could be a family barbecue.
Swifty can’t hold back the jokes, and he grins constantly, between sips of tea. He has good reason to be happy. He spent many months of 2005 touring with D12 on Eminem’s Anger Management Tour, has two quadruple platinum plaques under his belt and his mixtape, Forrest Fyres, drops in January.
“I’m just trying to keep on making music. That’s all I’ve ever been about,” Swifty says.
It’s true, the rapper’s long journey in and up through the hip-hop biz is admirable. Born Ondre Moore in 1975, Swifty grew up on Detroit’s West Side and was into gymnastics. He graduated from Mumford High School in 1993 and was a mainstay at the fabled Hip-Hop Shop. There were run-ins with cops, and Swifty even did jail time. “I sold weed, been locked up for buying stolen vehicles, but hip hop was always my comfort zone,” he says.
In the meantime, Swifty was in a host of local hip-hop groups, including the Sinbad Boys, the Narcotic Clan, Outcast, and Rabies — the only crew to make noise before D12. Rabies, whose inspiration was Onyx and Redman, landed a BMG deal in 1997 and released a single, “If the Beat Don’t Stop,” before getting booted from the label.
“We had a single with an option of an album deal, which means the label has the option not to put yo’ album out,” Swifty says, laughing.
In early 1999, storied Motor City rapper Proof was putting together an all-star lineup of local emcees (including Eminem) to form a group called D12. Swifty, who had Rabies going and wasn’t asked to join, says he supported D12 from the beginning. “I always had love for them cats,” he says, in a tone that’s nostalgic like a major leaguer reminiscing on his first childhood home run. “One day Bugz [an early D12 member] thought it would be good if I joined the group.” So Swifty joined D12 in 1999.
Three weeks later Bugz committed suicide.
“Bugz’ death was hard for all of us, but we dealt with it,” Swifty says, ruefully.
“Adding Swifty to the six-man group was the last request of our fallen member, Bugz,” Proof says in a separate interview. He goes on to say that Swifty is D12’s “mood-setter; whenever he’s around there’s a lot of grenade pins on the floor. [He’s] our pinch hitter.”
While Swifty is thankful to have joined D12, resentment festered in certain Detroit rap circles — some thought themselves more deserving of the coveted D12 slot. Swifty’s explanation: “A lot of cats turned Proof down when he asked them to be a part of D12. Don’t hate; ya’ll know who ya’ll are.”
D12 and Em’ know as much about “hatin’” as Lil’ Kim does about implants and nose jobs. Beefs with such locals as Champtown, 5ELA, Royce, DJ Spudd and Esham, and with such nationally known heavyweights as Ja Rule, Benzino and David Mayes have filled many column inches in Metro Times and around the world. Through the drama — which no doubt raised D12’s public profile — Swifty has often been the group’s de facto peacekeeper.
“See, I don’t put a lot of people in my circle and I don’t talk bad about nobody,” Swifty says. Then he stands and reaches for more tea. His voice rises: “But if somebody wanna talk about my dogs on wax, I’m gonna go at ’em, rap on the track first, or swing first. You can’t hate on my crew; I don’t stay neutral.”
In a much-talked-about February 2004 article in the Source magazine, Detroit emcee Champtown called D12 “houseniggas” and implied that since Em’ didn’t originally sign D12 to his Shady Records, he wasn’t financially looking out for his group the way 50 Cent was looking out for his G-Unit crew.
Swifty doesn’t see it that way: “He [50 Cent] passed the ball to his boys a certain way, and Em’ passed it to us a certain way. Both ways worked; it was our job to dunk the ball. Eminem worked hard for his and looked out for us; being in the background ain’t bothered us. We know how to play our positions.”
Contrary to street talk that suggested Em’ kept most of D12’s royalties, Swifty’s doing well financially. “All of us were able to get the chips we wanted to get. I went from Hanes to Joe Boxers, my socks changed, my ride changed, my zip-code changed and my family hasn’t wanted for nothing since I’ve been signed,” Swifty says, getting almost defensive.
The rapper does acknowledge that contractual errors cost the group, which he chalks up to youthful naïveté. “When you got a 70-page contract, you’re bound to miss something,” he says. “But when you’re new, it ain’t really nothing you can do anyway. You gotta take it or leave it.”
Swifty swills more tea and begins telling D12 road stories involving Proof getting lost while crowd-surfing in Japan, and fans storming the Madison Square Garden stage. Songs from Forrest Fyres spill from the studio monitors. Raw lyrics ride atop strident baselines and beats. Swifty’s latest is similar, in a good way, to D12.
“The music is no different, it’s still me,” he says. “But in D12, I brought a lot of the Swift out. In my solo [recordings], I’m bringing out Swifty McVay, which is a little bit more crazy.”
Along with the Fyre crew, D12 DJ Kareem Hicks and Eminem are assisting in Forrest Fyres’ production. Hence, Swifty’s betting that his solo album will fly. And why not? His Fyre Dapartment is charged, and he’s got the D12 cred and associations. But there are snags: It’s nearing the release date for his album, and the label and distribution details are still being worked out. Swifty might put the album out under his Fyre Dapartment moniker.
It wouldn’t be the first time Swifty put on a label hat. In 2003, he started Rabbit Entertainment and signed longtime friends, Raw Collection. But after a solid street buzz, the relationship dissolved. “They felt the pace I was going on wasn’t fast enough, so they choose to venture off and do their own thing,” Swifty says.
Vibe magazine suggested in the current issue that the lack of interest in albums from D12’s Proof and Bizarre might “finally convince them to just be happy living off Eminem.”
Is Swifty concerned with the lukewarm commercial and critical response to Proof and Bizarre’s 2005 solo records?
“I don’t sit back and wonder, I hope this don’t happen to me. I believe in myself and in what they [Proof and Bizarre] are doing too.”
And of D12?
Swifty says the group is doing another record in 2006. Em’s greatest hits collection is out this week, and the superstar is working on Obie Trice’s new album as well.
Then Swifty talks about the importance of local camaraderie: “Detroit lost its identity when Berry Gordy took the music away. Now we got a lot of new labels and artists, and the people are starting to support again.”
Support or no, Swifty’s well aware that without major-label backing, getting Forrest Fyres to D12-adoring kids won’t be easy — at least not without a bit of swift divine intervention.
“If it’s meant to work,” he says, “God will make it so.”

Listen to his hot track Y’all Gone Remember Me and vote for him at Detroit hip hop dot com! Make him king of the mic…

The guy who first battled B Rabbit in 8 Mile, Detroit underground rapper Strike aka Lickety Split has a website. Check it out!
It will be added to the useful hip hop links of the Eminem blog asap:)

Eff’d Up is a rap group from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The group is composed of Fro Fo’ Sho aka Fresh 2 Def, Sully Sull aka The Sultan and Capriatti aka Ill Cap.
What are Eff’d Up’s major influences?
The group has been influenced by rappers like Public Enemy, NWA, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne, Jay Z and many more, but also by major pop artists like The Beatles, The Doors etc…
In fact, Cap discovered hip hop through Run DMC. His friend Mike introduced him into Public Enemy and The Fat Boys.
Public Enemy made Ill Cap realize the meaning behind the words and when he met his friend Fro Fo’ Sho, both men shared their passion for hip hop and began collaborating on Effit Records(‘the group’s label):
« Meanwhile, the messages of Chuck D and antics of Flava Flav, opened my mind to new ideas, and I realized that there was a much bigger story behind the rhymes and the beats. April 20th, (4/20) 2005, that’s when I met Fro Fo’ Sho, getting crunk, at a mutual friend’s house party in EauClaire Wisconsin. He beat boxed and I freestyled, and later we went song for song when we showed off our Cds. I knew imediately that I had met someone with enough passion and talent that I could let loose and be as creative as I wanted to be. Soon I was listening to Fro’s beats and seeing his work ethic, I was down for the cause. Within weeks, he invited me to join his fledgling Effit Records. You know where I stand. Opportunity only knocks once, I’m answering the door.»
What makes Eff’d Up so much interesting?
Ask me and I’ll tell you: first of all, the way they come up on a track. I mean with a lot of energy, an amazingly good flow and some inventive lyrics. I particularly recommend you Crack ‘N The Pavement, a track that is nicely introduced with violins, light harpsichord sounds and scratches.
Lyrically interesting with a very nice flow delivery of the group members, the track is definitely aimed at an underground hip hop loving audience.
That’s some good authentic rap the listeners shouldn’t miss in any case.
Twenty Six Eight Four will also transport you into a very dynamic dimension while Friends points the importance of true friendships. It is also a call for forgiveness about past mistakes.
Discover the group’s photos here.
But also, don’t forget to check out Fro Fo Sho and Sully and Effit records’ my space account.
Eff’d Up is a group that is definitely worth your interest. Check them out!

The marriage application is basic: Marshall Bruce Mathers III. Kimberly Anne Mathers. Macomb County, Michigan.
The wedding, however, isn’t so cut and dried.
On Monday afternoon at the Macomb County clerk’s office, the woman known to legions of hip-hop fans as simply “Kim” — ex-wife of Eminem — submitted her license application for a Michigan marriage — to Eminem.
The application was processed by the clerk Tuesday, said a county spokesman, and is expected to be picked up today by the bride, groom or both.
But info on the wedding ceremony itself remains as elusive as it’s been since Eminem announced in December that he and Kim Mathers would likely remarry. As the Free Press reported in July, the couple had reconciled in late 2004, three years after finalizing the divorce of their first marriage.
Word circulating around Detroit has pegged the couple’s wedding to this Saturday, a date bolstered by the Star tabloid magazine, which in January published what it claimed was a copy of the wedding invitation. But the Em camp has been scrupulously tight-lipped about details. Monday’s license application means only that the couple has 30 days to marry in Michigan.
The couple, who met during their teens, have deep Macomb roots: Both grew up in towns along the Detroit border, and Marshall Mathers attended Warren Lincoln High School before dropping out.
Dennis Champine, director of community relations for Warren Mayor Mark Steenbergh, said that Warren police have not been notified of a pending Eminem wedding, which “may occur in the city of Warren, though we have no confirmation.”
But Champine, who witnessed the media and fan mania that took over Warren during the rapper’s 2001 gun trial, said he wouldn’t tell if he did know.

They are from Wisconsin and their raps are tight: Capriatti…I’ll keep you updated:)