RAP—Godfather of Latin Rap

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Record Industry Veteran Leads Highly Touted New Label

In a former IRS office building in the Rampart district of Los Angeles, an eight-month-old record label is germinating what it claims will be the next phenomenon to sweep the nation’s pop culture scene.

It’s Latino rap, and Hit A Lick Records is positioned to be its leading force.

Lending credence to that bold claim is that the founders of Hit A Lick have enticed record industry legend Jerry Heller out of retirement to lead their effort.

“It takes a unique personality to get into the rap community. It’s good to see Jerry back in the business,” said Irving Azoff, chairman of Giant Records and the former head of MCA Records, upon hearing the news.

Heller, 64, a white-haired cross between Mr. Rogers and Donald Sutherland, appears anything but “urban hip” in his pullover sweater and gray slacks, holding court among a group of younger Latinos in sweats and baseball caps at Hit A Lick’s Rampart-area studio facility last week.

“Latin rap offers an incredible landscape of untapped musical talent,” said Heller.

And if Heller is convinced that Latin rap will emerge as the next big thing, it probably will be, said other music industry veterans.

“Jerry has always been on the cutting edge. He always has his finger on the pulse of the next trend,” said Samuel H. Frankel, who along with Heller co-manages former Gun ‘N Roses guitarist Slash. “He has a wealth of experience and a breadth of knowledge about the industry. He has run the gamut having been an agent, a manager and the CEO of a record company before.”

Added Alan Grunblatt, senior vice president of Koch Entertainment and a former business partner of Heller’s: “Jerry Heller was one of the most successful rock agents of all time before he did his dramatic 360 (to ‘gangsta’ rap). He’s a visionary who knows what he’s doing.”

Indeed, Heller is widely acknowledged as one of the key forces behind gangsta rap’s crossover into the music mainstream. He co-founded Ruthless Records with rap star Eazy-E, was the manager and marketing force behind the group NWA (which to date has sold in excess of 100 million records) and introduced such rap legends as Dr. Dre and Ice Cube to mainstream America audiences.

Before that, he represented top-drawer rock talent like Van Morrison, the Guess Who, Marvin Gaye, War, Elton John and Pink Floyd.

And now he’s betting on Latin rap a musical genre similar to other forms of rap in that it features heavy percussion and spoken lyrics that often rhyme. But it is distinctly Latino in that its lyrics are more family oriented, less violent, and often jump back and forth between Spanish and English languages.

Just as early rap primarily gave voice to the urban African American experience, Latino rap gives voice to the swelling urban U.S. population of Hispanics. Heller’s goal is to not only tap into that huge and growing Latino population, but to get the genre accepted as cool by the American mainstream. No small feat, but Heller just might be the one to pull it off.

“I’ve known Jerry for 30 years,” said Azoff. “He’s afraid of no one, and he’s not afraid to take chances.”

Label’s ownership

Heller is actually one of four partners who co-own Hit A Lick. His partners are company CEO and President Pablito Vasquez, producer Tony G. and a silent partner, who owns the former Internal Revenue Service building in which the label is housed.

While Heller has the second-tier title of chief operating officer, he acknowledges that the other partners “generally run everything by me because of my experience and expertise.”

Since its creation last July, Hit A Lick has already released four records and signed two of the best known Latin rap artists, Frost and Mellow Man Ace, to its label.

It’s not unlike the time that Heller took a chance on an unknown artist named Eazy-E, who had paid another rapper $750 in cash to arrange a meeting with Heller. The duo went on to found Ruthless Records in 1987 and put out two of the best selling rap albums of all time, “Eazy Does It” and NWA’s “Straight Outta Compton.”

The experience led Heller to his unique approach to managing talent.

“Big acts don’t need high-powered guys representing them,” he explained. “Anyone can book an Elton John and take him out on tour. It’s the new acts that really need the industry expertise and high-powered personalities behind them.”

Heller has brought this philosophy to Hit A Lick. The move marks his return to the record industry. He left Ruthless Records in 1995 after the AIDS-related death of Eazy-E and the subsequent legal wrangling over Eazy’s estate.

“We’ve modeled Hit A Lick after the early Ruthless days,” Heller said of his new label, adding that the company is very optimistic about its chances for success. “What we’re doing here is not rocket science,” he said.

Nonetheless, Heller’s and stature in the music community will provide exactly the sort of big-name exposure that Hit A Lick and Latino rap need.

“Jerry’s a tremendous negotiator,” said Grunblatt. “He’s able to deal with everybody in the business, from the street gangster to the record company president.”

“We’re working with a man who really understands the business. He cuts to the chase every time with a vision that takes from the past,” said Dean Naleway of Triple X Records, Hit A Lick’s distributor.

And the commercial potential of Latin rap is vast.

Passion and profits

“Jerry has always had a passion for Latin markets,” said Frankel. “The No. 1 and No. 2 grossing stations in L.A. are Latin. It makes sense for Jerry to be there (in the Latin market) now.”

With Latin music, Heller sees even greater potential than gangsta rap.

“Not only can we sell 20 million records domestically, we can sell 20 million foreign,” Heller said, referring to the 21 Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries around the globe. “We’re looking to do $30 million in our first 18 months. After that, sales will increase incrementally as our artists put out second albums, our name recognition grows, we sign new acts and we put out movie soundtracks and compilations.”

Already, Hit A Lick is operating on the assumption that it will be at the center of a Latino rap explosion. Vasquez has completely renovated the former IRS building in the heart of Los Angeles’ mostly Latino Rampart district. He hopes that the offices will help fashion Rampart into the Latino equivalent of Compton, the home of gangsta rap.

Spread out over 30,000 square feet, Hit A Lick’s high-end multimedia facilities boast two studios with “total recall” recording and sound boards, a plush movie studio, a private nightclub with a VIP room, T-1 lines for Internet radio shows and comfortable lounges where artists can relax between tracks.

“We (Latino rappers) have never had these kind of facilities before,” Frost said, explaining why he dropped his contract with Virgin Records to sign with Hit A Lick. “It’s like my homecoming. These guys are going to bring the Latin rap scene into the studios and bring out new Latin artists.”

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