Fredro Starr
Age: 25
Hometown: Queens, N.Y.
Real name: Fredro Scruggs
Sounds like: A hyper rapper whose intense delivery sounds as though it is inspired as much by desperation as determination.
His history: Starr was a founding member of Onyx, a hard-core rap group whose “Slam” single ruled the pop music charts in 1993. Starr and cousin Sticky Fingaz were the lead vocalists of the group, who were primarily responsible for introducing stage-diving and the mosh pit to hip-hop performances.
Cold front: Starr portrays Malakai in the hugely successful “Save the Last Dance.” Even though Starr is a New Yorker, he was unprepared for Chicago’s frigid winter conditions. “We shot the film in Chicago and it was freezing,” he said. “I did some scenes where I couldn’t even talk. My jaw was actually frozen. But that was adrenaline in itself, to work in those conditions.”
Current project: Starr released his debut album, “Firestarr,” Tuesday. It is the first release on his own Other Peoples Money imprint, which will also release albums from Sticky Fingaz and Onyx in the future. The collection features two versions of “Dyin’ 4 Rap,” in which he pledges allegiance to the art form. “`Dyin’ 4 Rap’ means that I live for hip-hop,” he said. “If you live for something, you’ve got to die for it automatically. When I first started rhyming, I would walk 20 blocks to rap in a park called Baisley Park in Queens. Every week, that park would get shot up when we started to rap. But I would still go back there the next week because that’s what I loved. That’s what my whole career has been like.”
Expanding horizons: Starr will be appearing in the forthcoming love story “Commitments” and will be producing and starring in “Young, Rich & Famous,” a one-hour dramedy television program he is developing. “It’s like a hip-hop version of `Dallas,'” he said.
Key quote: “It’s like I’ve got a second rap life. It took a while, but I’ve got my own record company. I feel like I’ve got my own life back.”
