Bigg Phill’s words have been falling on deaf ears for at least three years. The Chicago rapper, who hesitantly provides his “government name” as Phillip Walton, has been crafting rhymes since 1987.
But like many other homegrown artists, it has been a constant struggle for him to penetrate radio airwaves. Local mix masters largely ignored him, despite the fact that he lives up to his name, standing taller than 6 feet and weighing more than 250 pounds.
“Chicago is a really bad market to break new artists,” Bigg Phill explains.
It’s even a struggle for known artists, according to Ralph Leverston, a.k.a. Wildstyle, from the popular local group Crucial Conflict. Wildstyle, the group’s producer, believed the battle for recognition ended when their fast-rhyming crew landed a recording deal with Pallas Records and released “The Final Tic” in 1996.
But a bad experience with the label during follow-up album “Good Side, Bad Side” in 1998 and little publicity for the Buckwild Records’ release “Call of the Wild” in 2001 kept the group out of public earshot over the next three years.
“The first time we blew up, we had no problem with radio play because the label gave us money for promotion,” Wildstyle says. “Without that support behind you, it’s hard to get airtime.”
Now, Crucial Conflict and Bigg Phill are finding support elsewhere.
They are working with NuFace Entertainment, a technology entertainment company that recently partnered with Chicago radio stations Power 92 (WPWX-FM 92.3) and WGCI-FM 107.5. NuFace posts unsigned and indie artists’ music on its Web site and informs the station management of the most popular tracks.
For Crucial Conflict’s latest single, “In the Circle,” the positive reception on both Power 92’s “Download Hour” and WGCI’s “Click that i Downloads” resulted in immediate addition to both stations’ regular rotation.
“The Internet is transforming the industry,” NuFace CEO Rita Lee says. Her company typically charges artists a flat fee of $1,000 to post their single online and track downloads. But she says the amount is a small price to pay compared with earlier, more traditional efforts.
“All these unsigned artists used to waste money putting up posters, shopping singles and trying to emulate million-dollar marketing campaigns,” Lee says. “They never learned the art of promotion.”
Now artists are turning more attention toward building buzz, say Nycholle Brown, 30, and Renard Mayfield, 28, who founded Chicago-based Big Bite USA, an entertainment marketing company, in 2001.
“It’s not easy,” Brown says. “This industry is based on relationships. Having popular Chicago artists helps the local industry, but you have to invest in marketing yourself or you’ll fail.”
“It would be easier if a Chicago artist could say, ‘I got Twista doing a cameo on my record,’ or ‘Kanye produced this track,’ ” Mayfield explains. “But getting those artists costs a lot of money. If you’re going it alone, you have to have undeniable talent.”
And undeniable drive like Bigg Phill’s. He says that his recent radio exposure has netted him a single recording deal with Universal Records and prominent position at a concert Sunday at the Congress Theatre.
“I’ve made nine albums in the last 10 years. Now somebody will hear them.”
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnopp@tribune.com)
