“I know it’s real, but it’s hard for me to soak in,” said the rapper who once called himself Gena.

He was talking about inking a major label contract with Jermaine Dupri’s So So Def records.

“I’m still in disbelief.”

He’s been a mainstay on the STL hip-hop scene for the past five years, thanks to his two club bangers “Dip in the Club” and “Dope Boy Fresh.” But on Wednesday afternoon, the stroke of a pen instantly catapulted his career to the next level.

“This is a real artist deal,” he said. “It doesn’t happen every day anymore in the industry.”

The full extent of the deal is for them to know and us to find out, but a single is already being prepared to drop as soon as next week.

“Let’s let the ink dry first,” he said with a smile when pressed for more details. “But I hope that through this opportunity people will check out the city and want to come here and work with our talent that much more.”

So So Def launched the careers of Da Brat, Bow Wow, XScape and Jagged Edge.  Several acts – including soul star Anthony Hamilton – have called the label home at some point. The hit collaborations of the label’s founder/ producer Jermaine Dupri are essentially countless and include the likes of Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson.

So to say that Dupri has an ear for what’s hot would be an understatement. And when he heard Gena’s song after listening to the mixtape he did with Murphy Lee he heard that “it” factor.

“We were in the studio and my verse came up and he walked over to me and said, ‘What you know about that boy?’” Gena recalled.

That evening after the song, Dupri said, “Let’s do something.”

Ten days after he reluctantly traveled (on the insistence of his brother Omar) with Murphy Lee to Atlanta to see Dupri, he was an official So So Def artist.

““I’ve had deals on the table and stuff that didn’t work out, but I think that having the right team behind me – like Starpower Entertainment – made a difference,” he said. “I think this game is all about timing too. You can’t give up.”

Through So So Def he’s in a unique position as the first rap star to rep East St. Louis.

“I was the first to be accepted as a St. Louis artist, and I take that with pride,” he said. “But I hold my city on my back. It’s kind of segregated between us, and it shouldn’t be. We should all be in this together.”

Along with the new deal came a new name, Fresco Kane. It’s a tad bit cliché and, some might argue, marginalizing. But his new boss is said to love the name change.

Under a new name – and with a big name behind him – Fresco Kane says he’s gearing up to restart the area’s national presence with respect to the rap game.

“It’s a lot of blood, sweat tears and pain in this business, but it’s a lot of fun too,” he said. “When you get on stage and the feeling that you get when you see people and know they know your music, love what you’re doing and support you – man, it’s nothing like it in this world.”

His goals in music now that he’s with So So Def are simple: “When I drop I want people to turn on the radio, hear my music and say, ‘I don’t know who this is, but I love it.’”

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