Jibbs gets Interscope label deal in the family business
By Chris King
Of the St. Louis American
Kevin Black, who presides over rap at Interscope, was in St. Louis recently. While in town, he stepped onstage at Toxic during the Thursday night Gong Show and said St. Louis was home to the rapper that would get his label’s next big push, a mostly unknown teenager from the near South Side named Jibbs.
Jibbs recently inked a six-record deal with Interscope. His first single, “Chain Hang Low,” is scheduled to drop June 1 with the full-length Jibbs Featuring Jibbs to follow in the fall.
If Jibbs seems to come out of nowhere into this good fortune, he only seems to. Actually, he was born for this. He is home-schooled in a family of musicians and hip-hoppers.
Most important for his new career, DJ Beatz of the Beatstaz is his brother. His father John Campbell is a multi-instrumentalist. As for his mama, Sheri Campbell, she used to be Toasted Tan, back in the day. Yes, Jibbs’ mama was a Chicago rapper.
“Years ago, back in the ‘80s, looking for something to do, some friends of mine and I went around to different clubs and got paid for rapping,” the former Toasted Tan said. “One of my friends, Roseanne, is dead now. Cancer.”
Who’d have thought? Rap is an oldies form now, with its own cancer casualties.
“Hit it,” her husband of 22 years encouraged her.
She hit it. It was old-school flow, full of good feeling. “Two left feet” and “ain’t no generation gap” were two phrases that stood out. “Somebody in my house, say, ‘Go ahead!’” she rapped, at one point, and John echoed, “Go ahead!”
Yeah, this could be a fun and productive family for a rapper to grow up in.
“Jibbs has it, more than I did,” Sheri Campbell said. “Ever since he was a little baby, he had this character about him. He was always a talker. I could never get him to keep quiet. He always had charisma. He always was a people person. I’m not surprised he is going into this business.”
His brother, DJ Beatz, gave him his jump at the industry.
“My brother knows a lot of people in music,” Jibbs said. “He shopped my music around. Every label he took me to wanted me.” Interscope got him. Mark Williams was tasked to help nail down the deal and manage his career.
Williams said he has “been messing with music for about 10 years.” He has had his own label deal for Rag Doll Music with Atlantic Records. He got to know “high-flight executives” in the business and came to know its politics.
“I’ve been sitting back and watching the St. Louis music scene and seeing missed opportunities for real,” Williams said.
DJ Beatz pulled Williams in on his brother’s deal, a six-record label deal for Beatsta Music Group. Doug Davis, brother of Clive Davis, represented them at the closing table. “We’re gonna market him as a ‘big big kid,’” Williams said.
Orlando “Pretty Boy” Watson, who recently moved his label deal from Universal Music Group to Interscope, said the rap division at the label has Jibbs fever. “He’s the biggest priority,” Pretty Boy said. “He’s gonna be the one.”
The first single, “Chain Hang Low,” has a nursery rhyme feel, though researching the source of the catchy melody that dominates the hook, Jibbs and company were surprised to find a bunch of dead Confederates. “The original melody is an old Confederate war song,” Williams said, clearly unfazed by the irony.
Hey, hip-hop will eat anything, even a dead Confederate.
You’ll have every chance to hear this single for yourself, soon enough. It’s catchy, with more flow than thought, geared for the youth market, though it will get stuck in grown folks’ heads too, like it or not. It won’t do much to break the St. Louis reputation for singsongy rappers who don’t really rap, though Jibbs insists he’s got real raps coming down the pipe – all of them clean, with no explicit lyrics.
He doesn’t even have to leave the house for inspiration.
“Every once in awhile, my mom will say a rap,” Jibbs said. “And I’ll say, ‘Mom, that’s old-school.’ I’ll take it and flip it. Then I’ll have me a rhyme.”
