Rapper Jibbs kicking with Rapper Lil Mont at Jibb’s CD Release Party last Tuesday at Dolce
‘Chain hang low’ high on Billboard chart
Local love for Jibbs like Nelly’s debut
By Bill Beene
Of the St. Louis American
It’s 10 a.m. on a Tuesday morning and the rapper whose chain hangs low is in the shower, but so much is happening with Jibbs these days he couldn’t help but answer the three-way call from his manager Mark Williams (not Tarboy) and me.
Once Williams told him that it was the American trying to get at him, he cut his shower short – at least until we rapped.
“Man I’m on the move a lot, on the road and not at home much since the album dropped,” Jibbs said once he got situated.
That’s what’s up now: constant rapping, interviews, meetings, in-store signings – and CD-related parties.
He’s the Scream 5 Tour on November 22 in Miami with Omarion, Young Joc, Ne-Yo, Pretty Ricky, Sammie and Usher protégé Once Chance.
At this point I can vouch that the interviews and parties are on point.
Let’s start with his CD release party for his debut album Jibbs featuring Jibbs. It went down last Tuesday at a new downtown hotspot called Dolce, designed by Anthony Robinson, who was at Jibbs’ set.
And so were a lot of people. Of course heads from Geffen and Beatsa Music – his label homes – were in the spot, but so were many local artists, fans, family (including his grandmother Norma Bradley and his great aunt Rose Greene), friends, deejays and radio personalities.
I haven’t seen a more spirited and supportive CD release party since Nelly broke out with his nursery rhyme hit “Country Grammar” in 2000.
Jibbs says he doesn’t mind the Nelly comparisons since Nelly has had so much success and was one of cats he grew up listening to along with Biggie, Jay-Z and Lil Wayne.
Speaking of growing up, last week the American opted against running numerous photos of Jibbs and his supporters kicking it at his CD release party since our popular Partyline page is now sponsored by Bud Select.
Like the liquor store, copping a spot on that page requires a 21-year-old age.
So is Jibbs really 15? We know artists often lower their age to increase their marketability. I really don’t care. These cats do what they have to sell records, so it’s all good.
I can tell you that if he is 15, 21 or somewhere in between, he’s very mature. He’s also very personable and knows how to play the game he’s in.
It was young Jibbs who latched onto the “ice cream truck” melody when his brother first produced it.
Local rapper Lil Mont first spit on the track and Jibbs sang the hook. Now it’s just the opposite, with Lil Mont and Jibb’s brother and sister holding the hook down.
“I was a kid singing on there, but I always thought it was a hit,” Jibbs said of the track, “So I told my brother to remake it. I rewrote the lyrics and kept the hook.”
Last week I got to listen to the many stages the song went though while kicked back at mix master Adam Long’s laboratory while he and Chris King backed up some of Chris’ projects.
The original track wasn’t what it is now, but the potential that Jibbs peeped was written all over it.
Long had mixed the song from its raw beginning to its big hint of hit-producing quality when the Beatsas remixed it with Murphy Lee rapping over it.
So it isn’t like Jibbs stole the song, it’s just that once it was given up on, Jibbs was still feeling it. Now people across the country are feeling it.
“I thought it was an anthem because just about every knew the ice cream truck melody and people were into letting their chains hang low and doing crazy things with their emblem so I put the two together.”
Before ice creams truck started beating down the block with tune, it was an American minstrel repertory mainstay known as either Turkey in the Straw or Zip Coon.
Jibbs said he had no knowledge of that and was introduced to the melody by an ice cream truck. Meanwhile he’s trucking on Billboard’s Hot 100 at number 11.
His first week of album sales aren’t in now (Thursday, Oct.2), but he’s already reached baller status by going platinum with more than $1 million ringtone sales before his album dropped.
He’s only the second artist to do that. Rapper Rick Ross who got down at Plush last week was the first.
What’s Jibbs’ mother, former rapper Sherri Cambell, saying?
“It’s exciting. I’m so proud of him. When no one else knew it would happen my husband and I knew, but I still stay mom, I still stay humble and keep God in my life.”
And yes, she lets her chain hang low.
