below is a feature story on up and coming Missouri based hip-hop rapper Stevie Stone:

FEATURE BITZ--STEVIE STONE

During the post-Nelly hip-hop era, the State of Missouri has had its share of hip hop rappers who made a name for themselves. The next big thing is slowly becoming a part of that rap pantheon. His name is Steve Stone. We met Stone while reporting backstage at the Big Beat Derrty DJ’s Summit at the Pageant in May right before he performed in front of a sold out crowd. Born in Columbia, Mo. This talented 25 year old (Who will be 26 later this month) rapwordsmith signed to the infamous rap label Ruthless Records (aka the House that Eazy E/NWA built). making waves with his debut CD, “ New Kid Commin”and the first single, “Wait a Minute.”


OUTTOWN talked with Stone in early June after one of his performances at the Pageant in Delmar loop with one of his CD producers Tech9.


**OUTTOWN: So how did you get signed to Ruthless Records?
STONE: I did a showcase in the ATL (in 2006), the Billboard Hip Hop& R&B showcase and it was three RB groups and I was the only rap group. At the time I was recording and getting out here doing shows. When I was down there, she (Ruthless Records CEO Tomica Woods Wright) didn’t see me perform. She heard my first mixtape . It was in a bag full of CDs of all artists in the showcase and mine was in bag. She ran into my production company people, Fly Moves, with Ira Dewitt and chopped it up and Ira asked her who was she felling rite now she said me. When she talked to me, she said she liked my lingo and she ended up coming here a couple weeks later to STL to a private party at the Mandarin in late 07. Naughty By Nature performed and I performed. She liked it and told me she wanted to hear more stuff. She liked my swag. That Monday FLY MOVES sent her more songs. She loved it and she came down again to the STL to see me perform at Blueburry Hill and on the spot in the studio (Phat Budda) and was highly impressed. It was about paperwork after that.


**OUTTOWN: What was going thru you head when you were about to get signed?
STONE: I’m the type of guy I don’t get too geeked on the first thing that come around. The second time I knew it was something. She (Tomica) told me she was digging it and I was honored and enthused about it.

**OUTTOWN: How would you define your music, your style?
STONE: I’m across the board, you know what I’m sayin. I appeal to the streets, corporate, white and black folk I define myself as a musician, a lover of music, an entertainer, songwriter, producer. High energy and melodic. Funk and blues. I grew up where my Mom listened to blues. You can’t put me in one category. My album (New Kid Comin) is gonna show people that.


**OUTTOWN: Did Ms. Wright give you any advice or pointers after she sigend you to Ruthless?
STONE: She just told me to be me. She didn’t tell me what to write or what to do. She said she liked me. There was nothing she wanted to change about me and she said there is a lane for me. No restrictions. I had full creative control.

**OUTTOWN: How many songs did you record for your first CD?
STONE: The album was pretty much done . But I felt my best was yet to come. Altogether I chose like 25 tracks. I’m like a lab rat, you know what I’m sayin. I record all day . I’m a kid in the industry as far as the industry is concerned and it came down to picking my songs. I had like 16 record I was in love with, the others ahhh. My next record will be better than my last record. You gotta do songs to find your grip, you know what I’m sayin. . We’re still leaking songs to MySpace and giving them away. I wouldn’t put the other songs on my second album cuz I’ve grown as a business man. I’m older. I’ve grown as a man.


**OUTTOWN: So when are you starting on your second album?
STONE: I’ve already started on it. Its; coming out August of this year. I start my promo tour next month (July). I’m going to tour all the rounds in the Mideast region first. Then L.A. and New York


**OUTTOWN: You’re first single, “Wait A Minute,” how did you come up with that joint?
STONE: I did that song after I got back from L.A. after I signed to Ruthless. It’s a real catchy type record. But it’s about what I’m saying in it. It’s a meaning. Its like I had to wait seven years to get to this point, Now this my time.

**OUTTOWN: So it’s an autobiographical track.
STONE: Definitely. Stuff I went through. My hard work and dedication. Never got discovered. Never felt I wouldn’t make it, you know what I’m saying. I remember something my Mom installed in me when I was young like, I know I’m gonna do it, it’s just when. And I didn’t expect it when it (my rap career) happened. I learned when you go hard, and don’t expect it that’s that’s when you get your blessings.

**OUTTOWN: You worked with George Clinton on your CD.
STONE: Yeah, that was a blessing.

**OUTTOWN: How did you work with him?
STONE: I did a track called “Red Wine,” a remake of his song “One Nation Under a groove,” and Clinton got my record from the chief engineers at Phat Buddha girlfriend’s brother is part of George Clinton’s management team. He gave him the CD without us knowing. He loved it and offered to hop on it. We had the deal, the budget to create the album, it was done. We got it cleared with the publishing, he gave us a friends and family rate. At the time, he was in Moscow on tour and he got the track and put his swag on it and sent it back.

**OUTTOWN: Wow, that’s hot. Did you talk with George Clinton?
STONE: Not yet. He wanted to be actually in the video. I guess my voice, my swagger was in it. It wasn’t about the money with him. It wasn’t planned. That’s my mammas and aunties favorite song.

**OUTTOWN: You are a PK (Preachers’ kid) and come form a musical family.
STONE: Yeah, I come from very musical family. My Mom played organ and piano. My Pop the piano. My sisters sing. I play the piano By ear. Like my pops. Play drums . Play guitar a bit. I love music. It’s not just me rapping. It’s me orchestrating music. It’s not just hip hop withme. My grooming and schooling is different from a lot of folk cuz of my parents and music I grew up around. I met my Pop when I was 10, when I used to visit him in Iowa.

**OUTTOWN: Iowa? Wow, what was that like? Was it a culture shock?
STONE: It’s very country and slow. Nothin’ but cornfields and my pops. I would visit him and his wife during Xmases and summers and he took me to his church in Muscatine , a few miles from Iowa City, where he was pastoring and where all the blacks lived. It was at his church where he installed that balance, you know what I’m saying. Teaching me the Word. Two different worlds Iowa was church and when I went back to my Mom, you know what I’m sayin, she worked so I mostly hit the streets. Battle chuch kid and street kid

**OUTTOWN: Did your Pop approve of your rapping?
STONE: Well, my Pop passed in ’03. Before he passed , he found out. I never told him. My brother musta told him and said that I was good. \He never did judge me, you know what I’m sayin. He was proud of me being happy and successful. He understood my environment and didn’t judge that. I cant say he didn’t approve of what I was doin but he approved anything positive I was doing. My mom she loves it.


**OUTTOWN: When and how did you get to St. Louis?
STONE: Well, let’s see, I been in St. Louis for 6 years. How? I hooked up with Phat Buddha Studios. I was looking for a spot to record and while working with them that’s how I met Jane Higgins (Nelly’s former Public Relations Manager ) who was on her last leg of PR for entertainers. She said I gave her a breath of fresh air. I met her who introduced me to the St. Louis Rams. I already knew one of the players, Anthony Hargrove, that’s who stayed with. Jane loved my music and passion. She knew what I been through and thought I had really good music and put me on.

**OUTTOWN: What projects did Higgins hook you up on?
STONE: I did a fight song and music video for Rams (in 2007) that helped me a lot. It was on the news. Bene on the news. The video took plays at Nelly’s partners’ spot Three and Jay Detail Shop and it was shown on the (Edward Jones Dome) Jumbotron


**OUTTOWN: Your trademark is your call and response remark “Himmi Hyme” How you get that term?
STONE: In High school, on the bus, being silly, making people laugh. I started rapping “himmy hime!,” it’s a reaction, a call and response and I just made a meaning of it afterwards when people were asking me what it is. A song would come on they would remember the “Himmy,” The Call and “Hime,” The Response. It can be a person, place thing, adjective, verb. Master P said Uhhhhhhh. Now it’s part of my everyday life.

**OUTTOWN: Whats your favorite food?
STONE: I’m a country boy. That’s hard. It’s more like a favorite meal like chicken, mac and cheese mash potatoes, green sand cornbread.

**OUTTOWN: Hobbies?
STONE: I used to play video games but I haven’t played them in awhile. Basketball was my first passion. I read.

**OUTTOWN: What was the last book you read?
STONE: Kevin Lyle, “ Make it Happen.”

**OUTTOWN: Favorite car.
STONE: The Benzo 500. I like old school, like the 70s . I have a 76 Buick. I’m a Cady rite now.

**OUTTOWN: Whats next for you?
STONE: I just did the Low Rider Magazine tour in Cali, getting ready to shoot another video, for “Midwest Explosion” with Tech9 up and coming.

**OUTTOWN: Anything you wanna add?
STONE: My voice is for the Midwest, Kansas City, St.Louis. Columbia. The whole region. I worked with a wide range of producers and rappers like Tech9, Spaide Ripper, Murphy Lee , touching every base I can. Himmie Hime!

-www.hoodgrown.com

-www.wordpress.com

-www.mvremix.com (October 28, 2008)

-www.theinsider.com (October 27, 2008)

-www.themixtapemonster.com (June 19, 2009)

-www.celebritymound.com (October 27 2008)

-www.ruters.com (February 13, 2008)

-www.rapnewsnetwork.com (March 27, 2008)

-www.musicremedy.com (March 14, 2008)

-www.free-press-release.com (March 7, 2008)

-www.billboard.biz (March 31, 2008)

-www.bremagazine.com

-www.djbooth.net

-www.wowzio.com

-www.albumgrab.com (February 15, 2008)

-www.hiphopbx.com (June 2, 2009; March 14, 2009)

-www.rapbasement.com (March 31, 2008)

-www. maatology.blogspot.com (June 30, 2009)

-www.planeturban.com

-www.globalgrind.com (June 18, 2009)

The Riverfront Times
By Annie Zaleski
Article Published August 31, 2005

Stevie Stone sports a pristine Cardinals jersey as he sits in the funky downtown offices of Coolfire Media, but the talk on this late-August afternoon has nothing to do with the pennant race. The clean-cut 23-year-old, who bears a resemblance to actor Donald Faison of Scrubs fame, is demonstrating the simple but stylish dance moves that accompany his "Ram Jam" -- the song he hopes the St. Louis Rams will adopt as their theme song this season. "It's actually very easy. When it says, 'Down,' you go like this," he says, and reaches down with his right hand. "Down with the Ram team. When it says, 'Up with the good sack', you just jump four times." Stone raises an arm and hops clockwise in a circle. "Then it says, 'Left with a little swing,' so 'Left with a little swing/Swing on your quarterback.'" He clasps his hands, forming a parallel horizontal line and moves his elbows up and down. "It's pretty much just like what it says." Stone's moves are a far cry from the two left feet Chicago Bears defensive tackle William "The Refrigerator" Perry exhibited in the video for 1985's "Super Bowl Shuffle" -- one of the most so-awesomely-bad-it's-awesome novelty hits ever. Still, the aim of "Ram Jam" is similar to the former's message: to pump up Rams players for the long journey to "Motown" -- i.e., Detroit, the site of next year's Super Bowl XL. Judging by the tune's banging beats -- think the TrackBoyz with less hollering but just as much arena-rock bombast -- and its infectious-as-the-flu hooks, "Ram Jam" is worthy of such cheerleading. So how did Stone foster an association with the team? He credits his friendship with right defensive tackle Brian Howard and right defensive end Anthony Hargrove. According to Hargrove, he and some teammates heard Stone's song "Hit It" and loved it. "Me and my buddies liked it so much we said, 'Why don't you do [a song] for the Rams?'" Hargrove says. With that in mind, Stone began freestyling over the framework of that song and rejiggered the lyrics so that it serves as a roll call of Rams players. (Orlando Pace, Leonard Little and Marshall Faulk receive shout-outs.) Adds Hargrove, "We play [the 'Ram Jam'] in the locker room all the time." Stone shot a "Ram Jam" video in late July (on one of the hottest days of the summer, no less) at Downtown Detailing, which is co-owned by Jesse James and Cidell Small III (a.k.a. Three, a.k.a. Nelly's personal assistant). The clip features Rams cheerleaders, players and even kids from the Kids in the Middle, a charity that provides counseling and support for children of divorced parents. If the video sees release, Stone says proceeds will benefit the St. Louis-based nonprofit. Although nothing had been confirmed at press time, the Rams' entertainment department has seen the video and there's talk of using it in some capacity during home games, according to Molly Higgins, corporate communications coordinator for the team. "It's a very high-energy and unique Ram-centric song," Higgins says. Perhaps "Ram Jam" will be the catalyst to jump-start Stone's career. He grew up in Columbia in a musical family, immersed in gospel, blues and hip-hop. (Stone cites Kool Moe Dee, Barry White and Marvin Gaye as sonic presences.) Both his mother and late father (the latter was a preacher) played piano -- as does Stone, who learned to play by ear. "I tried to take piano lessons, but my mom didn't want to pay for the lessons," he says. "I would just watch [the teachers'] hands, but I wouldn't grasp the concept of the actual notes. We would come home and she'd get off work and we'd get to the organ or piano and she'd be like, 'Well, show me what you learned. What is this note? What is this note?' And I'm like, 'I don't know. But I can sit there and play it!' After, like, three months, she's like, 'I'm not wasting my money no more.'" Right after he graduated high school in 2000, Stone made the decision to forgo college and concentrate on his tunes full-time. "It was either basketball or music," he says. "I got to open up for Tech N9ne, the guy from Kansas City, outdoors at the [Missouri State] Fairgrounds. It was crazy. People was crazy. Reporters came up, talking to us afterwards. I was just like: 'This is it!' I've always loved music and always liked dealing with music, but that was like the point in time when I was like, 'I'm stepping out right now.'" Stone now commutes from Columbia to St. Louis and hopes to release an album -- which he's working on with his producer, Frizz, who also programmed the beats on "Ram Jam" -- by next spring. In the meantime he's playing at the Pageant next Friday at the Grammy Demo Review & New Music Spotlight and is penciled in to open for Lil Jon when the Atlanta crunk master next visits St. Louis. And, of course, he's hoping "Ram Jam" has its intended effect on the team. "Adrenaline," he says. "Motivation. It's their own song that they have for this year. It's targeting a goal, it's a goal to reach Motown. That right here is a lot of motivation, high-energy."