MC SEARCH

MC SEARCH and Rapper YO YO

After appearing as Detroit Icon #1 in the runnings for the afternoon drive slot for Hot 102.7, MC Serch has joined the ranks of Radio One personalities to host Serchlight Saturdays, a new weekly variety hip hop and R&B show.

After parting ways with Clear Channel’s FM 98 WJLB in 2006, Serch seemed to all but disappear from the public eye until he re-emerged with the White Rapper Show on VH-1. In the midst of that, he has gone on partake in a multitude of projects that include local and national ventures For those who have been wondering what happened to the former morning show host that Detroit grew to know and love, the FrontPage had a chance to sit down with Serch to find out what he’s been up to

FrontPage: What’s been going on with you since you left Detroit?

Serch: I never left Detroit. I’ve lived here the whole time.

FP: Really?

S: I’ve been doing fundraising for the city and I’ve been doing some development projects with the mayor. Kids have been going to school. I still live here, never left.

FP: Why did you leave FM 98?

S: I got fired.

FP: Really? Why?

S: I did an event and I thought I had permission to do it and I found out that I didn’t and it was a breach of my contract. So they let me go.

FP: How did Ego Trip come about?

S: Ego Trip is a magazine that has been in New York since like ’93, and the guys who started it were a couple of guys I knew from Queens. In fact, their first cover was Nas, like Illmatic, so we’ve known each other for a long time. And they just started doing their specials for VH-1 and they asked me to host a couple of them. Then they got their pilot for the White Rapper Show and they asked me to host that. It’s kind of led on to the White Rapper Show and Ego Trip’s Miss Rap Supreme. That’s kind of the story. They’ve always been very involved in the scene in New York in terms of hip hop. They’ve written two big books on it; Ego Trip’s Book of Rap Lists, which is like a bible about anything you want to know about hip hop, [and] Ego Trip’s Big Book of Racism. They’re just a bunch of really good dudes and just really talented and really creative, and I’ve been friends with them for 20 years.

FP: What’s the whole mind set behind the new show that you’re doing?

S: To find some great female artists. After we did the White Rapper Show, we realized that what’s harder than being a white rapper is being a female rapper. They don’t have a Grammy anymore, they don’t have an American Music Award anymore. There’s only two signed to major labels. There were no releases from a female artist last year; the only one this year is Missy. Eve put out a record last year, “Tambourine.” So it’s that; it’s really about the females rappers. And the guy with Ego Trip thought it would be kind of cool if we could develop a show to showcase some great female emcees. It’s a TV show so you’re going to have some characters. You have to have character anyway to be in this business. You can’t be one dimensional and just make music. You have to be a character. So that was the concept behind the show.

FP: I have to ask, what is the whole deal behind the drama with Khia?

S: The whole blowup with Khia was that she was told in the first elimination to write an original 16-bar verse. And then in every competitor’s contract through VH-1, it states that you can’t say anything that was either pre-recorded or pre-published. It’s a known fact in the contract. So everything you spit on the show has to be original because ultimately it has to be owned by VH-1. So she was in direct violation of the rule and we didn’t really realize it because none of us at Ego Trip really knew her music like that. So after she did it and we were all kind of breaking up for the night, one of our guys, this guy named Mike – he’s a big music head and he’s got like six I-Pods full of music – he’s like ‘wait a minute, that sound mad familiar’ and he looked in his I-Pod and he had the record. So we had to do some mad scrambling to legal on the phone to find out what to do, and the bottom line was she was disqualified. So we had to tell her to step off.

FP: Well, you handled it very well in your blog.

S: You know, we tried. It was a tough situation. You know we were definitely feeling like she was emotionally unstable and we didn’t know how she was going to kind of react to us kicking her out of the house. But she handled it well and, unfortunately, the aftermath of this is her on a million blogs and on radio stations all across the county saying whatever she’s saying. And it’s just great publicity for the show, ultimately. It just drives more people to want to see next week’s episode.

FP: Can you speak a little bit to what you’re doing with Radio One now?

S: Yeah, I’m doing a couple of things. I have a syndicated show that’s called Classic Material that focuses on classic records but it’s a twist on it because we talk to new artists about some of the old school records and some of the classics that they grew up with. And it’s a mix tape format, so it’s really like kind of flowing like you’re at a party back in the day. So that’s one thing. And we got that going on a couple of other stations at Radio One. Then here in Detroit specifically, Serchlight Saturdays is gonna go from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. It’s really going to focus on exclusive joints that nobody has yet, nobody gets, things that I can do based on my relationships in the music business. So I can get some real tasty cookies and treats that nobody’s got and really showcase Detroit artists and really give Detroit artists a chance to shine. It’s not just like an hour show. It’s two hours, it’s interactive, it’s getting them up here, its really exposing them, and not just exposing them on one record for one minute. It’s really about exposing them to the city of Detroit as an up and coming artist. So when they really blow up they remember who was there for them first.

FP: As a long-time veteran, what are your thoughts on the hip-hop scene now?

S: I love hip-hop. I think people confuse hip-hop and rap. Hip-hop is break dancing, DJ’ing, emceeing, B-boying, graffiti, beat boxing, that’s hip-hop. That’s the culture. Rap is just the music. There’re some rappers I don’t like but I don’t try to focus on the ones I don’t like. I try to focus on the ones I do like: Lupe Fiasco, Kanye, Common, Talib, Jean Gray, May Day, Mr. Wrong, Non-Fiction. I try to look at the records that I enjoy. I enjoy Lil Wayne. I’m not going to be listening to a Soldja Boy record, it’s just not for me and it’s OK. Like, I’m glad that he was able to do what he did because he did it independently, and that’s great. But that is just not my record; it’s not what I would do and it’s not what I would make. So I think that rap is in great shape. Independents really have a great opportunity to have a career now more than they ever did before.

FP: Do you miss your 3rd Bass Days?

S: I miss going on tour. I really miss performing. But, no, I don’t miss the 3rd Bass days. The 3rd Bass days were complicated for me. If I could have the 3rd Bass days now with the mind set I have now, it’d be much better. But when it was 3rd Bass back then, it was complicated and the touring, making records, the performing I loved but everything else around it I couldn’t stand.

FP: What other projects do you have in the works right now?

S: There’s a few. We’re really focused on building Serchlight Music.com to be a hip-hop portal. We got a “Peace in the Middle East” project, which Palestinian and Jewish artists come together to promote peace in the Holy Land. Everything was donated, so 100 percent of the proceeds go to orphanages in Palestine and Israel, or taken to kids who lost their families in the war. [Also] working on Serchlight distribution for a couple of artists, helping out on some management stuff, started Serchlight Multi-Media…and other than that, just being a dad.

For more information about MC Serch visit www.serchlightmusic.com.