LIFE IS A RAP-SODY TO CALIFORNIA IMPRESARIO

Rap music has hit the big time.

Run-D.M.C.’s new album, “Raising Hell,” has sold more than a million copies and is in Billboard’s Top 15. The Fat Boys, Doug E. Fresh and L.L. Cool J are heroes in the street. And the hottest single in town (and one of the biggest across the country) is the Timex Social Club’s “Rumors,” which is No. 1 on the Black Singles chart, Dance chart and 12-Inch Singles chart.

(There’s also a rap all-star show Thursday at the Universal Amphitheatre, featuring the Fat Boys, Full Force, the L.A. Dream Team, Joeski Love and the Boogie Boys.)

And you couldn’t find a more unlikely new rap tycoon than David Lucchesi, the head of Reality and Danya Records, who has just added the Timex Social Club to a roster of hit-makers that includes Doug E. Fresh (“The Show”) and Rockmaster Scott and the Dynamic Three (“The Roof’s On Fire”).

Most rap impresarios are based in New Jersey or New York. But Lucchesi, 38, ex-Fantasy Records sales director, has his home base, as he puts it, “out in the country, where I can see the squirrels in my back yard” in Walnut Creek, Calif.

“From the very beginning everyone told me ‘you gotta move to New York so you can stay in touch,’ ” Lucchesi explained by phone the other day. “But frankly, if I go anywhere, it’ll be Napa Valley, either to Calistoga or St. Helena. I’ve got the phone to stay in touch.”

So far, the phone has worked just fine for Lucchesi. He first heard Doug E. Fresh’s “The Show” when a pal from New York played him the song over the phone. Lucchesi says he quickly signed the band--also over the phone--and used his marketing and promotional talents to help the record sell nearly 750,000 copies last year.

“A lot of people thought I was a pretty strange guy, being way out here in California, picking up bands from New York. I’m always running into people from New York who say--kiddingly, I hope--’Hey, you stole my record!’ But we didn’t steal anything. We just got there first.”

Actually, “Rumors” was already a hit when Lucchesi discovered the Timex Social Club, a group of Berkeley High School grads led by Michael Marshall, 20, who’s now a broadcast journalism student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. But according to Lucchesi, the group had never signed a contract with Jay Records, which has distributed the song.

“I didn’t get involved at all until the group--and my lawyers--convinced me that there was nothing in writing, in fact, that there was no agreement at all. Now I’ve signed them to do an entire album.”

The group will rerecord its current hit for the album, due out next month, but Lucchesi insists that it won’t be rereleased as a single. “That would be a low blow,” he said. “And anyway, we don’t want to compete with our own record. We’ll put out a new single instead.”

Lucchesi helped market and promote rap songs with Tommy Boy Records and producer Arthur Baker before he started his own label several years ago. Hearing him talk strategy, you can’t help but be reminded of the early days of rock, when small independent labels still ruled the marketplace.

“When we know we have a hit record, one that’s 5 feet tall, the whole idea is to turn it into something 10 feet tall--to make it a monster,” he said. “The trick is to create excitement out in the street. Rather than ask the radio stations to do my job and break the record, we break the record in the street and let radio get on the bandwagon.

“We get the action and awareness going first. In other words, for a short period of time, you create a demand before there’s a supply. You get your friends in radio to mention that the song’s coming or maybe get an advance copy to key club deejays a little early. That way you reach the kids, who start coming into the stores, asking for the record, and then the stores get all excited, and since they don’t even have the record yet, they order even more!”

So why is rap so hot now? “The kids love the beat,” Lucchesi said. “It’s totally crossed over now. The kids in my neighborhood, which is largely white and middle-class, are big fans--they play Doug E. Fresh at half time at the high-school basketball games. That’s why a little label like ours can compete with the majors. It really doesn’t matter if a record cost $2,000 or $200,000. If you have the groove, it’s going to happen.”