Miffed Rapper Pickets Awards Show

“Is rap too black for San Diego?”

That question is more than rhetorical; it was posed on a hand-lettered sign held by local rap artist Trick as he and several others picketed outside Humphrey’s during the San Diego Music Awards program Aug. 19.

The 28-year-old Trick (real name Neil Westbrooks) was miffed that the event honored local performers in 21 different categories--including four for jazz and six for rock--but couldn’t find a single slot for rap or hip-hop. He considered the omission both a general and a personal slight.

“I’ve had a major-label recording contract (with MCA Records, as a member of the rap group the Mixmasters), I’ve done national tours, and I have a lot of new stuff happening in my career,” Trick said. “So when I saw that the San Diego Music Awards didn’t even have a category for me, it hit me in a really bad way.”

Trick found bitter irony in the fact that the ostensible purpose of the awards is to bring attention to local talent.

“I lived in L.A. for a while, and they’re much better at supporting local musicians up there,” he said. “I’ve been working in San Diego for 10 years, and this city has been a very tough nut to crack. I do this for a living, seven days a week, and I’ve been representing San Diego all over the country. Yet when the people involved in the local music business take time to promote and expose local talent, I can’t even get a mention. It’s not right.”

Being new to the protest game, Trick discussed his feelings with some influential people before deciding to picket the affair.

“I didn’t want to act on impulse,” he said. “And, to be honest, I didn’t know a whole lot about the awards. So I talked to various people in the business to get as much information as possible. I even talked to the Urban League, just to find out if I was doing the right thing. I didn’t just want to cause problems, I wanted to find out what was going on.”

Trick eventually spoke to Kevin Hellman, the show’s executive director, in a phone conversation the rapper described as “a trip.” According to Trick, Hellman was anything but receptive to his arguments and, in fact, came off somewhat patronizing.

“(Hellman) made it very easy to draw conclusions within the first five minutes of our talk,” Trick said. “The first excuse he gave me was that there wasn’t enough money in the budget for another trophy because they cost $250 apiece. That was not thrilling to hear. He went on to say that I should be thankful they’d moved from 12 categories (in 1991) to 21. But it looks to me as though progress has been minimal. I mean, they don’t even have an R & B category!”

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Trick claims that he tried to keep music as the focus of the conversation and tried not to resort to the R-word. However, he said, when he even suggested the possibility of racial overtones, Hellman went ballistic.

“I asked (Hellman) if I could be frank with him, and he said, ‘Oh, please do.’ But, when I mentioned the possibility that racism might be involved, he got really hostile,” Trick said. “The man went off, saying things like, ‘I’ll hang up on you right now!’

“Up to that point, I was giving him the benefit of the doubt, and I wasn’t angry at all. You know, there are a lot of very militant people who will automatically grab the racial issue at every opportunity--you know, ‘It’s a black thing, it’s a black thing.’ But that’s not my perspective on things. Still, his reaction left little doubt. It hurt me.”

The situation remains unresolved. Hellman recommended that the two of them get together soon to discuss a rap or “urban” category for the 1992 awards, Trick allowed.

“I told him I believe that when a person has good intentions, the end result will usually be good, even if the route is somewhat questionable,” Trick said. “But after I hung up, I didn’t feel appeased. I realized that even if we had a meeting, the rap category might never become a reality. So I went ahead and picketed, which is something I’d never done before.

“People have told me that even if they do add a rap award next year, I definitely won’t get nominated,” Trick added, laughing. “But that’s not really the issue for me.”

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Hellman, meanwhile, maintains that race had no bearing whatsoever on any aspect of the awards presentation. Further, he alleges that Trick went back on his word not to demonstrate at the event--a fact that remains a sore point.

“Trick seemed like a very nice guy, but he really (ticked) me off by picketing after telling me he wouldn’t,” Hellman said Monday. “I explained how we picked our new categories, I offered to buy him a ticket to the show, and I said I’d buy him lunch and discuss a new category for next year. And he tells me I’m prejudiced against him and his people. Well, he’s just dead wrong.

“Being from the South, I’ve seen racial hatred--I’m Jewish, I’ve felt it!” Hellman added. “And I would never exclude anyone on that basis. This year, a number of black artists actually performed on the show, and we added more women and a Latin category. We’re trying . . . it’s only our second year!”

Still, Hellman didn’t mind Trick’s broaching the subject as much as he did his timing.

“I don’t understand why somebody didn’t bring this up earlier in the year, when articles began appearing in the paper, or when they first saw the ballot, weeks ago, instead of waiting until 48 hours before the program to insist on participating,” Hellman said. “Out of 43 responses from people in the academy (a loose aggregate of local music professionals and media who suggest categories and nominate performers), I had one person suggest a rap category and one other person suggest an ‘urban’ category. I would love to have included one of those, but it costs us over $200 for each of those awards, and we just couldn’t add everything this year.”

Hellman vowed to call Trick to discuss the matter, which he believes can be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. He said there’s probably a better than 50% chance that rap will be on the ballot next year, and he’s already spoken with radio station Z-90 about sponsoring a rap-urban category.

“But I don’t make (the category) determination alone, and I’m not going to be forced into it because some guy pickets the show,” Hellman said. “And I’ll say this right now: I won’t have a rap act perform live at the show if it’s at Humphrey’s, which is basically a jazz venue operating under very strict volume guidelines. We went about as far out as we could just having (rock acts) Robert Vaughn and Mark DeCerbo perform.”

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Regardless of how the San Diego Music Awards deals with the issue, an apparent hands-off policy toward rap on the part of local promoters is an ongoing concern to the city’s black-music entrepreneurs. Brian Matthews, an independent promoter and head of San Diego-based TCB Entertainment, is one of them.

“I can think of a couple possible reasons why rap doesn’t get a fair shake here,” Matthews said. “First, there’s an economic fear, that there isn’t a large enough audience here to support it. Actually, the market for black music here is small by comparison to other major cities. But then, 75% of rap and hip-hop music is purchased by whites. So that’s really no excuse not to work with it.

“Second, I think there might be a fear of the audience,” he said. “I don’t think promoters are as educated about the rap market as they are about other kinds of music. It’s an unknown to them. But there are mechanisms out there available to them. I’d be more than happy to help them grasp a little bit of the urban and hip-hop markets.”

Caution has something to do with Rob Hagey’s decision not to book rap acts for the San Diego Street Scene. At a news conference earlier this month, Hagey was asked about the dearth of hip-hop or urban acts at the Street Scene, which is billed as an “urban” event. On Monday, he addressed the issue again.

“I’ve been very careful about the type of acts we book for Street Scene,” Hagey said. “We’ve stayed away from the tougher punk acts, for example, and the louder, heavier-metal bands, mostly because I want to remain conservative in the type of audiences we attract. Rap falls into that category, as well. There are a number of rap artists that I personally really like, but Street Scene is a very complex event that weaves together local merchants, many departments of the city and other entities that are concerned about liability. I have to be careful not to jeopardize the whole affair just to appease a few people.”

Hagey cited his ongoing relationship with a local radio station that plays a lot of rap and hip-hop but whose participation in Street Scene has taken a different tack.

“For the second year, we’re working with 92.5 to promote a world-beat stage that will feature artists from Haiti and Zimbabwe,” Hagey said. “As far as the ‘urban’ part of the festival goes, it’s urban because it takes place in and derives its flavor from an urban setting.”

Probably, a reluctance to invite trouble--in the form of presumably violence-prone rap fans--will remain in effect for many local entrepreneurs, even though both Trick and Matthews assert that a lot of the fear is unfounded.

“From 1987 to 1990, I promoted some big rap shows in L.A. and in San Diego, including Ice-T, Tone Loc, Kurtis Blow and Young MC,” Trick said, “and I’ve never--I repeat--I’ve never had any fights or brawls or disturbances of any kind.”

“I helped produce a concert by Run-D.M.C. at the old Rodeo club in La Jolla years ago,” Matthews recalled. “There was no trouble at all, and, in fact, after the show, Jammaster Jay got down with the crowd and had a good time. You just have to know how to bring it off.”

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GRACE NOTES: Elsewhere in this paper, it was reported several days ago that the Guns N’ Roses/Metallica/Faith No More concert had been rescheduled for Sept. 23. Wrong! The show will go on, at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, but at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 30. Tickets purchased for the original Aug. 14 date will be honored on the new date. Refunds can be obtained at the point of purchase, through Sept. 15. . . .

Those who carped that Padres infielder Tim Flannery lacked range never heard him sing. He’s pretty good, and so’s his band, Buff’d Out, which brings its mix of Jimmy Buffett, Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne to the Belly Up Tavern tonight. Opening at 8:30 are the Rugburns, the duo that won Best Folk or Acoustic honors in the recent SDMA show. (Cheap admission too: $4.)

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BOOKINGS: (Tickets for the following concerts will be sold at all TicketMaster outlets unless otherwise specified.) Latvian emigre and bluegrass picker extraordinaire Andy Marder and local blues vet Robin Henkel will perform, separately and together, at the Better Worlde Galeria on Sept. 1 (suggested donation of $5). Call 260-8007.

The New Dread Zeppelin and Woodenface team up for a Sept. 4 show at Sound FX (on sale now). . . . The Chills visit SDSU’s Backdoor on Sept. 18 (on sale now at TicketMaster outlets and the Aztec Center box office). . . . Sonic Youth, Mudhoney and Pavement play Bing Crosby Hall at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, Sept. 25 (on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday.) . . .

Jethro Tull will do double duty in its Oct. 17 concert at the Spreckels Theatre. On the band’s current “Light and Dark Tour,” Ian Anderson and the boys perform an hourlong semi-acoustic set followed by the harder stuff. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday at TicketMaster and at the Spreckels box office.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

AMOS AT USCD

Tori Amos might be the most intriguing of the post-Kate Bush singers. Posed on the piano bench like a horse-crazy ingenue astride a favorite mount, she creates song webs that are at once exotic, erotic, studded with sharp lyrical references and almost physical in their emotional sweep.

Tonight, Amos headlines a show at UC San Diego’s Mandeville Auditorium that also features an artist who calls himself “E.” Tickets to the 8 p.m. concert are $13 in advance through TicketMaster (278-TIXS) or at the UCSD Box Office, or $15 the night of the show.