Speaking in Tongues

Two weeks ago at the Liquid, dreadlocked teenagers were bouncing to the beat, electrified by the rapid-fire rhymes of the latest local rap sensation to hit the stage.

A typical American rap scene--except Liquid is in Tokyo and the rap is in Japanese.

“When I saw the kids with the dreads and the clothes . . . I was like, ‘ . . . these [fans] embrace the culture more than we do back home,’ ” said Method Man, a Staten Island, N.Y., native who followed Japanese rap act Nitro Microphone Underground in the show put on by his record label, Def Jam. “I couldn’t understand the words, but I could understand the flow.”

Rap has become a worldwide phenomenon. Urban music, including rap and R&B;, now accounts for 20% of the $40-billion global record business, a 3% increase in the last year, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Album sales are increasing so fast that by early next year, urban music is expected to overtake rock as the No. 2 genre in the world behind pop.

Def Jam, which turned underground curiosities such as Run-DMC and Public Enemy into rap superstars, is leading the record industry’s race to capitalize on the trend. In a first for an American rap label, it is opening offices in eight foreign markets where fans have embraced the hip-hop lifestyle and are flocking to hear local rap artists.

Like rock ‘n’ roll in the ‘50s, rap is gaining fans as it washes over fashion, language, media and politics--despite criticism from parental watchdogs and lawmakers who say its sometimes aggressive lyrics glorify violence and misogyny.

“Kids around the world are desperate to [upset] their parents,” said Lyor Cohen, a former Los Angeles club promoter who now is president of Seagram Co.’s Island Def Jam Music Group.

Cohen has been traveling the world in search of local marketing personnel and promising artists who rap in Japanese, Polish, Spanish and French, among other languages. So far, the label has signed German rap duo Spezializtz and Japanese rapper Dabo, in addition to Nitro Microphone Underground. Seagram’s competitors, including Sony Music and Time Warner, are adding foreign rappers to their international divisions.

In territories where Seagram already maintains offices, the Def Jam staff will take over marketing and promotion of albums by its American artists as well as sign local acts. Albums by those local acts will be sold only in their region of the world, since foreign-language records typically fail in the U.S.

The notion of a pervasive international rap culture was unthinkable in the early ‘90s, when record executives were dismissing the genre as a fad. EMI even went so far as to close Capitol Records’ black music division in 1993.

But Def Jam, launched in 1984 by Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin, banked on the music’s spreading into mainstream culture. The company pioneered a strategy for marketing rap records without the aid of radio airplay--blanketing neighborhoods with sidewalk posters and cutting videos to generate street-level buzz. Simmons later spun off an HBO comedy series and a clothing line, Phat Farm, which he co-owns with Cohen.

PolyGram acquired a half-stake in the label for $33 million in 1994, after Simmons had a falling-out with its first distributor, Sony Music. Seagram, after its $10.4-billion purchase of PolyGram, bought the rest of Def Jam for more than $100 million in 1999. Cohen, 41, was promoted to president of the new Island Def Jam division, overseeing such diverse acts as Hanson, Bon Jovi and Sisqo.

Island Def Jam has emerged as one of Seagram’s fastest-growing profit centers at a time rock sales remain flat, sources said. Home to such controversial rap stars as DMX, Foxy Brown, Jay-Z and Redman, the Def Jam label earned more than $55 million in profit on $250 million in revenue last year, sources said.

But it’s the increase in rap sales abroad that prompted Seagram’s Universal Music Group, which owns Def Jam, to finance the label’s international expansion.

In addition to the three field offices it has opened in the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan, the label will open Def Jam Brazil early next year, followed by offices in France, Spain and Poland. The list of countries still under consideration by Cohen and Universal international chief Jorgen Larsen includes Russia, China, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.

In each country, the label is intent on signing native acts who rap in their own tongues, because that’s where the business is booming. “The rap scene around the world was pent up because rappers . . . felt like the way that they could pay homage to rap was to rap in English and imitate Americans,” Cohen said. “Some kid said, ‘[Forget] Americans, I’m going to rap in German.’ ” Seagram is expecting potential best-selling acts in these countries to be drawn to Def Jam’s brand name.

Def Jam “is really one of the only record companies in the world that stands for something,” said Universal Music Group Chairman Doug Morris. “Motown did in its moment. All the other labels are kind of an amalgamation of all types of music. Def Jam really stands for urban music. . . . It’s a very interesting moment. This is the power of black culture.”

Competitors say establishing the Def Jam beachheads could give Seagram an edge in signing new acts.

“I’m watching with interest [the] moves to expand the Def Jam brand into key foreign territories by establishing satellite offices in these countries,” said Zomba Group Chairman Clive Calder, whose Jive Records is the most successful independent label in the world, with three Top 10 records on this week’s pop chart. “This is a brilliant move that, if well executed, will be a magnet in attracting local artists in each of these countries.”

Rap continues to saturate cultures around the globe. Skyrock, one of France’s top radio stations, plays rap in regular rotation. In Poland, teen magazines such as Slizg (Slide) and DosDedos are touting the hip-hop lifestyle. Fubu, a fashion line catering to rap fans, plans to open 22 stores from Korea to Nigeria next year (and just started its own Seagram-affiliated record label).

Meanwhile, rap remains a commercial force in the U.S. U.S. sales of rap albums are up 21% this year from last year--more than four times the increase of all album sales, according to SoundScan estimates. And this year’s best-selling pop acts--the Backstreet Boys, Limp Bizkit and Christina Aguilera--mimic or borrow heavily from rap and R&B.;

“Rock music has matured. Whether it goes up a point or down a point, that’s a mature business,” Cohen said. “Rap is the only growth art form.”

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Rapped Up

Sales of urban music, including rap and R&B;, are rapidly increasing around the globe. It is set to overtake rock as the No. 2 popular genre in the world behind pop.