Love and kisses, funk and disses

Now, why didn’t you think of this?

A New York start-up company is updating the old singing telegram with an urban twist: the Rapagram.

The concept is almost ridiculously simple: Instead of flowers or a card, you can send a friend or loved one (or hated one) a personalized rap, written and delivered by one of Rapagram’s half-dozen MCs.

Choose from the Rapagram, the Dissagram or the Krush-on-U-Gram, among others. And for an extra charge, you can add flowers or chocolates.

The Manhattan-based company was founded by Gail Powell and Nelson Rodriguez, two struggling rappers still holding day jobs to make ends meet. (Powell is a freelance publicist in the fashion industry; Rodriguez does various odd jobs, from shipping-receiving work to painting.) They met through friends in the fashion business, then worked on a song called “Trash Talk” with the rapper KRS-One. When it failed to become a hit, Powell and Rodriguez began searching for other creative outlets.

Powell, 26, who goes by the name Gee when rapping, says she got the idea for Rapagram about a year ago: “It was my boyfriend’s birthday,” she recalls. “Rather than doing flowers and candy, I wanted to do something different. I thought, ‘What if I send an MC over there?’ If I did the rap, it’s not that special, but if I sent someone, it could incorporate a lot of personalized information and funny things that happened in our relationship.”

Powell and Rodriguez started Rapagram in April, setting up an office in Rodriguez’s apartment and recruiting a couple of friends to help set up the Web site (www.rapagram.com).

Rapagram relies on word of mouth to generate interest, which means most orders come from people who work in the entertainment and fashion industries. Rodriguez and Powell don’t just answer the phones and take orders, they also perform some of the raps themselves. Some of their first customers: staffers at Maxim magazine, “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” and Jay-Z’s Rocawear clothing label.

For $129.99 per rap, customers shouldn’t expect Jay-Z. But most Rapagram MCs have some music and entertainment experience. Robert Rickenbacker, for example, a 30-year-old who recently answered Rapagram’s help-wanted ad in the Village Voice, grew up rapping and is an aspiring actor.

So far, Rapagram has delivered about two-dozen raps, and Rodriguez says orders are pouring in for Valentine’s Day.