I'm 'a live it up
givin' up what I got in store -Jesty 'bout to hit 'em wit' something they never saw before. There was a time when Jesty Beatz was just Jesty. Before that, he was Supreme Majesty, and before that he was just Darrel.
But now more of Darrel is starting to show up in Jesty, and the lines between ego and alter-ego are blurring. Jesty, after all, was created as a stage persona, a more outgoing identity for the normally quiet and reserved Darrel Greene, who is the self-proclaimed realest -and illest -ever.
For the unfamiliar and uninitiated, Greene is a junior interactive multimedia major who walks through Athens spinning rhymes and beats through his hip-hop enthused head, which is invariably topped with a fitted cap that sits off to one side.
Whenever he's working on a project, though, Darrel becomes Jesty Beatz, a rising star in area hip hop.
There is an alter-ego and the difference is ... well Darrel is more quiet
Greene said. Darrel's outgoing
too
but Darrel is Darrel. I'll think the same thing as Jesty Beatz
but Jesty Beatz will say it out loud. Among his recently completed projects is We Run Blocks: Jack City
Greene's third album and the first for which he wrote every song but didn't produce the beats. Though the album has been on sale for several weeks at Haffa's Records, 15 W. Union St., and at Greene's Web site, http://www.jestybeatz.com, its official release will be at 10 tonight at Evolution, 19 S. Court St.
Greene completed almost every bit of the album himself -including writing, mixing and producing each of the 24 tracks, pressing every CD and designing the cover art. The process took about four months, and Greene plans to promote the album at least through Spring Quarter.
Album releases are nothing new for Greene, who has headed the local BlockRunnaz record label since his freshman year. He started his first label while still in high school and signed most of his friends whether they could rap or not. Greene's high school label helped to prepare him for the business end of the music industry; he even drew up contracts.
Greene's real start in music, or at least in rap and hip hop, came when he was still in elementary school. He started listening and actually paying attention to songs, which inspired him to begin recording his own. Using a Casio keyboard and a tape recorder, Greene would record his own songs, though he had to do it all in one take.
For several years, his mother, Greta Oliver, threw away any rap or hip-hop tapes or CDs she found in the house, though she eventually gave up. Oliver, who now works as Ohio University's coordinator for multicultural affairs, remembers her son persistently recording beats and writing songs.
It is not without ambition that Greene has worked so hard for so many years. One of his goals, he said, is to make it to the Grammy Awards within the next three years.
Not to the actual event
Greene said. But I want to be in the building. I want to be at the Grammys. For now, though, he's satisfied with amassing a following in Athens, where he plays up to three shows per week.
Tommy Boone, an OU junior and a member of the OU Hip Hop Congress who has seen probably too many Jesty Beatz shows to count
said Greene brings a high energy to his performances.
He brings a good vibe
Boone said. He has a lot of good movement and he gets the crowd into it. And the music is really good
