"This Is Not Martha's Vineyard"



In the wacky record biz, all sorts of concessions can be made for artists that for one reason or another, are loathe to tour or reluctant to visit radio stations. That said, even the most rudimentary marketing campaign faces a challenge when the performer is in incarcerated until at least 2009, writes Jeff Leeds in Saturday's New York Times.

In the calculating eyes of music industry executives, the rap artist Jamaal Barrow possesses the sort of street credibility that instantly draws fans and sells records - a prison sentence. Unfortunately for them, he's serving it right now.

Mr. Barrow, professionally known as Shyne and a former protégé of the rap music impresario Sean Combs, was heavily courted this winter despite being just three years into a 10-year sentence for a shooting while he was with Mr. Combs at a Manhattan nightclub. But now, after signing Shyne to a multimillion-dollar-record contract to put out some of his unreleased recordings, executives at Vivendi Universal's Def Jam Recordings are finding that some of the very traits that stirred up such interest - his hardcore image and tangles with the law - may prove to be major drawbacks as they market his new album, "Godfather Buried Alive,'' due in stores Tuesday.

With the performer behind bars in upstate New York, a concert tour is out of the question. So is the customary swing through radio station studios in the biggest markets. The New York State Department of Correctional Services has started to enforce rules limiting the number of reporters who can visit. And whatever modest publicity efforts Shyne can undertake will not take place on Friday nights or Saturdays - he recently began observing the Jewish Sabbath, a nod, he says, to his great-grandmother, an Ethiopian Jew.

"No one would want to be here,'' Shyne said in a telephone interview last week from the Clinton Correctional Facility. "I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. I have to make the best of it. I am here and I have adjusted. I've found a way to stay on top of everything.''

Overcoming the hurdles prison places on marketing is not impossible, as the rapper Tupac Shakur proved.

"The truth about it is," said Antonio Reid, the chairman of the Island Def Jam Music Group, "there are times when our marketing plans don't really include the artist anyway - maybe it costs too much to move them around, maybe the artist doesn't live in the U.S.''




"I know I can't do anything with him,'' Mr. Reid said of Shyne. "We approach it like he's just in Japan."

Since he cannot make in-person visits, Shyne has settled for telephoning a handful of major radio stations to speak to D.J.'s. He also plans to offer a series of $10,000 scholarships to radio listeners in some markets, and will call 10 fans competing in a contest on Vibe magazine's Web site.


Prison also serves up its own particular obstacles. While speaking last month with Felli Fel, a D.J. with the top-rated KPWR-FM in Los Angeles, Shyne said he would have to wind up his interview because there apparently had been an attack inside the prison. A moment later, the phone line went dead.

In an interview last week, Shyne was matter-of-fact about the interruption. "This is jail; people get stabbed every day. This is not Martha's Vineyard.''

But his imprisonment may affect more than just his music's marketing. James B. Flateau, a spokesman for the New York prison system, said the department was "in the process" of discussing the album with the State Crime Victims Board, which is authorized to examine whether money earned by an inmate can be sought by his or her victims under the state's so-called "Son of Sam" law.

Shyne, as well as lawyers involved with his record deal, contend that his income from the album cannot be seized under the law. In fact, he said the release of an album from behind bars "is against all odds'' and should provide inspiration to the public and his fellow inmates alike.

Posted: Sat - August 7, 2004 at 05:45 PM      

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