It’s a late Tuesday night in February, and Lansdowne Street looks like a ghost town. But inside Bill’s Bar, a capacity crowd has braved the bitter cold. “Termanology for Mayor” signs dot the walls and cover the floors. And the short, slender 23-year-old rapper is playing the politician as he walks through the crowd, an infectious smile stretched from ear to ear. He hugs girls, poses for pictures, and shakes hands as he makes his way to the stage. DJ Statik Selektah gets the crowd going with an a cappella version of Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy.” As everyone sings the opening verse, Termanology reaches the stage and joins in.
But when the singing fades, the smile disappears and he begins bobbing his head to one of the slow hi-hat/snare mixes that dominate the old-school, West Coast-flavored production of the album whose release everyone is here to celebrate: Out the Gate (St. Records/ Showoff). Term is transformed. He begins to flow quietly, confidently, in a voice just above a whisper. His group, ST. Da Squad, soon surround him. Ed Rock shares the stage evenly with Termanology. It’s evident that the pair take their hip-hop seriously.
And they like to stay busy. Term has released four raw, studio mixtapes since finishing Out the Gate, the most recent of which is Hood Politics III (Showoff/ST Records), which came out in October and commemorated his being named “Unsigned Hype” in the October issue of the Source, an honor previously bestowed on B.I.G., Eminem, DMX, Mobb Deep, and dozens of other successful rappers. He’s already started work on what he’s hoping will be his major-label debut.
Ed Rock is fresh off the success of his January Scared Money Don’t Make None (Way Big Records) mixtape. His forthcoming Extraordinaire has also garnered notice at the Source. It’ll include “Murder Ma$$,” which he worked on with multi-platinum Virginia-based producer Nottz, whose past clients include G-Unit, Dr. Dre, and Busta Rhymes. The disc’s standout track, thanks to an innovative, distorted guitar sample, could open a lot of doors for the ambitious MC.
Termanology was born Daniel Carrillo, and he’d already been penning rhymes for years in 1994 when he met his future ST. Da Squad partner Rock (a/k/a Eddie “Easy Money” Rivera). He’d grown up poor in a bad area of Lawrence, where he saw gang violence and drugs sweep through his city. Ed first saw Term high up in a tree at a park. At least, that’s how he remembers it when I get him on the phone. Ed was short a player for a football game he was putting together, so Term climbed down and joined in. Over the next few years, they would forge a partnership based in a shared passion for hip-hop.
On the national scene, Boston remains a relatively small player. And Lawrence, well, it’s not even on the radar. When they began writing raps, Rivera and Carrillo knew they had a long, hard road ahead of them, even to make a mark in Boston. But when I mention Ed’s work ethic over the phone to Termanology, Term says, “He’ll make an album in one day. I take a long time. But he’s naturally talented.”
Working together, Term and Ed turned the corner last April with STREET Mixtape (Way Big/St Records). Its potent, hard-hitting mix, packed evenly with club bangers and laid-back West Coast flavor joints, developed a word-of-mouth buzz. Still, on “That’s Life,” Term raps about being broke despite being played on the radio: “There’s no food in my crib/No money in the bank/No bullets in my gun . . . I’m fresh off the radio they was playing my shit/That’s cool/But them niggas ain’t paying me shit.”
But Termanology doesn’t stick to angry or violent hip-hop clichés on Out the Gate. “Circle of Life” is dedicated to his daughter, Aliyah Carrillo. His mom is the subject of the hopeful “22 Years,” where he raps, “Somehow we’ll make it out of here/Mama, it’s been 20 long years/We’ve been going through our ups and downs/But I know we’re gonna make it out.” And Ed Rock singles out his father on Extraordinaire’s “Pop Dukes” — a father he never knew. “Many nights past I lay in bed and cry/Still I move on, walk with my head up high/It isn’t right though I wish we could have said goodbye/You did your seed wrong, still I gotta be strong/Daddy where you been?” It’s just more evidence of how far Term and Ed have come since STREET Mixtape, which had a bitter, volatile edge as it featured Term rapping about guns and violence on “Long Awaited,” “Get on the Floor,” and “Soon We’ll See.”
Not that guns have completely disappeared from the duo’s lexicon. In the Extraordinaire song “Murder Ma$$,” Rock gives props to Boston and all of the surrounding towns while talking about guns and committing violent crime. “There are references to guns, but that’s not our image,” he says. “We talk about it because we’re around it and we see it. It’s not cool. The biggest dude in jail who killed mad people will tell you it’s not cool.”
Along with Term and Ed headlining, the CD release show at Bill’s featured Ballklub, the Skitzofreniks, and Ed doing solo sets. Akrobatik and Lee Wilson joined Term on stage for the notable duets “When We Were Kids” and “Circle of Life.” And there was good reason to celebrate: Out the Gate debuted at #1 its first week, for both hip-hop and indie albums, at Newbury Comics.
Ed Rock’s not releasing Extraordinaire until he’s shopped it around. According to Term’s manager, Dan Green, Term is doing the same thing with his next CD. When asked where, Green said, “Everyone — meetings with Shady [Eminem’s label], Full Surface [Swizz Beatz’s label], the Game, and Universal are among some of the labels so far.” In the meantime, plans are underway for Term to join G-Unit on a tour of Australia. That’s a long way from Lawrence.
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