Posted on 07/28/2008
If you ask any rapper to come out of Chicago in the last 15 years, they can tell you how much of a hustle it is to break out.  In a game where connections make success happen faster, the reality in Chicago is rather inverted. You can know all the top heads, producers, and visionaries in the game, and still be a nobody- or a second class citizen- if you don't get your hustle mindset straight. This story can be directly applied to 1st & 15th, Lupe Fiasco's label, and to a greater degree, Gemstones.

Gemstones is or, was, the dude on vocals on all of your favorite Lupe tracks from both Food & Liquor & The Cool. “Go Baby”, he’s chillin in the cut; “He Say, She Say”- your boy was there under the name Gemini- but now, it’s strictly Gemstones, with a reassessed outlook on the game, and indebted focus, for all of those on the come up.

“It was, 2000 or 2001 when I first hooked up with Lupe,” Gemstones, a Chi-town native began, “and he was doin’ what I wanted to do with the game. We fist met in the studio, and when I learned how he was stepping to everything, and that he owned his own publishing company, I had to get with him.” And after getting with him, things quickly began to spark. Initially with Lupe’s first effort, and then with the explosion of the Chicago underground-turned-mainstream scene.

“It was crazy, the first album. We were just recording whatever, whenever. Lupe would hit me like ‘Yo ‘Stone, lets got to the studio,’ and we were just havin fun with it, and then come to find out, some of the records we did, made it to the album.” This studio comradery fast approached brain trust like stature on The Cool, where writing was clearly “more business.” This chemistry has since then translated to a vibe that is developing, perhaps to brilliant heights, on Gemstone’s forthcoming debut album, The Troubles Of The World.

With this album, not only has Gemstones found a collaborator in Lupe that allows him to create tracks such as “We On,” - “we just came up with the record right there; no pens, no pads, we just moved back and forth from the booth like it had revolving doors”- but also, his context with which he spits has taken a new zest for lyricism that isn’t your ordinary coke flow. “I wanted to let people know you can make it without all that stuff.”

“The game ain’t always about the guns or the kilo, and while there are heads out their doing that, that ain’t me. I ain’t had to flip nothing like that, and while Gemini would rap about that, Gemstones is the rebirth, more positive, more real to stories I truly know.” More refreshing still, is how in light of his upbringing, these lyrics speak to the positive side of things, that has tended to lead to more meager ends.

“Growing up, I saw a lot of stuff. My father wasn’t around, and I was the oldest boy of 4 boys, with an older sister, and a younger sister. I had a stepfather, who was around, but I never had that love of a real dad, and was treated separate. We were on public aid, and times were tough…I had family who was into sellin’ drugs, but my grandmother, who live in the suburbs, and my teachers, they kept me straight.” Because of the strong influences out-weighing the bad, there were options provided, which ranged from acting to college, but ultimately Gemstones chose music.

“When I got out, I was tryin to meet, if not become Puff, so when I linked with 1st & 15th, we just focused in on the grind. What a lot of people don’t realize about it [1st & 15th] is that when everything else in the early 2000’s was blowing up, we were behind the scenes. Kanye was working with us, Young Berg, who at the time was Ice Berg, would crash at the house we were living & working from. Even when Jay-Z would come to Chicago, he would hit up 1st & 15th, we was getting that work in. You gotta get your school work done, before you can go out to play.”

The payoff of this work is becoming more and more realized with each release, and while the major focus is the music, as it’s always been, the words are an even bigger deal. “I can rap about anything- I could spit you lines right now about bricks, or Ninja Turtles, even Tom & Jerry. Michelangelo was my favorite, and I always wanted to see Jerry’s ass get caught. Troubles Of The World is about me rapping about all of these images from life, and presenting all the different ways of ‘making it’.”

“Today, people are afraid to be who they are, and I admit, I fell into that trap. I was trying to be a rapper, but now I’m tryin to save souls.” The mixtape Testimony of Gemstones points directly at the past transgressions, and it’s clear that, in the very least, the intent of Troubles, is to right any past indiscretions. Gemstones’ career and interaction with the public has been lots of experiences filtered out into the world through only a few tracks with big name distractions, but come a full-length solo release there will be a flood breaking at our feet. And as cliché of a conclusion as it may be, that seems like the prefect offering when judging the worth of a Gemstone.

- Eavvon O’Neal