CONTRIBUTORS

Music: Features

Blac Soap: so fresh, so clean

Published 06.25.08

By Wade Tatangelo

enlarge

TRIPPY HIPPIES: Blac Soap melds a variety of styles on the group's latest, Green Music for Blue People.

INFO

Flo Rida

w/Blac Soap

10 p.m. Sat., June 28, Club 360 (formerly Amphitheater), Ybor City. $20, $65 (VIP).

Ex-girlfriends have played an integral role in the formation and success of Blac Soap — Reginald "Fly Beads" Ferguson's ex-girlfriends, to be specific. He and Blac Soap cohort Seif Bushram have distinguished themselves in recent years as the most innovative hip-hop act in Tampa Bay. In a scene dominated by hardcore rappers, Blac Soap differentiates itself with numbers such as the thought-provoking anthem "Thug Hippy," the valentine "French Vanilla" and the detailed nostalgia trip "1985," all of which are included on the latest Blac Soap full-length, Green Music for Blue People.

But the two men, both 26, wouldn't have met if it hadn't been for Ferguson's former girlfriend.

It's 1998 and Bushram's attending Wharton High School out in New Tampa. He lives with his family on the other side of the town, but that's how it is during the school busing era. Bushram passes the time spitting rhymes on the bus, in the hallway, the cafeteria, gymnasium, wherever. Fellow students are impressed.

One of them brags about Bushram to her boyfriend, Ferguson, who attends Chamberlain High School, plays hoops and also raps. The two teenagers agree to meet at the University Mall to hear what each other can bring. "Seif spit one line," Ferguson recalls, "and it was the best I ever heard."

Bushram smiles. The two men have been working together ever since that day. They interact like siblings, finishing each other's sentences and nodding in agreement while the other relates a story. On record, it's a similar relationship, with the two MCs trading verses. In addition to rhyming, Bushram also occasionally sings the hook. As far as production goes, Bushram builds the beats, which he occasionally augments with his own guitar work.

"Seif's like a ghetto Beethoven," Ferguson says. He and Bushram are seated at a table with their manager and friend J. Lotter.

It's about 6 p.m. on a Tuesday, and we're at Dirty Shame Pub on Seventh Avenue, just down the street from Club 360 where Blac Soap will open for Flo Rida on Saturday. Bushram and Ferguson wear jeans and T-shirts, but on stage, fans can expect them to be decked out in the colorful attire favored by their musical heroes Outkast, Prince and Jimi Hendrix. Wu-Tang Clan and A Tribe Called Quest are also cited as influences during our conversation. "We're entertainers first," Ferguson says when I ask about the duo's fashion sense. "It's all part of the presentation. Every time we get on stage we feel like it's our first show, we feel like underdogs with something to prove."

We're sitting in a bar during happy hour, but neither the rappers nor their manager order a drink. And not once do any of them eye mine in envy. It occurs to me that despite the band's funky, ass-shaking sounds and outsized stage presence, the two men probably aren't big partiers.

"I'm always just making beats," Bushram says. In fact, Bushram makes beats full-time, selling them at about $250 each. "I got so many it don't hurt to let some go," he says, and then laughs. "But I keep the best stuff for Blac Soap."

One of those keepers resulted in "French Vanilla," a pop masterstroke that features Ferguson rapping to a "ghetto Mrs. Cinderella" and begging her not to "throw our love away." The addictive beat is laced with Bushram's guitar and keyboard work. He raps and sings on the track as well. The song has already been played nearly 6,000 times on Blac Soap's MySpace page.

"That whole song was inspired by him," Bushram says, pointing to Ferguson, who grins sheepishly.

This is where the second Ferguson ex factors into the Blac Soap story. She was an adorable Haitian girl. Like many people from her country, she had been given the surname French, and that's what everybody, including Ferguson, called her. But the couple eventually split. In fact, French dumped Ferguson. He was lovesick, so he hung with his boy.

"We broke up and I was trying to get her back," Ferguson says. "Seif and I were watching Purple Rain one night, and then he came up with this beat that perfectly fit what I was saying."

So, did "French Vanilla" impress Ms. French enough to make her return to Ferguson?

"Hell, no!" Ferguson says, laughing. "But that's it. It's so crazy. God put me through that situation so Blac Soap could make its best song. Women come and go, songs are forever."