Rappers find money in college

Thomas "Tommy Too" Sheedy and Drew "Doc" Hartman are two college-educated rappers and part of a growing trend in the hip-hop community where it was once never accepted.

The duo has been rapping for the last couple of years and also serving as Buffalo State radio disc jockeys on 91.3. They're on the radio Mondays at midnight, spinning underground hip-hop until 3 a.m. When they're not rocking on the radio you can catch Tommy Too perfecting his passion for rapping while Drew Hartman is finishing his last year at Buffalo State as a senior media production major.

These two are examples of the college rapper or emcees with college degrees. Hip-hop in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s revolved around violence and the drug dealer lifestyle. But since 2004, when Kanye West entered the game with his style and classic hip-hop album "The College Dropout," the genre began to expand, opening up opportunities for other inspiring college rappers like Tommy Too and Drew Hartman.

"I think that college rappers growing in the mainstream is great for hip hop. Anything that diversifies the genre is positive," Hartman said. "When something becomes repetitive, it becomes boring and people tend to get sick of it. What people like Talib and Kanye did revolutionized hip-hop."

Tommy Too and Drew Hartman began walking to high school, rapping and rhyming to each other before taking their craft to another level. Hip-hop acts like Wu-Tang, Big L and a Tribe Called Quest inspired the pair to start rapping. Although they're not officially a group, Tommy Too and Drew Hartman broke through the local hip-hop scene by learning through each other's personal experiences and connections.

Tommy Too interned at one of the biggest independently owned record labels in Buffalo, Deepthinka Records. There he gathered the knowledge and contacts to advance his career in hip-hop. At this time, with the rise of Kanye West, the hip-hop genre was changing. A fusion between "gangster rappers" like Young Jeezy and Gucci Mane, and "conscious rappers" like Common and Talib Kweli came together to form "the college rappers."

The college rapper has an urban "nerdy" style, and raps about some of the same things gangster rappers talk about like women and money, minus the violence. On the other hand, deeper lyrical content comes into play. Technology also plays in the development of the college rapper's career. Social sites like Facebook and Twitter along with Youtube and independent hip-hop blogs increase the chances of college rappers gaining a fan base.

Tommy Too and Drew Hartman used all these opportunities to advance their careers and today they are booking shows all over Buffalo. Recently, Tommy Too and Drew Hartman performed at DBGB's, a small bar in the Allentown district here in Buffalo. The pair performed numerous songs and kicked a couple of freestyles on stage about life, women and even water. It didn't take long for a crowd to form in front of the stage before they cheered, danced and participated with the live band assisting Tommy Too and Drew Hartman throughout the night. 

"I've done about 20 shows, so I have not done too many yet," Tommy Too said as he recalled his most memorable show. "My name was on the bill and we were headlining it as this group I was in called The Dutchguts. It was a drummer, a guitarist, another emcee and myself. We filled the old Merlin's Bar to the brim, and the second we got off the whole place cleared out, everyone was telling us we killed it, and I actually got paid, so that was nice."

College rappers are also finding ways to make money setting up shows at local venues. They won't become rich overnight, but the income provided by the shows can provide them with something more to eat than the traditional college cuisine, Ramen noodles.

"The college culture has money, substantial, tangible money, that doesn't have to be made clean, because it already is clean," Drew "Doc" Hartman said. "That makes it a very lucrative culture to base an artist in. You already know daddy's trust fund has more than enough(money)to send Mercedes to that concert at the state college 100 miles away."

Today Tommy Too and Drew "Doc" Hartman represent  "the college rapper" persona, taking full advantage of their talents and proving it's okay to represent a hardcore music genre with a college degree. They recently scored a deal with DBGB's to perform there monthly. While their college degrees hold the key to a potential career path of a different sort, these two have no plans of turning off the mic anytime soon.

"I plan to continue performing and recording," Tommy Too said. "My friend Goodman Brown and I have been writing a track a week for about five weeks now, and they've all come out wonderfully, so hopefully by the end of winter we'll have an EP to drop."

While Tommy Too puts the finishing touches on his EP, Drew "Doc" Hartman offers some advice for inspiring college rappers at Buffalo State.

"My advice for college rappers is to never stop being creative," Drew said. "Capitalize on any chance to use your creativity."

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