Cambridge Rapper Sam Adams Debuts At Number One On iTunes
Just two days ago I delivered my usual Boston hip-hop spiel to an intern at the Phoenix. She wants to collaborate on a Web package highlighting young promising Hub rap talent, and asked for my thoughts on why so few area MCs had really blown the fuck up, or something like that.
To say that no Boston cats have made moves is an insult to guys like Akrobatik, Sullee, Chan, Slaine, and Esoteric who do this for a living, I ranted. The days of big label signings are over; success in hip-hop - at least around here - equals sustaining while doing what you love. It's time for cats to face the facts: the next Drake or Lil Wayne isn't coming out of Boston.
That conversation happened three days before a friend told me about Sam Adams. This morning over Irish coffees, I learned that the 22-year-old Cambridge rapper's Auto-Tune-tinged Boston's Boy debuted at number one on iTunes Hip-Hop ahead of DJ Khaled. Even crazier; he damn near sold out Harpers Ferry all the way back in January, and has a cult following of trashy co-eds hanging off more than his every lyric.
I won't front; while I would have loved to break this story, Barstool Sports and Wicked Local beat me to it. It's a matter of moments, though, before every news outlet in New England starts dropping headlines like "Boston's Boy Puts Bean on the Map," so I guess we beat them. Regardless - this has been a lesson in why I shouldn't be lecturing college interns on what's hot and what's not; I don't get to decide that anymore (or, more accurately, I never got to decide, but rather my generation did).
To confirm this overnight insanity, I reached out to Sam's manager Alex, who was in Los Angeles for the Boston's Boy release party last night. Here's the basic bio info: Adams is a Cambridge native who went to Wayland High School and is about to graduate from Trinity College in Hartford, where he is captain of the soccer team. Talk about the senior spring of a lifetime.
Since I assume that every third MC in Boston will be dropping dis tracks within a week, I'm taking the high road here. The kid can rap; plus he's working with deserving dudes like Matty Trump, Edu Leedz, and Peter Parker. Most impressively; he flipped an Annie Lenox sample that I've literally been waiting years for heads to jump on.
While writing this, I posted a Facebook update conceding that I missed the boat on this one. To my surprise (though it shouldn't have been), my little middle school cousin Matt in Long Island was the first to comment: "Yeah Chris - I bought his album on iTunes." Like I said; I'm 30 years old - this isn't something that I could have seen coming with a Flux Capacitor. In fact, I'd venture to say that no one who knows what a Flux Capacitor is would have predicted this.
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