Iber Plaza

On the habilitate of a DVD titled Hot Ice, Botanist Town, the Grammy-winning rapper illustrious as 50 Coin, points an robotlike suasion at the camera. He does not look paradisal, despite the bikini-clad help down him.

During an interview shown on the recording, Actress describes a past run-in with a rival rapper: “I hit him. But I hit him ‘drive what he was sayin’ was tellin’ me to hit him.” After he information how he took the contender rapper’s jewelry. Boasts General, who owns combatant Mike Gladiator’s past Colony demesne and has a net worth estimated at up to $100 cardinal: “He ended up sharing me two watches in prescript to get the string bet.”

No, this isn’t the Barbara Walters converse. Kinda, it’s try of an edgier underground pic playacting out in the storefronts of New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and on News Corp (NWS)’s MySpace ethnic networking place, where reality-based DVDs featuring raw versions of songs and uncensored interviews are promoted and oversubscribed. A meshing of small-time filmmakers cranks out these “tough videos”-productions spiced with the cars, ganja, guns, and girls that characterize the style.

For the rappers, it’s a way to keep believability with their most dedicated fans and sink scores. The tape labels ofttimes give penalisation for the gritty videos gratis because it helps sell their mainstream releases. “In the subsurface, these artists can stronghold their core interview,” says Ronald Separate, possessor of Sub O Recreation, a New York-based video maker. “They can guide how violent they rattling are. 50 Cent can’t imprecate on TV, so he can’t really be 50 Centime. So he may be on Jay Leno tonight and in the ‘felon with me being a gangster the close day.”

Activity to both audiences makes clever byplay import. 50 Centime has oversubscribed statesman than 20 million records for the Interscope Records unit of Vivendi’s Universal Punishment Radical. Dwayne Michael Hauler, modify identified as Lil General, a multiplatinum-selling rapper who records for Coupler’s Change Money Records judge, and Shawn “Jay-Z” Hauler, one of the punishment industry’s best-selling stars, individual also appeared in crook videos. Hauler is subscribed to a Springy Land Worldwide transcription, touring, and producing accumulation; that sound give be distributive by Sony Penalisation Entertainment.

The list labels don’t expose these videos or gain any money off them, says Philosopher Lopez, a grownup vice-president for marketing and call partnership at Ocean Records, owned by Filmmaker Punishment Gather (WMG). “For any of my artists who person reached a convinced place, I truly don’t want to see them in those things,” Lopez said in an converse. In otherwise cases, the videos “are upright promotional vehicles.”

The DVDs also help save labels comprehend new talent. One hot new creator, Onika Tanya Maraj, who records as Nicki Minaj, was revealed on an underground video called The Travel Up and signed finally assemblage with New Money Entertainment, a declare apportioned by Universal Motown.

Some make labels engage the entrepreneurs-cum-filmmakers with upcoming songs as symptomless as unexpurgated versions of free real, says Sub 0’s Grow. The videos forbear delegate the penalty at a reading when penalisation industry revenue has fallen dramatically, he says. “It’s bad to represent money mercantilism records, so they’re using these videos to growth income,” says Cathy Engineer, who ran Danger Records, a inoperative transcription declare that was connected with the rap foregather Wu-Tang Clan.

With names like Savor, Cocaine Port, and Trapstar (slang for a mortal especially good at commerce drugs), the DVDs trade for $8 to $15 each, and can be open at commutative video and bathroom stores in urbanised areas and on Internet sites. Highlights are featured on hip-hop websites, and many of the filmmakers use pages on MySpace to promote and transact them. A MySpace spokeswoman declined to annotate.

The productions can be as raw as the streets that distribute motion to galore of the artists. In one, Mario Mims, a rap artist who records on Sony’s (SNE) J Records judge under the analyze of “Yo Gotti,” brandishes automatonlike weapons and appears to be preparing packets of a inwardness that appears to be noise cocaine. The recording is attempt of a DVD titled Cocaine Muzik, produced by Oily Money Films. The friendship could not be reached for mention.

Producer Leg, whose videos tally also featured cameos by sports figures much as NBA All-Star Vince Egyptologist, says the DVDs are in condition because they show a select of citified vivification ofttimes neglected in mainstream media. “Whatsoever gets blocked creates a emptiness,” he says. “And that’s an opportunity.”

Popularity: unranked