NEWS
L-Rude In Da Paper
A Rude Way of Doing Things Jeff Mucciarone CANTON - Growing up in Canton, with stints in both Tennessee and Georgia, Lenny Miceli or L-Rude, as he�s known in the music industry, doesn�t rap about being a gangster because he admits that�s not a lifestyle he has experienced. �I�m not pretending to be a gang-banger,� said Miceli, who recently released his first album, �So Rude,� through the independent record label C.C. MusicGroup, which is based in Brockton. �I�m me. I rap about my own experiences.� Miceli, 20, points to a song in his album, titled �Hustler,� and laughs he is not rapping about hustling drugs but instead hustling bricks of his own CDs. Miceli said he was always trying to find ways to get out his emotions when he was younger and he first did that through poetry. When he was 12 years old, he began to record some beats through a computer program and from there, things seemed to pick up some steam. �Like anything else you do a lot, you just keep getting better and better,� he said. He began to record his own CDs and after a while he began selling them, though he said he would rather give them away for free than have someone decline to pay. �No matter where I go, I always have a CD on me because you never know who you are going to meet,� he said. Miceli grew up listening to rap music and the transition from poetry to rap was easy, he said. �It was an easy way to kind of get the point across,� he said. He focuses on doing things for himself, which is how his father, Leonard, raised him, Miceli said. After attending St. John�s the Evangelist for his middle school years, Miceli attended Canton High School, which he graduated from a little more than a year ago. He now works at the local Shaw�s Supermarket and is planning to attend Massachusetts Bay Community College this fall to get his associate�s degree in business, which he figures will only help his young music career. Somewhere along the line, one of his CDs got into the hands of someone at the C.C. MusicGroup, who sent Miceli an email. �At first, I thought they were just playing around,� he said laughing. But the organization was serious and �So Rude� was professionally produced, mixed and was released June 28. The CD is available for $5 online at the C.C. Music Group Web site. After going through the production process, Miceli said he learned quite a bit from his producer, Stanley Ryan. When he first began working with Ryan, or Sizzahand, as he�s known in the industry, Miceli said he wasn�t even aware he was both off-beat and off-rhythm. �He teaches me things as I go along,� Miceli said. �There�s more to music than people think.� �So Rude� features Miceli�s single �Do It Like Me,� and �Get U Lifted.� Currently, Miceli and his record label are planning a music video for �Do It Like Me.� �I like every single track on the album,� Miceli said. �They�re all different but they really flow.� Aside from the two featured singles, Miceli thinks fondly of the song titled �Family,� which is about his grandmother who went through some tough times with her health, Miceli said. The first album is especially important to Miceli as he dedicated it to the fallen Marine Lance Cpl. Shayne Cabino, who was one of his good friends and use to record music with him, Miceli said. And if Miceli doesn�t feel the pressure to improve from his record label, he certainly feels it from himself, since he considers himself his biggest critic. �I�m the type of person that I don�t think I�m good,� he said. �Everybody has an opportunity. That�s what makes the world go round.� When he was just getting started rapping, Miceli held a concert in his own garage for friends and family. Considering he raps about his own experiences, Miceli says his songs cover a variety of topics, not just partying, which he says a lot of the rap people hear does. And he takes pride in writing his own songs�songs that he thinks people can relate to. Miceli said he is trying to avoid record companies that simply tell rappers and singers what to sing. Further, Miceli, who is now part of a market that has been admittedly difficult to enter, said he�s interested in his own music, not conforming to industry norms. �Do I have to be in a certain tax bracket to be a rapper?� he said laughing and adding that often people ask him how he can be a rapper. To Miceli, rap is a way to release and is certainly not something confined to particular demographics, he said. Now that he has released his first album, Miceli said he only wants to take things a step at a time. �Getting my CD out is the first step,� he said. From there, he is trying to book local shows and secure management. It is the entertaining aspect that he particularly looks forward to. �I�m an entertainer,� he said. �I really like entertaining the crowd. I love performing.� If he succeeds in booking local shows and attracting management, he can then take the next step of beginning work on his second album. �Either way, I�m always working on music,� he said. Most of the venues he�s looking into are in Boston but he has also performed as recently as this past New Years Eve at Centerfields Bar and Grill in downtown Canton. He�s also performed at talent shows growing up and also Canton�s annual Homecoming Block party. When he isn�t working, Miceli spends the rest of his time in his parents� basement trying out new tunes and beats to go along with his lyrics. �I�m always writing,� Miceli said, adding he brings notepads everywhere so when he gets an idea he can write it down right away. �I�m just trying to keep up with everything.� Source:Wicked Local
