Young kids with talent who dream of hooking up with moguls like Jay-Z, P. Diddy and Russell Simmons should know the sad, infuriating story of rapper G. Dep, whose real name is Trevell Coleman.
Dep sat down to talk with me last week — two days after getting released from jail — about the ups and downs that took him from the top of the music charts to a cell on Rikers Island.
We met at the Daily News Harlem Bureau, better known as Amy Ruth’s Home-Style Southern Cuisine on 116th St. near Lenox Ave. Dep was with a neighborhood pal, Eddie Gibbs, who is acting as his manager.
I could hardly believe the quiet, wary man across the table from me was the same G. Dep who made the hip-hop classic “Special Delivery,” which carried an infectious beat and a video that introduced the world to the wiggly dance called the Harlem Shake.
Go online, and you can find videos of kids from Korea to the suburbs of Connecticut doing the Harlem Shake. I figured Dep would be rich, or at least comfortable, and a long way from his tough upbringing in East Harlem’s James Weldon Johnson housing projects.
That’s not how it turned out.
When I met him, Dep had just spent 23 days on Rikers after a Jan. 15 arrest for grabbing and breaking a display-model cell phone during an argument with a T-mobile salesman in a Manhattan store. Dep’s bail was only $750, but he stayed in Rikers because he couldn’t raise the cash — a sign of how far he’d tumbled since the heyday of the Harlem Shake.
Like all too many performers, Dep fell victim to the three-headed monster of drugs, illusory wealth and slick record execs who talked him into a contract almost guaranteed to leave him broke.
Dep signed a contract to create five albums for Diddy’s Bad Boy record label for $350,000 — what seemed like a princely sum at the time. Dep’s first album, “Child of the Ghetto,” came out in 2001 and did respectably.
But industry experts say it takes about two years, on average, to create and launch a new album, partly because the creative process can’t be rushed and partly because an artist’s sales slump when radio stations and fans get flooded with too many albums to choose from.
Dep’s five-album deal, in reality, was more like a 10-year employment contract — the equivalent of making $35,000 a year working for somebody else. Actually, it’s worse than that, because the money’s gone now — but any new music Dep wants to record will belong to the label.
Read the article in its entirety here
Excerpt of a piece that appears in the Feb. 17, New York Daily News.
Related: **Check out HIP HOP: BEYOND BEATS AND RHYMES ON PBS**
Gem$tar
February 16, 2008
F[orget] all who say anything negative about G-Dep. Good dude, real street dude, [messed] wit’ Puff though, supposed to know better than that, he steadily jerkin [folks]. First Shyne, then G-Dep. Damn!!!
{Editor’s note: Edited prior to approval}
GOODBUDDY
February 24, 2007
Hugo response was quite accurate. Unfortunately for G-DEP, at the time of signing the contract, the last thing on his mind was the need to save for a “Rainy Day”. His Mangement(JFK) at the time may have been consumed with the popularity of the principle and not his artist.
I clearly dispute anyone calling him a loser. G-DEP has problems like all of us, and the testimonies of Mary J. Blige, and Richard Pryor(to name a few)should give us validity that with the proper support mechanism in place, anyone, even you Mr(s). Anonymous can overcome adversity!
As G-DEP New Manager, I can assure you that G-DEP is 100% ready to return to the BADBOY Family, and fulfill his contractual obligations!
Look out for Album #2 titled, “The Ressurection Of Dep” Hit Single-”Momma Mae”.
In closing, I would like to shout out FAT JOE, JIM JONES, KAY SLAY, & JAY Z. These were the only individuals who really cared enough to extend a helping hand out to G-DEP. I know…they reached out through me!
I would like to especially Thank ERROL LOUIS of the Daily News. ERROL is the big brother who is always looking out for the youths..we appreciate you!
Hugo
February 21, 2007
It’s hard for me to feel sympathy for the story of G-Dep. In essence he was duped by a corporation that thrives on duping the mass consumer.Modern rap has been characterized by the illusion of infinite cash to spend in clubs, carrying .45′s, and banging as many women as you can fit into a 3-4 minute music video. I specifically mention “modern” rap because I honestly feel that in its inception the voice of rap was totally different. And we can go on and on about that! You have a couple rappers today who try to walk the line of responsible citizen and keeping street cred which even I admit is an important part of the legitimacy of hip-hop. However, what is being sold to kids, who soak it up completely unfiltered by common sense, is an illusion that fades just easily as the soundscan. So, when I hear the story of G-Dep all i can say is this is an example of a guy who just wasn’t in on the joke and ended up getting played along with the rest of us. For what it’s worth I hope he can at least secure his financial future and hold his family down.
Anonymous
February 20, 2007
Clearly the guy’s got personal issues, anger management might be his least. However can we be honest? Are you going to tell me in his whole universe of family and friends this guy does not have one, not a single person who gives a damn enough about him to drop $750 to get him out of Jail?
His inability to cultivate a decent relationship says a lot about him. His so called “manager” did not have the $750? There are more drugs behind bars than out on the streets too. It’s pretty clear that nobody care’s about him, that he lacks the most basic level of skill sets and is destined to be in and out of prison.
This guy is a total loser. Because he has a temper and acts like an idiot in a Tmobile store, and nobody cares about him to fork over the $750, us taxpayers probably spent about $5,000 in costs for his pathetic ass.
Seriously, cost of arrest, paperwork administration, fees,…the total resources consumed by this loser certainly cost the public about $5,000. Why? Because he has a temper and nobody gives a damn to fork over $750.
Let’s just be real here ya’ll.