Hip-hop group Tha Paper Boiz brings a new energy to the tired Muncie music scene, Village Green Records owner Travis Harvey said.
In the past few years, many Muncie musical artists who were doing well have left the city either because they graduated from college or because they simply moved on to bigger and better things, he said.
"That's caused a kind of drought in Muncie music," Harvey said. "Seeing Tha Paper Boiz getting the word out is refreshing."
Tha Paper Boiz, whose debut album releases today, is a hip-hop group comprised of two artists, Ball State University sophomore Justin McDowell and Tramaine Pulley of Indianapolis.
McDowell, a.k.a. "Young Mak," said he is living his dream.
"It is one of the most exciting times of my life right now," he said. "A year ago, nobody had ever heard of Tha Paper Boiz. Whereas, after 'Jello Dance' came out...I heard it as a ringtone. It's just a cool feeling because people actually listen to it."
McDowell met Pulley through MySpace about a year ago when McDowell's friend messaged Pulley, a solo artist at the time, about collaborating on a song with them.
Pulley, a.k.a. "Young Maine," said he would normally say "maybe," but something about Tha Paper Boiz had him driving up to Muncie the next weekend to record a song.
"I don't know what it was," Pulley said. "I think it was something religious, you know, I think God had it in store."
The group recorded its first song, "Jello Dance," and scheduled its first performance soon after at Tippy Dance Hall, an all-ages dance club in Leesburg, Ind.
In between classes during Finals Week last semester, McDowell said he spent about 10 hours in the library sending mass e-mails to every Ball State student.
"That's been the big helping point because all of Ball State got to know about us then," he said.
Sophomore Austin Bailey, McDowell's roommate and childhood friend, said McDowell's interest in music can be traced back to middle school, when he and Bailey would "goof around on the computer," making up songs and recording them. Bailey said their songs were purely for fun, but the two ended up making CDs and passing them out to their classmates. They also made up group names, such as "AJ" and "The 'Tin Twins," for themselves by combining their first names, he said.
In high school, Bailey said he and McDowell's MySpace account for their music had about 100 friends. Now, as Tha Paper Boiz's MySpace account, it has nearly 20,000 friends.
"When we got to Ball State, it started to become something serious [for McDowell]," Bailey said. "I noticed that I really sucked, but, ever since Christmas Break of last year, he was actually writing lyrics and going to his brother's apartment to record."
Bailey said he is proud of his friend and a fan of his music.
"I think it sounds really legit," he said. "It just makes you wanna get up and dance."
That legitimacy comes from Tha Paper Boiz's sound engineer and Justin McDowell's older brother, Jason McDowell.
Jason McDowell, a Ball State graduate student, was responsible for mastering, or editing the sound quality of, the entire album and also helped mix songs and record some of Justin McDowell's verses.
"For local artists, I think immediately the quality will be surprising to people," Harvey said.
Justin McDowell and Pulley said they have high hopes for their group's future. Pulley said they want to become a household name and eventually own their own record label to help other artists succeed as well.
Tha Paper Boiz will perform at a hip-hop showcase March 20 at Village Green Records and March 28 at Ball State's "So You Think You Got Talent" show at Pruis Hall.
Buy album todayPrice: $5When: 12:30 - 7:30 p.m. Where: Ball Communication Building, Rm. 142Students can also e-mail Tha Paper Boiz at thapaperboiz@gmail.com.
To learn more about Tha Paper Boiz visit the group's Web site, thapaperboiz.com.
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