Tucked away in a rural section of eastern Connecticut, Storrs is known for a few different things. It is home to the main UConn campus and at times, it's been the college basketball capital of the world.
Shamon Tooles came to Storrs in 2001 by way of Coatesville, Pa., to be part of that basketball tradition. He graduated in 2004 with a national championship and a degree in political science, but he also left with something that Storrs isn't usually synonymous with - a hip-hop career.
Somehow, Storrs - a town with more cows than stoplights - is where it all started for Tooles, who performs under the stage name "Toolez." It's where he recorded his first song. It's where he performed on stage for the first time. And it's where he met Ezra Carey.
Carey, then a defensive back for the UConn football team, developed contacts in the music business while he was in college, partly because his girlfriend at the time was a back-up dancer for Jay-Z. As an undergraduate, he was already working with Roc-A-Fella and Bad Boy Entertainment. He even organized an album release party for Jay-Z.
When Tooles and Carey met at UConn, it wasn't hard for them to get along. After all, how many other people in Storrs were trying to break into the hip-hop industry?
Carey planned Tooles' 23rd birthday party at a Manhattan nightclub following a UConn-Georgia Tech basketball game at Madison Square Garden. The guest list was not short on big names despite the fact that Tooles' hip-hop resume consisted of a song or two on Soundclick.com. Papoose, Hot 97's DJ Envy and several Ruff Ryder artists were all on hand to see Tooles play and celebrate his birthday afterward.
"Most artists want to be basketball players and most basketball players want to be artists," Carey said. "Of course those guys all wanted to come out and see him play."
The Huskies lost the game, and coach Jim Calhoun subsequently forbid his players from going out afterwards. As a result, Tooles was unable to attend his own party.
A few months later, both players graduated. Tooles continued to record songs and Carey started his own company, E&R Entertainment. The former UConn football player didn't take long to make a name for himself in the music world. Thus far in his brief career, Carey has put together concerts featuring the likes of 50 Cent and Rick Ross in venues that can hold the entire population of Storrs. He was also the first person to have T.I. in concert since the rapper's arrest. But amidst all the glamour, Carey didn't forget about his buddy from UConn.
"Any way I can help [Shamon] out, I'm going to do it," Carey said. "We're alumni."
Case in point: Carey organized a July 11 concert that featured T.I., Jim Jones, Lil' Boosie, Trina and, of course, Tooles. Aside from Spring Weekend 2004 at UConn, where he opened for Kanye West and Ludacris, Tooles had never affiliated with an artist of T.I.'s status. Naturally, he must have been a little nervous to warm the crowd up for the Atlanta-based superstar. He must have been a little star-struck when he met T.I. backstage. Right?
"Not at all," Tooles said. "I know Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon, you know what I mean? It's not that I don't respect these other guys, because I do, but I'm just confident in my own talent."
After Tooles' success in that concert - the whole crowd was out of their seats dancing as if they already knew all of his songs - Carey invited the ex-UConn small forward to an October 18 concert in Asbury Park, N.J. This time, it's with Fabolous, Maino and Danity Kane.
On the surface, it might seem like a favor for an old college friend, but Carey doesn't see it that way at all. Carey sees it as a business opportunity. Anytime he can get the man he calls the "best unsigned rapper in the world" to perform at his show, he'll do it. Anytime he can ink a rapper who has drawn interest from Just Blaze, Bad Boy and D12, he'll do it. Truthfully, Carey is doing himself as big a favor as he's doing for Tooles.
"His whole swagger and the stuff he says is really on another level," Carey said. "I know he's going to make it real soon. I'm very confident in him."
But, as Carey explained, making it big nowadays requires connections just as much as it does talent. He used G-Unit's Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo as examples, and said both used 50 Cent's fame to vault themselves into the spotlight. The examples don't stop there, either. Before Jim Jones was "Ballin'," he was featured on tracks with Cam'ron and Juelz Santana. Before Lil Wayne was selling a million albums in a week, he was a 15-year-old riding the coattails of the Big Tymers. Hip-hop was that way years ago and it hasn't changed one bit. Even this summer, Ace Hood's quick ascension to fame was triggered by his first single "Cash Flow," which consisted of more T-Pain and Rick Ross than it did Ace. But nonetheless, "Cash Flow" put him on the map.
"All you need is that one song," Carey said.
And Tooles appears ready to record it. Carey has assisted Tooles in sending out his most popular single, "Sexy," a track that has received over 29,000 plays on his MySpace (www.myspace.com/officialtoolez), to Fabolous and T.I. for a remix.
According to Carey, Fabolous has already agreed to be on the remix and T.I. - busy promoting his new album - has yet to get back to them.
Tooles is taking the opposite approach as well. After receiving an early copy of DJ Khaled's "Go Hard," a radio hit that features Kanye West and T-Pain, Tooles recorded his own version of the song in hopes of landing a spot on Khaled's official remix. While Tooles was a fan of the song's beat, he certainly wasn't crazy about the lyrics in the original "Go Hard."
"Kanye's my guy and everything, but I don't think he 'went hard' on it," Tooles said. "I tried to do some justice to the track."
Tooles is also working on a collaboration with The Dream and is set to perform alongside Lloyd at Club Abyss in Sayreville, N.J., on Nov. 30. In addition, Tooles is releasing the "So cold remix" with Mavado, a reggae artist who was recently featured on Jay-Z's "I'm the Rock remix."
Tooles' blossoming career has taken him all over the country - from Baltimore to Las Vegas to New York City to Atlanta. He even plans on touring Canada in early November.
But no matter how far he goes or how famous he becomes, Tooles will never forget the tiny town that got him started.
"I've rapped on street corners, I've done freestyle battles, I've done all of that," Tooles said. "But Spring Weekend at UConn, that was my first time ever on stage. Ever. To come back and perform at UConn again - that's definitely something I've always wanted to do."
Kevin.R.Duffy@UConn.edu
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