Putting a New Beat in the 570 - Two Wilkes University Grads Begin Hip Hop Recording Business

To classmates and professors at Wilkes University they were known as Dana Barrack and Juan Carlos Jimenez. Today, the recent college graduates are better known as Dana B. and Rey Rico: The Track Masons.

The two-man production team Track Masons is out to create and promote hip-hop music in Northeast Pennsylvania. (Or, "the 570" as they like to call it.) The Masons' second original project, the 18-track "Track Masons I.E." is set for a May release. While the Track Masons are now living in the Berks County area, they call NEPA their hip-hop home, producing and engineering their tracks at Joe Loftus Studios in Wyoming.

"(The album) will be exponentially better than the first album. We are planning on filling the CD to its seams. There will be something for everyone," said Barrack. He adds that featured artists include Bee Ez, Chinky Eyez, Gino, Isaiah, Tu Gunz, Smooth, Matasiete and of course, the Track Masons themselves.

The album's first single, "Who" is currently being played on 90.7 WCLH-FM, Wilkes University's radio station. A few tracks can also be heard on the Track Mason's MySpace page at www.myspace.com/trackmason.

Last June the Track Masons released their debut album, "Dana B. Presents... Vol. 1." The compilation album contains 13 original tracks featuring local artists. The duo managed to get the CD into local stores Joe Nardone's Gallery Of Sound and Wayne's World.

"Our goal is to make the 570 hip-hop community visible. We would like to see venues allow more hip-hop shows to happen. This way, fans of hip-hop can have something to be proud of locally, and hip-hop artists can have an opportunity to be showcased, and perhaps launch their careers," said Barrack. "Perhaps more local commercial radio could embrace the local hip-hop movement a little more as well."

In a previous interview on college radio, Barrack told the Weekender that commercial stations seem to only plat a small portion of the genre. He hopes that he, his partner and the artists they work with can change that.

"College radio from an urban stand point will allow us to get more and more of an audience. Hopefully (the local hip-hop scene) will soon be a force to be reckoned with and yield a commercial hip-hop and R&B station in this market," he said.

In addition to recording their own albums, the Track Masons provide "excellent, undiscovered soundbeds" for hip-hop artists stationed in Northeastern Pennsylvania. That said, the duo hopes to help aspiring hip-hop artists find that one beat that will get them noticed.

Niether Barrack or Jiminez are originally from NEPA; the Valley just grew on them during the four years they spent as communication studies majors at Wilkes.

Barrack, 24 hails from Newport News, Va. And although he wore his cap and gown in May, until recently he continued his weekly "4-8 Mixtape" program on WCLH. He served as the Urban Music Director at WCLH and founded the station's "Urban Itinerary," a weekly line-up of urban radio shows. He said that during his reign in the position, the listenership of urban programming increased significantly.

"I've been an avid fan of hip-hop since the age of ten," said Barrack. "I am influenced heavily by Timbaland, Scott Storch and the Neptunes."

Jiminez, 23, is a native of Puerto Rico.

"Growing up in a Puerto Rican household allowed my mind to be open to any possibilities and opportunities to express myself lyrically and musically," he said.

However, unlike his fellow Wilkes alum and production partner, his start on college radio was not in hip-hop.

"Regardless of my background, needless to say my taste in music ranges from salsa to trance to even metal. (Metal) was the main drive of my first college radio show adequately titled 'Total Randomness,'" he said. He says his biggest musical influences today are Vico-C, Korn, Busta Rhymes and the Deftones

(This interview originally appeared in The Weekender.)