CHUBB ROCK & WORDSMITH SET TO RELEASE "BRIDGING THE GAP" ALBUM IN SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER, 2008

(Baltimore, MD, JuLY 8th, 2008) My name is Shannon Smith from Nu Revolution Entertainment and I wanted to inform you of an upcoming project that will fill the lack of creativity in Hip-Hop at the moment. The legendary "Chubb Rock" & up and coming artist "Wordsmith" have teamed up to release an album called "Bridging the Gap." The project will fuse the old school Hip-Hop of the 90's with the new school Hip-Hop of today. Everything from Jazz, Blues, Step Music, Underground Hip-Hop, and Mainstream singles will accompany this album. Chubb and Word even have a two part story called "Chocolate City" that is similar to R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" series. The bulk of the production is being handled by Nu Revolution Camp producer Strada with outside production from Daren Joseph & DL Swift. Mr. Joseph produced Juelz Santana's biggest hit "The Whistle Song" last year and DL Swift is a long time in house producer of Chubb Rock. Before I continue, I would like to give you a little info on Chubb Rock & Wordsmith individually as they both are very talented.

Chubb Rock is regarded as one of the East Coast's most dexterous rappers and his stage name fits his ample height and girth ("6 foot 4 and maybe a quarter of an inch bigger/than last year but still a unique figure" - from "Treat 'Em Right"). He often evokes images of a Hip-Hop Barry White since their duet on Chubb's "And the Winner Is" album. Born May 28, 1968 in Jamaica, Chubb Rock released several commercially successful hip hop albums dating back to 1988. His 1991 release, "The One," reached number 13 on Billboard's "Top Hip-Hop/R&B" chart in '91. Three singles from that release made it to number 1 on Billboard's "Top Rap Single" chart as well. The following year Chubb released "I Gotta Get Mine Yo," which featured guest appearances from Grand Puba (Brand Nubian), Maxwell, Poke, and Rob Swinga. This was the album that helped push up and coming music producers Trakmasterz to prominence, as they handled the bulk of the production duties on the album. Fast Forward to 1995 and you would of caught Chubb Rock rocking with O.C. and Jeru tha Damaja as an re-incarnation of the Crooklyn Dodgers. Overall, Chubb is widely known for his hit singles "Ya Bad Chubbs," "Treat 'Em Right" and "Just the Two of Us."

The Chubb Rock of today is still musically motivated to prove he still has a place in the rap game. In May of 2007 Chubb Rock released the lead single, "Ole' Flava" from his impending new album, The Grown and Sexy Theory, and it garnered heavy rotation on Steve Harvey's Morning Show, The Michael Baisden Show, and XM Satellite Radio's "The City". Still, even with Chubb doing some promotion on his new album, he has taken up and coming artist Wordsmith underneath his wings for an even bigger project. I truly believe Chubb sees the future of Hip-Hop in Wordsmith, so it was a logical choice for the two to do an album.
In April of 2007, Wordsmith booked a Pre-Bridging the Gap Concert Series at Pinnacle Nightclub (Philadelphia, PA), 10 West Bar & Lounge (Atlantic City), Fletchers (Baltimore, MD) and Eden's Lounge (Baltimore, MD) Jay-Z's mentor, Jaz-O, was also included in the following shows and it marked the first time Word booked, promoted, and performed a show from scratch. With all of these things in place, the future looks bright for Chubb Rock and Wordsmith's album, so let's all get ready to Bridge the gap in Hip-Hop.

Wordsmith can claim many areas around the globe as his home. The son of a former Full Colonel in the Army, he has resided in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Delaware, Texas, Kansas and even Germany to name a few. After moving around so much, Word found rap as an outlet when he started saving his lunch money each week throughout high school to buy classic tapes from Redman, Big L, Nas, Eric B. and Rakim, Jeru the Damaja, A tribe called Quest, Da Bush Babees, Krs One, Gangstarr, Das Efx, Public Enemy, Ice Cube, and his cousin Roc Marciano. On the flipside, Wordsmith is a versatile MC, he is also a theater trained actor graduating with a bachelor's degree in Theater Arts from Salisbury University in Salisbury, Maryland. Performing in plays like "All my Sons" and the Musical "1776," Word was able to translate his acting skills to his music and live shows. He refers to his stage shows as "Hip-Hop Plays" and his dream is to put together elaborate shows with scenery changes, props, and stunning movements. As the years go by, look for Wordsmith to explore his artistic side in music and acting equally. However, as he always says "I'll do one thing at a time to make sure each craft exhibits quality and gets the attention it deserves.

By the end of 2007 and early 2008, Word wanted to make some noise on the College Radio airwaves and he did just that. A track called "Ode to tha Pioneers" that ended 2007 ranked number 10 on the RapNetwork National College Radio Charts Top 30 and peaked at number 4 as of Jan. 22nd, 2008. This track is a prequel to another song that's only been released on Wordsmith's myspace page called "As the Art Fades Away," and it seems the track has garnered its own attention as well. Recently, fans and underground Hip-Hop heads have voiced there discrepancies about a Nas track titled "Surviving the Times" that closely resembles Word's track "As the Art Fades Away" The story got so big that Wordsmith and Nas A&R, Mike Brink, did a conference call to discuss the issue and clear the air. HipHopdx.com played the mediator and dropped the follow up story to satisfy the delight of the many fans that were looking for a conclusion to the story. Needless to say, the PR has helped both MC's and Wordsmith will move forward with the official release of his single when he can lock down a recording contract with an independent or major label. In the meantime, on January 8th, 2008, Wordsmith released the HipHopdx.com sponsored Mix Album, "The Revolution Begins with a Takeover" Vol. 1 to help promote his debut album. The mixtape has received rave reviews from HipHop Weekly & the Premier Mixtape site Mixtapekings.com. To top that, Word was recently appointed the task of creating Hip-Hop Intro's for 103.9/OC 104's HipHop Coffee Shop from 6-10 AM, Chubb Love from 10-2 PM & DJ Poot during his 7-12 PM Timeslot. Wordsmith has even pinned the Theme Song for the radio station as well.


This year has also seen Wordsmith sign a huge Marketing Deal with Joint One Radio to promote his music and image in Japan. A deal with the UK based RVUP soon followed and they will be marketing wordsmith throughout the United Kingdom. As of March 2008, Word even started his own worldwide Podcast called "Revolt Radio," that has over 4,000 subscribers after 13 weeks on the air. Syndication deals with Amalgam Digital, they released Joe Buddens Mood Muzik, Theindieplanet.com, Crackaudio.com, Conspiracy Worldwide Radio (UK), EG Radio Online, The Vibe Source, & Microphonebully.com, will take the podcast to the next level. These universal deals not only describe Wordsmith to a "T," but they represent the very diverse camp he has been putting together for a few years.

As I stated earlier, Chubb Rock and Wordsmith album are looking to release their collabo album, "Bridging the Gap" in September/October through Liason Records (Baltimore, MD). They currently distribute the legendary Chuck Brown's albums nationwide and they will be doing the same with Chubb and Word's project. Look for their first single to be released to radio by the middle or end of July. With Chubb Rock's old school mentality to performing and Wordsmith's "Hip-Hop plays," they are sure to put on a lively stage show, something that lacks in today's Hip-Hop performances.