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ALTON – A local rapper and podcast host believes Alton is at the cusp of greatness.
Marvia Lawrence just dropped his timely single, “Tax Season (Tax Money),” which can be found across the internet – from Spotify to YouTube to Apple Music. Lawrence said he has been writing since he was 13, and soon took to free-styling, eventually creating a rap group called Venom with his high school friends. They played shows across the St. Louis Metro Area. He then expanded that group and called it Goon Squad Go-Getters. He currently makes his own music and is one of the hosts of Live on the Riverbend, a podcast broadcasting every Friday night from Lighthouse Sounds Lawrence does with Kevin Washington and Adrian Rucker.
“They were younger than I was, so we molded them to make music and try to stay away from the street life, but living the way we did, it was hard to stay away from it, so after seeing local success, we kind of ran into a wall, and stopped making music, and people went their own ways,” Lawrence said of the Goon Squad Go-Getters. “Well, the music never left me, so I decided instead of not doing what I love, I decided to continue to do music. I changed my alias to my real name and started doing music and focused on me rather than a group.”
Since Lawrence made that decision, albums have been released called The Take Over Touchdown Vol. 1 and 2, Planet X, Stay Real and a collection of others. The newest release is called One Night in a Town. It is a Valentines Mix across all platforms with a few video singles Lawrence released on Facebook, including “Ten Toes,” “On the Come Up” and “Hard Times.” The latest of those is “Tax Season (Tax Money.”
“It's a funny song I made to bring light to how people act when they usually don't have any money to spare,” he said. “Now they have a couple thousand, and they start to act differently. This song is already on all platforms.”
“Tax Season (Tax Money)” featured a beat produced by Unknwn. The video was shot by Aaron Stiff, and the song was produced locally at Lighthouse Sounds. Lawrence said he utilizes mostly Alton-based producers for his beats.
“We have too much talent, and not enough drive to succeed, and that is in music, sports, school and more,” he said.
The video was released Friday evening by Lawrence. He promoted it on Live on the Riverbend.
“We all wanted to do something different in this area that no one is really doing, so we all came together and mapped out a starting plan of how we can influence our culture and music and our local community to stand up for certain things and elevate ourselves and support ourselves and promote success. No matter what you do we will showcase it and let people know about different things, from barbers, musicians, cooks, financial adviser, dancers, bands and politicians. We are trying to promote success and deliver a bigger platform for people around here that can present themselves to a bigger variety of people.”
While Alton's punk and rock scene has been widely covered and influential in the St. Louis region as a whole, Lawrence said its rap and hip-hop scene is also on the cusp of some sort of greatness, if the city itself will stop getting in the way of things.
“I think the underground music culture is on the cusp of something great right now,” he said. “A lot of artists are supporting each other. We have music studios getting built state-of-the-art, but it seems the city doesn't accept it. They shut down all and places to perform – especially for blacks and people of color – and I think that is a critical part of the advancement in becoming a better artist. It seems like the city is stuck in the past and is playing catch-up. All we need is some local support and within the next couple years, Alton will produce a superstar – mark my words.”
Lawrence said his future will include working toward a progressive movement through both his music and Live on the Riverbend.
“We are trying to show people that anything you put your mind to, you can achieve it,” he said. “It just takes focus and a leap of faith and we are trying to directly or indirectly change the mentality of the people in this community to support and believe in the next person and yourself, and just be yourself.”
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