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Webstar began producing and promoting as a
teenager. In 2005, he came together with Young B (Bianca Dupree)
to produce her song "Chicken Noodle Soup." The song began to be played
in small clubs in Harlem and became an internet phenomenon, especially
when people began to upload different home made videos of the song onto
YouTube. It also received another push from DJs in New York on Hot
97, who began to spin the track on their station.
DJ Webstar, as CEO of Scrilla Hill Records
has taken "Chicken Noodle Soup" and other artists and placed them onto a
compilation album due out in Fall 2006.
Biography by Ian Ripley,
PopStarsPlus.com, Sr. Staff Writer
This biography may be copied in part
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Official
Biography (courtesy ThinkTank
Marketing)
Webstar
Troy "Webstar"
Ryan, a 19-year-old Harlem-based deejay and producer, is the creative
force behind "Chicken Noodle Soup," the great underground sensation of
the summer of 2006. He is also the co-executive producer of
WEBSTAR
PRESENTS…CAUGHT IN THE WEB
(along with Arthur Smith and Kirk Burrowes),
a compilation of new talent set for
release on Universal Republic on September 26. Finally, he is the
owner, with his old friend and partner Arthur Smith, of a brand-new
Fontana-distributed label called Scrilla Hill.
Webstar and Art go back to
Web's first parties in 2001, where Art provided security for the young
deejay. The friendship quickly ripened into a partnership. It was
under the banner of their own Scrilla Hill Records label that Web
produced a recording called "The Tone Wop” at the end of last year.
Named after its creator, an older Harlem gent named Tony who performs an
updated version of the Eighties dance craze known as The Wop, and
featuring raps from George “G. Dot” Wilkinson and 16-year-old Bianca
“Young B.” Dupree, the recording became a national underground hit.
Like "The Tone Wop," it’s
follow-up “Chicken Noodle Soup" was inspired by a dance, and Web once
again recruited Young B to write and rap the rhymes. The irresistible
result combines a thumping bass drum beat, an air raid siren, and Young
B's girlish rapping about "Chicken noodle soup…with a soda on the
side." At a moment when most of hiphop's great dance records are
emerging from the South, Webstar has created one that stands with such
classic old school New York jams as "Pee Wee's Dance" and "The Wop."
"Chicken
Noodle Soup" was already taking off at the uptown parties where Webstar
deejayed this past spring, but it shifted into overdrive on June 22 when
he played it at Rucker Park in Harlem during the yearly basketball
tournament there. The crowd went nuts and Hot 97's DJ Enuff told Web,
"I need that record." Six weeks later, "Chicken Noodle Soup" was
playing on hiphop mix shows from coast to coast, including New York,
Philadelphia, Atlanta, Houston, and San Diego. Meanwhile, Youtube.com
has archived over 8000 home-made "Chicken Noodle Soup" videos.
Collectively, these videos have chalked up over a million viewings. He
is at the forefront of the cyber space new media way of breaking
records.
His
youth aside, Webstar is a veteran deejay and party promoter for the teen
scene. He was nicknamed Webster as a young boy because of his
resemblance to the title character played by Emmanuel Lewis in the
beloved '80s television show. Webster developed into Webstar as
the young deejay's reputation grew. Web's heroes today aren't so much
other artists as they are hiphop's legendary entrepreneurs, including
Russell Simmons, Sean Combs, and Jermaine Dupri. "I'm inspired by their
work ethic," he says.
It is a
measure of his own work ethic that Web co-executive-produced
Caught In the Web
in just two weeks. It's comprised of five tracks featuring Young B --
the voice of "Chicken Noodle Soup" -- as well as tracks by new artists
such as Chaundon, Ron Browz, Severe and T Rex.
Young
B's role models include Lauryn Hill, Missy Elliott, and Mary J. Blige,
all of whom write, sing, and rap…just like B herself, who says she's
been rapping since she was nine. Naturally exuberant, she was scolded
by Webstar during the recording of "Chicken Noodle Soup." "You can't do
the dance and make this record at the same time!" he told her.
Both
young people are very clear about the kind of music they make. "It's
feel-good music," says Webstar. Adds Young B, "We only talk about
teenage stuff: looking fresh, having money, partying, dancing, and
young love."
Webstar
and Young B are managed by Kirk Burrowes, the veteran hiphop marketing
whiz, entrepreneur and deal broker who co-founded Bad Boy Records with
Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and managed Mary J. Blige during her late-Nineties
resurgence. “Webstar is the latest in a long line of creative folks
that starts with Phil Spector and includes Puffy,” says Kirk. “Just
like them, he's got that unique combination of instinct and guts." |
