Six Degrees of Thug Seperation

New local late night talk show host Trevor Carey helped my little sister's favorite band crossover into the mainstream. Now he's going to be a conservative talk show host for KERN 1410. That's some crazy turnaround, man.

***UPDATE: Read about my interview with him here.***


1990s rap act Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.

We all have a past and KERN's latest edition's past is damn fascinating to me. His name is Trevor Carey and he's going to be doing an all-local late night talk show for the popular radio talk station starting Oct. 3rd, 9 p.m. to midnight. But what makes the man FASCINATING is not only has he worked in radio for more than 20 years, he was partly responsible for the success of none other than the 1990s hit rap act Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.

Bone Thugs, people. BONE THUGS! You remember them, right? They wrote the Welfare Check Christmas Carol "1st of Da Month" and were discovered by the dead rap legend Eazy-E. Back in the day when "The Box" video access channel was still on the air, Eazy's folks at Ruthless Records used to engage in a processes called "Jackin' the Box" where they dialed in Bone Thugs' video "Thuggish Ruggish Bone" over and over, paying the few dollars it cost to request a video. The song became a hit, but Bone Thugs still weren't quite mainstream until Sony and a man named Carey got into their lives.


Shower caps, braids and afros -- Bone Thug hair fashion.

The year was 1996 and the song was "Tha Crossroads." It took them from Eazy-E's urban proteges to MTV all-stars. My little sister had been a fan since the outset, but you just don't go mainstream on accident. Not when half your songs are about selling drugs and the other half are about killing people. (The murderous, drug-selling "For the Love of Money" was my fav Bone Thugs song. On the track, Eazy has a guest spot rapping about stashing a bag of crack rock while on the run from the po-po). To get into every household in America, that took someone with some edge and who was the man behind the promotion team at Sony's Relativity Recordings label that gave them the extra push they needed? Ridgecrest's own, Trevor Carey.


My little sister totally had a crush on one of these guys. I can't remember who. Which ever one is the "pretty" bone. Youknowwhaimsayin'?

Carey also spearheaded DOM: Detections of Music, a company that marketed to record label artists to radio stations nationally. He also got involved in distrubuting music over the internet. But I can't get over the Bone connection. One -- it's hella random. Two -- Carey's being pubbed as a "passionate conservative." Dude, Bob Dole, George's I and II, even Bill Clinton did not like the rap music. Tipper Gore tried to censor the rap music. Politicians hate the rap music. It's like a rule or something. Run for office, hate rap music. But this man helped Bone go mainstream -- a hardcore, gangsta rap group. And Bone blew up big time after "Tha Crossroads." They were legit and they were everywhere. Heck. I think I own a cassette tape somewhere, but what happened where Trevor went from rap pusher to conservative talks show host? There's a story there and I want it.

The KERN press release alludes that Carey had that same moment of conscious crisis many have had in their lives. The release says "Mr. Carey walked away from every client after coming to a 'crossroads' in his life, refusing any longer to promote music to other people's children to which he wouldn't let his own children listen."

Simply amazing. But I have to know more. I mean, for me my moment was the Death Row produced song "It Ain't No Fun (If the Homies Can't Have None)" which is probably the most cheerily profane song ever made in the history of rap music in its vulgarity towards women. The song is down right hateful, but it is the catchest thing in the world. Did Trevor see some six-year-old happily bobbing their head to lyrics like ... well, I can't even write the lyrics on my blog. When they play it on the radio it ends up coming off like Mad Libs. But did Trevor see a kid and go "whoa, I want to get paid but not like this!"

So naturally, I need to know more and when I know more, you will know more about this radio man.

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But until then I get the dirt what do you think? How do you go from rap pusher to conservative jock? Theories anyone? Ideas? Anyone planning on checking out his show. I think I might and I loathe talk radio. But the dude just sounds interesting ...