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The Middletown Press (http://www.middletownpress.com)
Middletown rapper gains following online
By TERRY SUTTON, Special to The Press
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
MIDDLETOWN -- He does not have the success of Kanye West or 50 Cent, but Ra' Sean Blyden, recording as Reh Dogg, is
drawing attention for his rap videos and, more recently, his anti-Obama rhetoric.
Thanks to video venues such as YouTube.com and music download sites such as iTunes, musicians no longer need the
backing of a major record company to attract fans. Few have demonstrated this better than Reh Dogg.
Alone with a camera and a tripod, the diminutive rapper filmed a video for his song, "Why Must I Cry," about troubles with an
ex-girlfriend and the betrayal of a friend. The video became a smash on YouTube, drawing 2.1 million hits, and Reh Dogg was
quickly noticed all over cyberspace -- for many of the wrong reasons.
He was ridiculed for scenes in which he sang naked in the shower. People posted volumes of negative and hateful comments
on his YouTube page and even did video parodies of "Why Must I Cry." The Black Entertainment Television show, "Hot
Ghetto Mess," hosted by Charles Q. Murphy (brother of Eddie) and now called "We Got to Do Better," showed snippets of the
video and suggested that Blyden not quit his day job.
"Why Must I Cry" was cited on Web sites such as ebaumsworld.com as the worst video and song ever made.
"I was getting people calling me racial names and saying I was a disgrace to my race," Blyden said. "I even was receiving death
threats on an average of once a week. As far as the people imitating my videos, some of them were kind of funny. In a strange
way I view it as a form of flattery."
Blyden also got national exposure when he was profiled on G4TV's "Attack of the Show." Co-host Kevin Perreira heaped wry
praise on him, saying "he has a music style that can't be matched and ... he's managed to take his own brand of emotional and
weird rap and reach a massive audience."
Blyden has self-produced 10 CDs, which sell over the Internet, and even has his own line of Reh Dogg clothing. He has
attracted a loyal following in this country -- there's a fan club with a P.O. Box in Berlin -- and Great Britain. He gets e-mails from
fans and interacts with them via webcam.
"There are a lot of open-minded people out there that know I'm not a record company and I do everything myself," Blyden said.
While his unusual antics of appearing nude, dressing up in various costumes and brandishing handguns sets him apart,
Blyden insists that many of his fans like him more due to the honesty and emotion of his music, which has sometimes been
called "emo hip-hop."
"What the hell?" asked Daniel Turman, at the fearthebeard.org blog. "Some dude from Connecticut whines atonally through his
gold fronts for three minutes and he gets to have a style of his own?"
Two songs that highlight these qualities are the somber, "Senor Morales" and the sexually explicit and profanity-laced "Reh
Dogg Diss O.M.G."
Blyden said both were about people who wronged him.
"I speak my feelings," Blyden said. "My music is not what you would call family oriented. These individuals f------ me over, and
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