When time is of the essence

B. Simm is a busy man.

From preparing his new, untitled album for release this summer to touring with the likes of Li’l Wayne and Bow Wow, he doesn’t waste much time.

With the music industry still in free-fall, he says it’s time to “get in there now. Get my family fed.” Coming off his regional hit and Louisville anthem “Ropeadope” comes the new “Hustlin’,” the lead single off the aforementioned summer album.

He’s definitely about his business and realizes that one person can’t do it on his own. “I’ve got a strong team behind me. They stay on me.” That said, sometimes you have to step up for yourself.

“I’ve been through so much (in this business),” he says. The biggest risks for success or failure are “usually not the artist’s (fault), but the business side. If you have 10 people representing you, you can’t rep yourself.”

He is focusing on keeping up his work ethic, looking at hip-hop success as any other job. “If you have the right characteristics, you should succeed,” he says.

B. Simm says the hip-hop scene in Louisville has been on a recent backslide toward fragmentation, and he hopes to bring people back together. There’s a lot of “friendly competition” in the city, he says, but he realizes that if “one person blows, it makes it easier for the rest.”

Nappy Roots opened a lot of eyes and ears to Kentucky hip hop, as did Static Major, whose appearance on Li’l Wayne’s current hit “Lollipop” is probably the biggest national exposure Louisville has ever had in the hip-hop world.

“Not too many rappers get the support of the city,” B. Simm says. “It’s hard to get the people behind you. If people support their local artists, they’ll never (just) be local.”

Find B. Simm at myspace.com/bsimmmusic. Contact the writer at leo@leoweekly.com

This article appears in July 15, 2008.