[The Vigginian Pilot] Steve Francis, rap mogul?

vlaurelio · Jul 30, 2005

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=55390&ran=58956

Steve Francis, rap mogul?

By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© June 12, 2003

VIRGINIA BEACH — Allen Iverson, Deion Sanders and Shaquille O’Neal have cut albums. Rapper Jay-Z has a line of athletic shoes, the fastest sellers in Reebok history.

For the hip-hop generation, the line between sports and entertainment has blurred. As anyone who has ever watched five minutes of an MTV “Rock N’ Jock” special can attest, many athletes want to be entertainers, and many entertainers fancy themselves athletes.

Into this crossover culture comes Steve Francis, high-flying guard for the NBA’s Houston Rockets. Francis has no interest in stepping behind a microphone, which, given the performances of Messrs. Iverson, Sanders and O’Neal, is probably a good thing. His interest in the music business is strictly entrepreneurial.

“I’m looking to be a big player, one day,” Francis said Wednesday. “Whether it happens overnight, or years from now.”

If it happens, Francis can say he got his start in Hampton Roads. He was in the area Wednesday on the first stop of a promotional tour for his new record label, Isoh Entertainment. Accompanying Francis was his label’s first artist, a 17-year-old singer from Houston named T’Neq.

Francis rates music as a second love, behind basketball, and says it helps him relax. “Some people play golf,” he said. “I like music.”

Francis planned to hold a talent contest to find his first artist, but then his limo driver met T’Neq’s mother and one thing led to another. Francis heard T’Neq sing, and his search was over.

Francis said he heard Hampton Roads was a good market, with the Dirty South All-Star Summer Jam tour stopping in Virginia Beach, and decided this was as good a place as any to begin promoting his new find. Her album debuts Aug. 19.

On Wednesday, Francis and T’Neq, in matching sunglasses, made the rounds starting the day at Brandon Middle School and ending it at A.J. Gators sports bar in downtown Norfolk.

In between, they popped in at a handful of local restaurants, at Military Circle Mall, radio station “Hot” 102.1, and in the late afternoon, at the Boys & Girls Club on Competitor Court in Virginia Beach.

The club hosts the “Youth Creations” outreach program, which encourages children to express themselves through visual and performing arts.

Derrick Bunch, a sophomore at Ocean Lakes High, did just that. As he waited for Francis to arrive, Bunch hung a pair of posters outside the boys club gym. One of them featured basketball goals and musical notes. The other was more direct.

“Attention!” it said. “Come chill with Steve Francis from the Houston Rockets.”

More than 100 kids came out, including DeJuan Baskerville, a Landstown Middle School student. He held a Steve Francis jersey, one he’d scrimped and saved for, and he said Francis is his favorite NBA point guard. If Francis would sign his jersey, Baskerville said he’d never sell it.

“This is a one-in-a-lifetime chance,” he said. “It’s not going to happen all the time, an NBA star showing up at the Boys & Girls Club.”

Francis entered with an entourage of a half-dozen and shook hands with a thrilled Baskerville along the way. He and T’Neq watched as several members of the “Youth Creations” performed, topped off by the Step team that recently took first place at the AFR’AM Fest in Norfolk.

Francis took the microphone and thanked the kids for performing. Then he introduced T’Neq.

“We wanted to give y’all a chance to see here early, before things really pick up,” Francis said.

T’Neq belted out a ballad from her upcoming album, signed some autographs, then she and Francis and company slipped into a long black limo.

On to the next stop.
Click to expand...

Stack24 · Jul 30, 2005

Yeah he came out with that Record Label a few years back and has been promoting all the time. Threw a bunch of parties the last year he was here with the 1 group that he had signed at the time

Ironic enough his label name is ISOH....the only thing he was good at and wanted to do.

LFE171 · Jul 30, 2005

Please stick to your day job stevie. Anyone got his songs in mp3 format??? haha

Stack24 · Jul 30, 2005

Wow just noticed how old that article is 2003.....

gotrock? · Aug 1, 2005

The story is a little outdated but I'd never seen it before and I live in Virginia Beach! Thanx for the post...

P.S.: I was just sayin' the other day that 85% of all the basketball jerseys I see worn in this area are Rox jerseys--some pinstripes, some current , some throwback but Rox nonetheless. Nice to see we're so popular, even outside of H-town!

Dr of Dunk · Aug 1, 2005

A bit more recent update on T'Neq :

http://tu.albany.ny.us/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=330436&category=SPORTS&newsdate=2/6/2005

rocketlaunch · Aug 1, 2005

that company isnt doing anything and the artist isnt good either.. i never understood why people in sports start a label.. instead of finding a nobody how aboutyou sign someone who is popular underground and back them with your money instead of someone nobody has ever heard of

gucci888 · Aug 1, 2005

Francis has a rap album coming out. I have to check that out.

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[The Vigginian Pilot] Steve Francis, rap mogul?

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