How Not to Be a Rap Star

"Ice Cube was, like, my favorite rapper," Mussan says. One night out, he bumped into his hero. "He looked at me like, What the fuck you doin' here? I mean, 'cause I'm a fuckin' kid in a nightclub. It was crazy."

In Kansas City, where his mother's side of the family lived, Mussan started performing in Westport nightspots as a rapper in 1998. "But I wasn't shit," he recalls with a shrug. "I was just one of the dudes that was there that had a verse on one of the songs someone was doing." It took awhile for people to hear what he could really do, he says.

Mussan dropped mixtape after mixtape, rapping over well-known borrowed beats and including one or two original songs in the mix. Eventually, he found his own signature style.

During a lyricist's battle at what was then Stanford and Son's in 2002, Mussan advanced to the final round and faced a rapper called Stelo. (His real name is Melvin Artist.) Each was quick-witted and charismatic; the crowd picked Mussan as the winner in one round, Stelo in the next. The battle was a tie, and the rappers left the club with a mutual respect.

A few years later, Mussan showed up with friends to record at a Kansas City studio called Midgrange Music, and Stelo was there. The two former rivals became reacquainted. The more they talked, the more Mussan was convinced that Stelo was his key to navigating the music industry.

"I needed a manager, and he seemed to know what he was doing," Mussan says.

Stelo had learned from Dallas hip-hop guru McGill. In 2000, Stelo was in Dallas performing with a rap group called High Style. Their unique sound and aggressive promotion caught McGill's attention.

McGill had managed a group that included Frank Nitti and Don Vito, who both went on to produce platinum records. (Atlanta artist Yung Joc used a "Nitti beat" on his hit single "It's Goin' Down." Don Vito recently produced the beats for three songs on an album by Jagged Edge, who is signed to Island Records.)

McGill remembers Stelo as the most talented rapper and writer in High Style, but the members of that group eventually went their separate ways. Then Stelo's mother in Kansas City had a heart attack, so Stelo moved back and got a job at Tyson Foods in Olathe. During his off hours, he helped build the Midrange studio.

McGill decided to make Stelo his protégé in Kansas City and told him to shop around for area artists who had potential.

Stelo found Mussan.

Mussan already co-owned an independent label, Final Track Records, with his friend Richard Coleman, who goes by the nickname "Milk." (He's Caucasian, with white-blond hair.)

Coleman had come into money due to awful circumstances. In 2001, his wife and mother were killed when an Auction Transport tractor-trailer hit their car. Coleman's nephew, Brandon, was also in the car and suffered brain damage; Coleman escaped with back injuries. He sued Auction Transport, and a jury awarded him $5 million; Brandon won $22 million.

Milk is careful to point out that the label existed before he received any money from the lawsuit and that he's not the only investor in Final Track Records.

"There is a lot of money in hip-hop, and that's why everybody wants to be a part of hip-hop," Milk says.

Milk was a motorhead and loved flashy cars. He bought a Hummer H3 and put the Final Track logo on its side. Mussan loved flash, period; he bought a diamond-encrusted pendant shaped like the Final Track logo and rocked it on a long chain around his neck. He bought a sparkling grill for his teeth.

Stelo knew Mussan and Milk had money in Final Track Records. He told them that he'd be happy to be Mussan's manager and hook him up with McGill, but they'd have to buy him off his job at Tyson. He wanted $50,000. They gave him $30,000. It was early 2006.