FSD Feature: ClarkAirLines: Arrival Time

The studio was completed in September 2007 and AirLines started rapping full-time that fall. He and his mother both remember the first time he rapped off memory, with his friend, Nickolas, when they were eight years old. Mrs. Clark explains, “I would give them a scripture, and since they like music, I told them to put the music to it.” The verse is Hebrews 11:1. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen.” You may learn more about scripture writing here.

12 years later, Jarvis is calling himself a rapper and more. His Twitter profile reads, “Imma Rebel with a Canon/Rapper/Songwriter/Videographer/Director/Engineer/Actor…Jack of all trades and I love what I do.” While I’m in the studio, he records Bebe O’Hare’s guest verse for the song, “Pass Out.” He uses Pro Tools 7 LE with no plug-ins.

Bebe O’Hare is a female rapper from Chicago, tall with light skin, wearing glasses and a 5-panel hat. She and AirLines get right to work. They have a great rapport, even though, to my surprise, this is their first time meeting. Less than 10 minutes after she arrives, the room goes silent as Bebe stands over the microphone.

A minute later, everyone in the room is stunned. AirLines breaks the tension. “Yeah, you pretty much killed that.” I can’t wait for the world to hear this verse. Jokingly, AirLines says, “I don’t even like my part anymore,” as he plays the song for his A&R/Manager, Jason Edwards a.k.a. Kidhustle. “Holy shit!” is his reaction.

Kidhustle, 31, has been working with ClarkAirLines professionally since 2008, but they’ve known each other since 1994.  (Jason was his uncle-in-law at the time.) He sees a correlation between Jarvis’ skills on the basketball court and his proficiency with music and videos. “Basketball will push you in other areas of your life,” he says. “As much effort as [Jarvis] put in on the basketball court, he did that with music from an early age.” They reconnected as adults via a chance encounter at a managing party for Chicago recording artist Shorty K.

AirLines remembers approaching the venue. “We get to the door, I see J there… I’m like, ‘J, what you doin’ here? You did this?’” He didn’t know Jason was a manager and Jason didn’t know Jarvis was a rapper. They exchanged messages for several months and “from then on we been in tune,” says AirLines.

Accompanying AirLines that night was a vocalist named Chigozie Uzoma a.k.a. Goozy. They met in 2007 through a mutual friend who described Goozy as hungry. “Literally. He ain’t eaten. He just made it out here. He’s trying to make it.”