Here's a preview of my cover story on Umbrella Corporation that runs Sept. 12.

Photo of Jersey and I at Full Moon Saloon by Shanna Gillette.

Heavy beats slam through the room like war drums. The crowded nightclub is thick with cigarette smoke, booze, a trace of weed — and adrenaline. Here at Full Moon Saloon in Ybor City, well past midnight on a Wednesday, local emcees are engaged in rap battles — face-to-face put-downs built on improvised rhymes. Umbrella Corporation, a Tampa hip-hop collective that’s changing the landscape of the 813 underground, calls the venue home. Tonight their artists dominate the congested stage….

Umbrella Corporation founder Aych (pronounced “H”) fires back with a dazzling verbal barrage that defies the old adage about words hurting less than sticks and stones…

“For me, Umbrella Corporation is an opportunity not only to sharpen my craft as an artist and performer,” rapper Jersey says, “but to give some knowledge to the other less experienced people.”

“I’m a weirdo,” Aych says. “I believe in the whole energy thing, feeding off the energy of the crowd. I look at the person I’m about to battle and think if I’m gonna talk about his shoes, if he has some kinda off shirt on, if he has a lazy eye.” Everything’s fair game. Political correctness does not exist during an emcee battle. “If you can’t take it,” he continues, “then don’t get up there.”

This article appears in Sep 5-11, 2007.