PORTLAND PRESS TELEGRAM

March 31, 2002

RIDING RAP FOR ALL ITS WORTH, TOM FERRIS FINDS THE WAY FROM PREBLE STREET TO L.A.

Tom Ferris has spent much of his life searching for a home.

When his father got a new girlfriend, Ferris was asked to leave the house. He was 11. He went to live with his mother, but her drug problems caused him to flee. He was 14. A few years later he tried to live with his older sister, but her boyfriend refused to let Ferris in the door.

At 17, Ferris tried to live with his mother once more. But Ferris says her arrest on fraud charges left him stranded on the streets of Portland. With his stepfather, he took refuge at the city's Oxford Street Shelter.

For the next four years, Ferris lived off and on in the shelter, not much interested in work or study. The only thing he enjoyed, the only thing he worked at, was making up rhymes to hip-hop beats. A friend in the shelter, Jay Moody, convinced him to perform his rhymes at a hip-hop open mike night at Zootz, a former Portland dance club.

"It was the greatest feeling I've ever had. It was magic," said Ferris, now 23, who performs under the name Poverty. "I got to hold the mike and release everything I had in me. It was like medicine. That's why I kept doing it."

Ferris kept performing his rap act at Portland night spots while either living at the shelter or with friends. His lyrics and stage presence attracted the attention of local musicians, hop-hop deejays and radio stations. In February he signed a recording deal with ARTISTdirect Records and is currently in Los Angeles working on his first album for that label. It is due for a nationwide release in 2003.

One of the first things Ferris did after getting settled in Los Angeles was to fly Moody out to stay with him.

Ferris, while confident of his abilities, talks as if he's not completely sure what is happening to him is real.

"When I signed, I was like 'Am I signed?'" said Ferris, from Los Angeles. "I'm a pretty smart kid, but I don't really have an education and I don't know how to do anything other than wash dishes and mop floors. I figured I'd be doing that the rest of my life."

People who saw and heard Ferris perform in Portland are not surprised at the position he's now in. Many feel that his catchy rhymes, emotional lyrics, raspy voice and passionate stage presence could propel him to success in the hop-hop world. The label Ferris signed with is headed by Ted Field, a heavyweight in the music industry. Field previously founded Interscope Records, which had major successes with artists such as Eminem, Limp Bizkit, No Doubt, Dr. Dre and Nine Inch Nails.

"He (Ferris) is really passionate about what he does, really confident. I believed him from day one when he said he was going to make a living from music someday," said Sonya Tomlinson, who raps in Portland clubs with the group know complex. "He has great presence, really dynamic."

He has one song called "Symphony of Sorrow," inspired by his mother's troubled life. Another song, "Save You," is about all the troubled people in his life and how he feels he has to "save everyone." The song "Rise from Ruin" is about survival.

Ferris spent his early childhood in housing projects in Lawrence, Mass. His parents divorced when he was young, and he spent time going back and forth between them.

When he was 9 years old, Ferris was at his cousin's house when he heard his first rap song, "Mamma Said Knock You Out" by LL Cool J. He went home, to his own room, and wrote his first hip-hop rhyme.

"I run into the kitchen to show it to my mom and she thought it was incredible," said Ferris. "After that, company would come over and she'd have me rhyme for the company. And I'd be lovin' it."

From then on, Ferris’ room because his studio and his stage. He'd close the door and write rhymes, then he'd practice performing them.

"I'd have nothing to do with anyone. I'd go in my room with my paper and pen, then my room would literally become a stage. I was in a fantasy world," said Ferris.

To people who hear Ferris tell stories of his childhood, the fact that rhyming was his escape is clear. He has seen his father only briefly in the last 10 years. According to Ferris, his mother has had a string of drug-related problems and tried to commit suicide.

In his constant search for a place to live, Ferris spent much of his teen years traveling to Florida, Indianapolis, Chicago, and finally to Maine.

When Ferris started performing at an open mike night at Portland's Stone Castle Brewing Co., he met his current manager, Chip Sullivan. Sullivan was a satellite dish salesman by day who helped to start the hip-hop open mike night at Stone Castle. Sullivan made beats for rappers, creating the music they rhymed to with turntables and other equipment. He also rhymed on stage himself.

After meeting Sullivan, Ferris soon found himself performing and working with other Portland rappers and musicians. For a short time he was in a group with Sullivan, Tomlinson and Dave Gutter, lead singer of the Portland rock band Rustic Overtones. Later when Tomlinson and others formed know complex, Ferris performed occasionally with them too.

Tomlinson said she saw Ferris’ talent and performing skills develop as he worked with Sullivan and Gutter.

"I think everyone looked at Poverty as a diamond in the rough," said Tomlinson. "Chip and Dave knew he was available to work with them, to practice, record and write."

Sullivan helped Ferris record his own CD, and worked doggedly to get it played on Portland radio and sold in Portland stores. Sullivan sent the CD to Buzz Bradley, program director at Portland radio station WRED (95.5 FM) which plays hip-hop music, but rarely plays local music.

Bradley liked one song especially, "Welcome to the State of Maine." Bradley thought the song was catchy, he liked Ferris’ sound and feel, and he liked the song's message. Ferris wrote the song playing on the slogan "Maine: The Way Life Should Be" but in it he makes listeners ask if it really is the way life should be.

"He talks about police brutality, homelessness, the extravagancies of kids from rich families," said Bradley. "I felt it was something people could relate to."

Bradley called Sullivan and asked for an edited version of the song, with profanities taken out. Sullivan complied and last July Bradley started playing the song on the radio five to 10 times a week, mostly at night. The stations started getting calls from listeners, asking who the artist was and where they could buy the song. The song eventually became one of the station's most requested songs, and Sullivan put the CD up for sale at Bull Moose Music in Portland.

While people who know Ferris are excited about his record deal, they also know it's still a long shot for him to achieve lasting success in the fickle world of music. Ferris says he knows it too.

"If this didn't work out, I'd take every dime I've made and go back to Portland and give it to the Preble Street Resource Center, and I'd go back and live at the shelter the rest of my life," said Ferris, referring to a Portland social service center that helps homeless people. "If I fail, I go back to where? The bottom? I've been there, I've got nothing to lose."