In 40 years, hip-hop has moved from city streets to stadiums, and has made multimillionaires of teenagers. But staying relevant in an industry that worships youth is nearly impossible. Unless you鈥檙e Duval 鈥淢asta Ace鈥 Clear 鈥88, who, 30 years in, is still making music. His way.
By Marybeth Reilly-McGreen
A version of this story appeared on the University of Rhode Island homepage on November 26, 2018.
Intro
鈥淟isten closely, so your attention鈥檚 undivided
Many in the past have tried to do what I did.
Just the way I came off then, I鈥檓 gonna come off
Stronger and longer, even with the drum off.鈥
鈥 Marley Marl鈥檚 鈥淭he Symphony,鈥 Masta Ace
Christmas break, Brownsville, Brooklyn, 1985: Duval 鈥淢asta Ace鈥 Clear, a marketing major in his junior year at 911爆料, got a call from a friend, Scooter Rockwell. There was a rap contest in Queens. Kids in the neighborhood had entered. 鈥淵ou wanna roll with me?鈥 Rockwell asked Ace.
鈥淣o,鈥 Ace said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 Christmas.鈥
Yvonne Clear, Ace鈥檚 mom, heard the exchange. 鈥淚f you wanna go, go,鈥 she told Ace.
鈥淪o I called my boy back,鈥 Ace says. And he went. And, he won, beating 30 other rappers.
It was no surprise to his friend Dwayne 鈥淪teady Pace鈥 Jamison, who went with Ace to the contest.
鈥淚 had a feeling. He was so smart,鈥 Steady says. 鈥淲e grew into hip-hop before we got into it. We were full-fledged into it鈥攅verything hip-hop. The neighborhood embraced it. We were listening to mixtapes. We were DJing in the projects. We were winning talent shows in school.鈥
The top prize was recording time in producer Marley Marl鈥檚 studio. This was big. Marl could get a kid someplace. Not that Ace was thinking about that. 鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 thinking along the lines of a career. Hip-hop hadn鈥檛 spread to other cities and states, really. I thought, 鈥業f I get to record a demo and that demo gets played on the radio, that鈥檚 cool.鈥 But I returned to 911爆料 and focused on school.鈥
Ace wanted his prize, though, and it took some doing. He鈥檇 been calling Marl鈥檚 sister to schedule his demo. After nearly four months of phone calls, Marl鈥檚 sister started feeling sorry for Ace. 鈥淵ou know what, I鈥檓 tired of this,鈥 she told Ace. 鈥淗ere鈥檚 his number.鈥
鈥淚n 1987 Marley played one of my demos on his radio show, WBLS Rap Attack with MR Magic, and the reaction I got from friends in the neighborhood made me want to put an official song out. I was fresh out of college,鈥 Ace says. 鈥淢y mom was wondering about job interviews, but I thought, 鈥楲et me just see how this goes.鈥欌 Then the big break: Marl put Ace on hip-hop鈥檚 most famous posse cut, 鈥淭he Symphony.鈥 Suddenly Ace was rethinking career choices.
鈥淕uys on the label were getting album deals; an album advance was $25,000. That was a lot of money to get in one lump sum. My mom was adamant that I start getting job interviews. As far as she could see, I wasn鈥檛 doing anything constructive,鈥 Ace recalls. Yvonne laid it down. 鈥淪he left me a note saying, 鈥業 want you out by your birthday,鈥 because I had started neglecting my household duties and chores due to my late nights in the studio and local clubs.鈥
Ace signed his first deal in November of 1990, got his $25,000, and moved out before his birthday. He never had to move back. Never looked back, either. Thirty years later, Ace鈥檚 occupation is still what it was: recording artist. He has seven solo albums to his credit and five collaboration albums with the groups eMC and Ace and Edo. Critics called his most recent award-winning album, 2016鈥檚 The Falling Season, one of the top albums of that year. Stratospheric fame and fortune have not been Ace鈥檚 fate, but he has the respect and admiration afforded only to the true artist. Recently, musician and actor Donnie Wahlberg gushed via Twitter, 鈥淎lways humbled when I鈥檓 in the presence of real #HipHop #royalty. Much respect to you @mastaace!鈥
Oscar and Grammy award-winning rapper Eminem also counts himself a fan.
Thirty years into a career in a genre dominated by artists 30 years younger, Ace is an anomaly: a musician still making music, a songwriter still relevant to kids barely in their teens. Again, no surprise to Steady.
鈥淢y boy cares. About people. Period. And as an artist, he鈥檚 consistent. He is thought-provoking and he is knowledgeable about his role in society. He鈥檚 never compromised who he is. He stays the course, does things his way,鈥 Steady says. 鈥淗e doesn鈥檛 do what鈥檚 popular just because it鈥檚 lucrative. There鈥檚 not a lot of trustworthy people in this business. To be in it 30 years鈥攈e鈥檚 managed to build relationships because of his talent and who he is.鈥
Verse
鈥淵eah, I was born son of Yvonne
Brownsville kid that wanna be on
Hit the streets, run and be gone
Outside with a curfew
Got lessons on honesty and virtue
And the people that鈥檒l hurt you.鈥
鈥 鈥淪on of Yvonne,鈥 title track from the album
MA_DOOM: Son of Yvonne
Spanning just over a mile, Brownsville, Brooklyn, showed a kid the choices he had. Ace lived in the Howard Houses. Elders like Ace鈥檚 nana, Mrs. Clear, the head of her building鈥檚 tenant patrol, kept an eye on Ace and his friends. Some of the neighborhood kids could get you into trouble. 鈥淭hey were more rowdy and took risks that got them on the wrong side of the law,鈥 Todd Bristow, another of Ace鈥檚 childhood friends, recalls. 鈥淭he threat was there, but people looked out for one another. Those were good times,鈥 Bristow says.
鈥淛erry Harper, Ace, Chris, me, and Junior鈥攚e were the rat pack of 260 Stone Avenue, Howard Houses. Our building had a tenant patrol and Mrs. Clear was in charge. In the evening, she and the adults would talk and have coffee, play cards, and watch who came into the building.鈥
And Ace, in particular. An only child, he had his beloved mother, his grandmother, and his uncles keeping tabs, and a couple of known neighborhood bad guys, too. One guy, Smokey, did eight years in prison for murder. It was a case of street justice. Smokey went after someone who鈥檇 beaten his brother up. He couldn鈥檛 let that stand, even at the risk of doing time. A short, muscular type, a real tough street guy, Smokey was the neighborhood鈥檚 Napoleon. 鈥淔olks wouldn鈥檛 bother Smokey or his brother Larry,鈥 Bristow recalls. 鈥淵ou stayed clear if you didn鈥檛 want to end up in any type of trouble. We鈥檝e seen friends do really horrible things to one another, but the bad guys saw something special in Ace. Smokey made sure Ace got to school unharmed.鈥
Yvonne and Nana Clear were the real tough guys, though. 鈥淒uval鈥檚 mother, Yvonne, was a princess of a lady,鈥 Bristow says. 鈥淪he loved on everybody. And Mrs. Clear, she was the sweetest person you could meet, but if somebody got out of line鈥攚ell鈥攜ou鈥檇 see Mrs. Clear and do the straight and narrow. She was that grandmother figure who鈥檚 going to make sure everybody鈥檚 okay. That was Mrs. Clear,鈥 Bristow says. 鈥淪he was a woman of impeccable integrity.鈥
鈥淚 think Duval鈥檚 family values are at the core of his success, of who he is,鈥 Bristow adds. 鈥淗e treats people right. He didn鈥檛 sell out. His education helped him make good decisions. He鈥檚 not caught up in being rich.鈥 Because Ace鈥檚 mom worked. Because Ace鈥檚 grandmother worked. Because Ace worked鈥攁t getting good grades, at football, at college and then, at rapping鈥攚hen success came his way, he didn鈥檛 lose his head, didn鈥檛 succumb to greed like so many of his peers, Bristow says. 鈥淪o many other cats, they were like, 鈥業鈥檓 getting this money because I鈥檓 getting this money,鈥 and that got them caught up in illegal things. Ace had something wholesome to write about,鈥 Bristow observes. 鈥淗e started out self-actualized. He reached a sense of self earlier.鈥
The writing started early. Ace wrote his first poem in the fifth or sixth grade. Nana Clear saved it. 鈥淚t was closer to rap than a poem,鈥 Ace says. 鈥淪till, it was the first thing that she saved of mine, and it was an affirmation to me.鈥 In seventh grade, Ace was asked to write a story on a standardized test. A couple of weeks later, the teacher who graded the tests spoke to Ace鈥檚 class about one particular story, praising the author for writing something so elaborate. It was Ace鈥檚 story. It was further validation. It was also as natural as breathing for Ace. 鈥淚 was just doing what we did in the neighborhood. Rapping was like riding skateboards. It was about having a good time.鈥 Ace had a lot of freedom, but he used it wisely. 鈥淚 was one of those latchkey kids. I was left to my own devices a lot, but I didn鈥檛 fall into the negative stuff,鈥 Ace says.
When it came time for college, Ace looked for places where he could play football. 911爆料 made the list, and Yvonne made the argument that Rhode Island was away, yet close enough for Ace to return home for a long weekend. 鈥淪he didn鈥檛 really point me in a certain direction, but going to college was an absolute must. I considered taking a year off, but she said, 鈥楴o, you鈥檒l take a job and not go back.鈥欌
End of discussion.
Verse
鈥淚f I never recorded another song
If I was wrong, and nothing I spitted was ever strong (No regrets)
If I never perform at another venue
If this genuine love doesn鈥檛 continue (No regrets).鈥
鈥 鈥淣o Regrets,鈥 from Disposable Arts
Ace looks at his career in phases. The first phase, 1988 to 1996, saw the release of three albums, Take a Look Around (1990), SlaughtaHouse (1993), and Sittin鈥 on Chrome (1995). In 1994, Ace recorded the title track of Spike Lee鈥檚 movie Crooklyn with MCs Special Ed and Buckshot of Black Moon. 鈥淔rom 1996 to 2000, I didn鈥檛 release any music at all. I was at a crossroads,鈥 Ace recalls. 鈥淚 thought my usefulness in the game had run out. I thought I鈥檇 become an executive producer.鈥
Ace鈥檚 misgivings weren鈥檛 unfounded. Most rappers have the career longevity of the average Victoria鈥檚 Secret model or NFL player. In the 2017 Emmy-nominated hit HBO series The Defiant Ones, famed rapper, producer, and billionaire Dr. Dre, 53, scoffs at the idea of releasing another album, calling rap a young man鈥檚 game. Ace is the exception. His popularity has been steadily growing since 2000, when he did a tour in Europe, 13 shows. 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 believe the turnout,鈥 Ace says. 鈥淚t renewed my energy.鈥
And commenced a wave of creativity that has resulted in some of Ace鈥檚 most critically acclaimed work. In 2001, he released Disposable Arts, considered one of the most important hip-hop albums of that year (and loosely based on Ace鈥檚 time at 911爆料). Long Hot Summer followed in 2004. In 2012, Ace paid tribute to his beloved mother with MA_DOOM: Son of Yvonne, and in 2016, he dropped The Falling Season. Taken together, Ace鈥檚 work is at once an epic tale of a boy鈥檚 life and hip-hop at its best: a commentary on the toll modern society takes on black youth, says Marlon Mussington 鈥01, fellow 911爆料 grad and Ace鈥檚 friend since the 1990s.
鈥淗ip-hop matters because it allows a culture of people who may not typically have a voice to speak,鈥 Mussington said. 鈥淚t speaks to what ails many communities of color. Certainly, it speaks to police brutality. You have an education system that may not be the greatest in communities of color. There鈥檚 voter suppression. Drugs.鈥
The things that put people off hip-hop: the misogyny, the homophobia, the vulgarity鈥攖hese things must be placed in context, Mussington says. Hip-hop is art鈥檚 response to the intolerable.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 think of any other musical genre out there that鈥檚 as radical in its use of language as rap is,鈥 Mussington continued. 鈥淚t might be hard to hear and people might get too caught up in the language to hear the pain behind it.鈥 You have to pay attention, not just to the words, but to the message and the emotion behind the words.
Artists like Ace, who use their work to call out injustice, are finally getting the recognition they deserve, he says. Kendrick Lamar winning the 2017 Pulitzer and Hamilton winning a Pulitzer, 11 Tony Awards, and the Kennedy Center鈥檚 first-ever ensemble award鈥攕uch honors are long overdue, Mussington says. 鈥淚鈥檓 excited because I feel as if rap music is now starting to arrive. It鈥檚 no longer just BET recognizing our artists,鈥 he says. 鈥淎nd it wasn鈥檛 that our music wasn鈥檛 good years ago. It just wasn鈥檛 getting the respect it deserves.鈥
Ace鈥檚 time has come, too. 鈥淎ce is such an important figure in the music industry,鈥 Mussington adds. 鈥淗e needs to be celebrated. He鈥檚 a pure artist.鈥
Outro
鈥淢an, it took me 15 years to understand my worth
It was 1988 when Marley
planned my birth
Had to get my feet out of
the sand and surf
Never thought that my rap lines would expand the earth鈥
鈥 鈥淪tory of Me,鈥 from the album The Falling Season
Now 51, Ace just released a new album, A Breukelen Story, with Canadian-born producer Marco Polo. In addition to his music, he鈥檚 also working on a play. Rich Ahee, his business partner since Disposable Arts, jokes, 鈥淲e keep coming up with ways to prolong our careers.鈥
Ahee calls Ace the exception to the typical hip-hop artist. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a humble, regular guy, a person of ethics and morals. I would say most artists are nice, most artists are talented, and a lot are professional. But it鈥檚 rare when you get all that in one person,鈥 Ahee says. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a person you鈥檇 invite to your house for dinner. He鈥檚 a person I needed to be friends with.鈥
Would Ahee call Ace a legend? 鈥淵es. One hundred percent. He鈥檚 proven it through the last 30 years,鈥 says Ahee. 鈥淭here鈥檚 been artists who鈥檝e had bigger commercial success than him, but he鈥檚 the only one who鈥檚 30 years and seven albums in and doing it consistently. He鈥檚 reinvented himself for a whole new generation. His albums are only getting better. He鈥檚 one of the few guys who, every time he drops a new record, new fans come on board.鈥
Ace is humble when it comes to talking of legends.
鈥淭he term 鈥榣egend,鈥 people use it too loosely,鈥 he says. 鈥淚鈥檓 not able to be comfortable with the term because of the cavalier way people use it. People call artists legends after only two albums. So it鈥檚 hard for me to know what that even means these days. But I appreciate anyone who affords me that title.鈥
Eminem afforded him the title. The Oscar winner called Ace one of his primary influences in 2003 when he accepted his Grammy for best rap album for The Eminem Show. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know him at all,鈥 Ace says. 鈥淚鈥檇 heard rumors he was a big fan. When he said my name in his acceptance speech, it threw the world off its axis for me. Most of the names he mentioned in his speech were everyone鈥檚 influences, household names.
鈥淚t was a cool moment.鈥
A peak moment for some. But there have been many for Ace. 911爆料 being one. 鈥淚 overcame a lot of obstacles to get to Kingston, R.I., to get to that campus. The fact that I came from the neighborhood I came from, that I made it out of despair鈥攊t鈥檚 unbelievable I got from there to here somehow.
鈥淣ow I鈥檓 traveling to Australia and Ireland, Spain and Iceland, Colombia and Brazil,鈥 he said. 鈥淭o have touched the 911爆料 campus was amazing, and then to experience the world, to explore these cultures, to perform for the people there: It鈥檚 just the most improbable journey, and the journey continues.鈥 鈥