Doin' it ACApella

Taken aback for a second interview, Alert/Carter and Associates also known as ACA is definitely on the high rise. As we entered the offices of Jean Alert and Beau-Guy Carter, FORTY MILLION DOLLARS slapped us in the face. No, it wasn’t actual cash, but it definitely caught our attention. Above Mr. Carter’s desk was a phrase that simply read “$40,000,000.” He explained that with money comes false friends and new family. It is up to us to decipher between the stragglers and surround ourselves with real friends, real family and true business. Unfortunately, Beau was in a recent accident where he had to evaluate his surroundings carefully. With his downfall, many of the people he held closest to him left his side. Those who stayed are the people he will continue to further himself in life with. So, once again, the FORTY MILLION DOLLAR question arises. Mr. Carter’s response was, “When we hit that forty million mark, the people that you interview today are going to be the people that’s going to be there later on. That’s it.”
Up and coming business entity Alert/Carter and Associates is a motions picture, sports management and entertainment firm. Separating the business world from the personal, ACA provides a comfortable family environment while exemplifying their hierarchy of authority. Jean Alert stated, “You want them to feel comfortable with you as a friend and also understand we’re here for their best interest in business.” Alert/Carter and Associates provides a full service management company with their public relations personnel Tamar Bazin, who has worked with several people in the fashion industry including the whole Russell Simmons family. Some of the artists Alert/Carter and Associates represent vary from athletes to actors and artists. To name a few, football player Jeffrey Pope from the New York Jets, pianist Chloe Lowe, Actors Shaun B. from hit TV series The Wire and Alexis Diez from TV network BET’s Comedy Central, as well Rhythm and Blues singer/song-writer Corey Gibson. As each artist takes on separate career paths, Alert/Carter and Associates caters to every need for them to successfully propel into and maintain balance in the business world. President of the company, Derrick Loftin and developing executive Jonathan Sykes, find every and any way to make sure the company runs smoothly and their artists stay happy and successful. As Mr. Alert and Mr. Carter plan for the future, they say, “Everyday in every way, I get better and better and better.” Nonetheless, as he comes about progress, his company and artists do too.
Along with the needs of their artists, Alert/Carter and Associates gives back to the community, working with young boys in the public school system, teaching them how to tie ties. Believing success is in business and the arts, Alert/Carter and Associates has brought means of etiquette to young children in the public school system; who are going to be more than just our children, but our future. Jean Alert gives us a quote told to him from up and coming soul singer, Kimberly Nicole. He says, “People aren’t happy because they’re not living their purpose and a part of loving your life is living your purpose and living your purpose is living freely.” After the trials and tribulations of switching companies and no longer managing certain artists in the industry, such as Chrisette Michelle, Jean Alert and Beau-Guy Carter are venturing off into a greater adventure and doing as they please. From prospective works such as an Old School Hip-Hop tour over seas, a new movie in reference to life back in the 1980’s around Red Hook Projects located in Brooklyn, New York and lining up a SEVEN FIGURE deal with a mysterious NBA player, Mr. Alert and Mr. Carter have huge plans for the future. We haven’t been told who the mystery Athlete is yet, but we do know it is someone from the New Jersey Nets basketball team. Stay updated with Alert/Carter and Associates by tuning in and signing on to www.UniversityHustle.blogspot.com.

::By Courtney Johnson, UH Contributor

SLUG: ONES 2WATCH-CHARLES HAMILTON

http://www.myspace.com/hamiltonsmusic
http://charleshamilton.blogspot.com

Picture, for a moment, the future of Hip-Hop – embellished with pink hues, an old school Sega Genesis hedgehog, and syncopated sounds from an offbeat musician playing on a pink Hello Kitty guitar. His name is Charles Hamilton, signed to Interscope and slated to be the next superstar.

|GABB: “How does it feel to be an artist on the come up with a major label deal?”
|HAMILTON: “I try not to pay too much attention to it honestly.”

But while he articulates humble words, the 21-year-old confidently reclines on the couch in his Harlem apartment – removing his pink oversized Skullcandy headphones – with a swagger that can only be explained by his newfound rise to fame. It’s the quintessential contradiction. The mere presence of media in his living room suggests the magnitude of his inevitable stardom.

His ascend began early in 2008. It was after signing a solo artist deal with Interscope that the label prompted Hamilton to fortify his Internet existence. Consequently, initiating the launch of the “Hamiltonization Process” – one mix tape integrated into the blogosphere every two weeks for four months. Each submitted to a different blog site. It’s the first time an artist has gone back underground to suffuse the blogworld.

The “Hamiltonization Process” is the marketing stratagem of Charles himself with help from the Hamilton Administration of course. “I’ve had that plan for years,” he said. “And now I got a chance to execute it and show people exactly how much I think into my music.”

For Hamilton, music is more than just the spoken word. He plays the piano, various percussion instruments, bass and lead ‘pink’ guitar. “There are so many different elements to me, it’s just Hip-Hop is my gateway in,” he said. “I’m a musician before anything.”

Even in the womb Hamilton showcased an insatiable palate for music, flipping around to Michael Jackson’s 1987 Bad album, according to his mother Talice. “I knew Charles has always been gifted musically,” she said. “In terms of creativity it was always there.”

But the new deal forces Hamilton to transition to a more mainstream sound. Yet he still has all the underground components that have kept his style motley and distinctive. “I’m loyal to what I do which is the free music but ultimately I’m a mainstream artist,” Hamilton said. “I’m the first underground artist on the mainstream.”

Now a major label artist back underground, it’s noteworthy that Hamilton can personally respond to feedback from blog supporters and antagonists. Although he sometimes becomes consumed by the antagonistic comments, there is no shortage of praise from his followers. Especially after holding his own during a freestyle cipher with heavy-hitters Kanye West and The Game.

It’s his passion for pink and his fixation with the Sega Genesis character Sonic the Hedgehog that have the blogs buzzing. But it’s not a gimmick, Hamilton said. There is a personal philosophy behind his infatuation with the color. "God is a woman and pink is the inside of a woman's womb and that’s where life comes out of, so wearing pink is a way of showing respect to God," Hamilton explained. And as for Sonic the Hedgehog, well sonic means ‘sound’ and hedgehogs bury themselves underground, so “I’m Sonic the Hedgehog because I bury myself into sound,” he said.

His ideology is unorthodox, but what should one expect from a musical-genius type. If the dawning of a new day in Hip-Hop is feasible, Hamilton may be just the man to rally the troops to victory.

::By Gabby R., www.GabGoLightly.blogspot.com