Local rapping sensation Joey Boy has become the country’s first artist to record with a well-known Westerner.
His song and video “Fun, Fun, Fun” with Canadian rapper Snow is set for release at the end of the month through Bakery Music — and Joey Boy returns the favour on Snow’s as-yet-untitled forthcoming album on EastWest.
Snow, the Canadian rapping success whose album “12 Inches Of Snow” spent 38 weeks on The Billboard 200 in 1993, had a large part to play on the Thai rapper’s third album. Joey Boy spent a few weeks with Snow in Toronto earlier this year recording and honing his rap technique. “At first we had no plans to sing together,” says Joey Boy. “We became friends. Then he asked me to sing a song with him.” Friendship led to the artists collaborating on tracks for each other’s albums (both albums are due in late November).
Snow sings “Fun, Fun, Fun” on Joey’s album and appears in a video now in it’s final stages of editing. Joey Boy joins Snow for “Joey And Me” on the latter’s album. Joey Boy says the the Toronto experience has improved his rapping and that the new album will highlight that difference, for it features a more American hip-hop and Jamaican reggae beat.
The Toronto experience did not come cheap: Bakery believes that the North American setting more than doubled the usual $20,000 invested in recording an artist in Thailand. “We could have done it for a lot, lot cheaper here,” admits Kamol Sukosol Clapp, managing director of Bakery. “We recorded it in Toronto to raise the quality. We [Thailand] can compete against the European market, but once you go to the U.S. and Canada the quality goes up. The additional cost will be worth it.” But then, the label believes it already has a proven recipe for success with the 21-year-old rapper. His 1994 eponymous first album sold 200,000 units. The second “Joey Man,” sold 800,000. For a country of 60 million people, with little in the way of a predilection for rap, these were encouraging figures. “The market for rap is small, but there is less competition.” says Kamol. “Joey is considered the best in Thailand. Sales-wise, Joey is our best success.”
Still, Kamol is realistic about his third album, saying that high expectations are not a good thing in the Thai music business. “If your last record did really well, it’s hard to top that. If Joey can do a half million, I will be happy.”
There are 80 labels in Thailand, 70 of which are independent. Bakery is the biggest of the smaller companies, with 3% of the market; it reports sales of 1.6 million units since it’s launch in 1984. Joey Boy’s rap has a strong Thai feel. “There is nothing negative about the lyrics,” Joey Boy explains. “I’m not trying to be American — I’m Thai. When you listen to the music, you want to hear something beautiful, you don’t want to hear about drugs.”