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LIFE
Tiger the Ace making name for West Virginia hip hop
Tasheem Hayes, a.k.a. Tiger the Ace
Purchase this photoHUNTINGTON -- Tiger the Ace may be ballin' out of Bluefield now, but the nationally traveling hip-hop act is back in Huntington -- at least in the CD bins.
Tiger's new nationally distributed mix tape, "Cars, Cash & Clothes (Volume 2)," is now on the shelves at Huntington's own indie CD shop, Now Hear This, 1101 4th Ave., the hip hop heavy CD shop where Tiger (Tasheem Hayes) worked when he went to Marshall.
It's also on sale in Huntington at P.D. Bangs on 9th Avenue.
Hosted by the Empire (who brought you the drought series with Lil Wayne), the new CD features Malice of the Clipse, Chamillionaire, Slim Thug, Smoot and many more.
Producing the CD is Music Mystro and "The Franchise," Huntington's own Mr. Mike. Mr. Mike also produced Tiger's new anthem/theme song for the West Virginia Blazers, the Bluefield-based ABA professional basketball team.
The CD is mixed and arranged by DJ JLS.
He first popped onto the scene as part of The Great Onez when he came to Huntington in 2000. Hayes said the nationally distributed mix tape is just another step up in his quest for putting West Virginia hip hop on the map.
"We're getting a lot of producers starting to work with me, and that's a blessing," Hayes said. "It's definitely going great, and has been all these small steps up."
During the winter and early spring, those steps were on the basketball court, as Hayes was one of the featured music performers for the Hustle-Up Streetballers Tour that hit 22 cities all across America.
"It was definitely a good look and a good experience," Hayes said of the tour that went through California, Texas and New Mexico. "It was a different experience. I had been outside the market before, and we were basically out west, and it was beautiful to let people know what West Virginia sounds like and to get the response that we got. I was able to go to the radio stations and get 'I Can't' into a bunch of markets. They showed me a lot of love, and they got to see what we're all about. The harder we grind, the more we are going to get out of it."
In addition to getting lots of love for his single "I Can't," cut with Malice from The Clipse, Hayes was also able to divert the Streetballers tour into West Virginia.
Hayes, who helped bring in and open for a long list of artists in Huntington including Nappy Roots, Young Gunz, Memphis Bleek, FreeWay, Lil' Jon & the Eastside Boys, Trillville, Ying-Yang Twins, J-Kwon, 8-Ball and MJG, Devin the Dude, Clipse and Lil' Wayne, always makes a point to bring hip hop to the Mountain State.
Hayes and his Heavy Money Entertainment production company helped bring the basketball tour to Bluefield and to Parkersburg.
"To get to bring those types of players like Sting and Hot Dog to my state -- it was a beautiful thing to be in front of my own people," Hayes said.
While he's just dropped the mix tape, Hayes isn't sitting on the sidelines.
He's also working on a full-length original CD with talents such as DJ Bobby Black, one of the big Southern DJs out of Atlanta, as well as D Rock (who has worked with The Game), and getting beats from some of the top artists in the game such as CHOPS, who provided the beats for Hayes' next single "I'll Fly."
"It is like slowly but steadily getting a lot of the big producers working with me and the big artists, and that is a beautiful thing that people are recognizing what West Virginia has to offer," Hayes said.
Interestingly, as Hayes continues to step his game up, he also has kept that rich, Mountain State tie, working with such veteran producers as Huntington's Mr. Mike, who produced a track on the CD called "I'm Fresh," and DJ Charlie Blac, who's mixing and arranging the new CD.
"I always want to bring West Virginia on it," Hayes said. "We've got to make sure West Virginia is still incorporated so he's (Charlie Blac) been doing all the shows with me and holding me down."
Likewise, Hayes said he'll always be working in Huntington with Mr. Mike (Crawford) who works with artists from all over the region.
"He's always been in my corner whether he's mixing or engineering or producing," Hayes said of Mr. Mike. "I'll always want him to be a part of everything that Heavy Money Entertainment and Tiger does."
Find out more about Tiger's music and hear his latest single, "I Can't" online at www.myspace.com/tigertheaceonline.
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