Hip-hop hopefuls create new sound


By Jess Decina

Meet Frank Harvey. He’s a senior finance major who loves hip-hop. He’s been into the genre for as long as he can remember. When he was 16, he and his three closest friends from home formed a hip-hop group called Diverse Elegance. The group had written tons of songs, but it needed some original beats.

Meet Brian Raffuel. The junior business administration major arrived on campus this year, a transfer from Drexel. He loves music and he’s been behind the deejay table for eight years; his experience includes synthesizing beats with a keyboard, a laptop and some computer software. He also hosts a show on WRRC 107.7 as DJ In.tel.

A few weeks and several e-mails later, the two students met in person and ended up with much more than they were looking for.

“[Harvey] was looking for extra promotional stuff because he knew I was a host at the radio show,” Raffuel said. “We started talking and we realized it was going to work on a bigger level.”

Diverse Elegance and DJ In.tel will make their first radio appearance together tonight at 8 p.m. on WRRC. Harvey and his group have performed before “in New York and down at Rutgers,” but never over the radio, and never with Raffuel as deejay.

“Not only is the radio show good for him and good for us, it’s also going to connect the name DJ In.tel and our group Diverse Elegance as being one,” Harvey said. “People can start getting used to hearing us together.”

But both Raffuel and Harvey have ambitions that go far beyond college radio and a few small-scale venues. They hope to get Diverse Elegance signed to a major record label in the next few years.
“I always wanted to be in the music industry,” Raffuel said. “I’m not really an artist. I market myself as a deejay and a producer. I understand it’s very difficult. But we’re planning on getting there.”

And if that doesn’t work?

“We want to start our own company and build it from the ground up and [Raffuel] will play an important role in that as well,” Harvey said. “Either way, we both benefit each other.”

The connections either of them make now is what really counts, according to Harvey.
“The more we promote ourselves, and the more we put ourselves out there in the public eye, the better chance we have of actually getting there,” he said.

Harvey firmly believes that having true talent is just as important. It’s because of the unique beats Raffuel provides that Diverse Elegance is able to stand out from other hip-hop groups, Harvey said.

“I think it makes us able to customize our music so much more,” he said. “[Raffuel] can sample stuff and blend different things. That’s something we could never do before, so I think that having a deejay on call is definitely excellent.”

Not only are the beats original, but the lyrics are too, said Raffuel. Diverse Elegance isn’t “all about snapping their fingers or ‘shoot-‘em-up’ [lyrics],” he said.

“I’m influenced by rappers, [by] people who have something to say,” Raffuel said.

According to Harvey, he and Raffuel have contacted several major record companies and have sent a demo to Def Jam Records. They plan on playing the waiting game for as long as it takes.

“I don’t see why someone would stop doing it if they get denied,” Raffuel said. “If it’s something that you love, then there’s no reason to stop.”