An Akron transplant will represent his current home and his birthplace on Black Entertainment Television’s new rap competition show One Shot, premiering at 10 p.m. Tuesday.
Our hometown hero is Keith Simmons aka Poodieville, a 21-year-old Buchtel High grad and emcee who was born and raised in tiny East Moline, Ill., about three hours outside Chicago, and moved to Akron four years ago.
The name Poodieville sprang from the childhood nickname “Poodie,” given to him by his beloved father who passed away when he was 15, to which Simmons then added “-ville” for a little extra hip-hop flavor. Simmons, who began rapping at 16, has an intense motor-mouth style, mixing some struggle rap with boasting, hood tales and other subjects drawn from his life.
“Everything I’m rapping about is what’s happened in my life. I try to keep it just real. When I first started rapping, it was the cliché bragging and boasting about money I didn’t have and all the women, you know, the regular things,” Simmons said.
“But as I developed as a rapper, I started talking about my life. It makes a big difference; it makes me feel it and it makes the people feel it. And when I transitioned to talking about my life, that’s when people started paying attention because they could feel it was more real.”
Simmons heard about the show last winter on hip-hop video and radio host Sway Calloway’s Sirius XM show, Sway in the Morning. The DJ hyped the show, which had yet to be picked up by a network, and encouraged aspiring emcees to grab their “one shot” — submit an online application and come to one of the four audition cities. The grand prize was $100,000 and a record deal.
Simmons chose Chicago, and stood in a line with thousands of other wannabe rap stars outside the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago on a February day. “It was freezing outside, it was about 10 degrees and 5,000 people standing outside,” he said.
Simmons kicked his best rhymes, but didn’t make the cut.
“I was a little disappointed,” Simmons said from Akron a day before heading back to Illinois for some official One Shot promotional business.
“You know, every rapper thinks they’re the best; you know what I mean? But it didn’t stop me, I just felt more motivated,” he said.
Just as it looked as if Simmons had wasted hours enduring a frigid winter day for nothing, a show producer pulled him aside and strongly suggested that he try again in a few weeks when the auditions moved to Miami.
“At first, I was done with the show, that was my mindset. But when a producer told me I should come, it just made me more motivated to keep going, and I thought OK, maybe I do have something going,” he said.
For his second shot at getting on One Shot, Simmons prepared and practiced harder, “took it more serious,” and wasn’t as nervous. He earned a spot among the top emcees, who go before a panel of celebrity judges that will include producers and rappers such as RZA and DJ Khaled.
“I was ecstatic. I felt like hard work pays off. It was actually kind of a dream come true. Things like that don’t happen to people where I’m from. So, that was big. Even in Akron, there’s not a lot of people in the media as far as the hip-hop scene,” Simmons said.
He’s getting nothing but love from friends and family in Illinois and Akron: “It feels good. They’re all on Facebook going crazy, and everyone is telling me they’re going to set their DVRs for Tuesday.”
The show has already wrapped, but don’t ask Simmons where he ultimately placed, unless you want to get him in trouble with BET. All you need to know to enjoy One Shot is that Poodieville made the top six in Miami, and now fans, friends and family must tune in to find out if he will make it through to the next stage, which takes two emcees from each city to compete on the finale in New York.
Obviously, Simmons, who currently works at McDonald’s, would love to win $100K and a recording contract to help jump-start his rap career and his goal of heading an entertainment company, to be dubbed PV Entertainment. But Simmons said he doesn’t have to conquer the pop world.
“What I want is just to be able to do something I love to do, and that’s rap and be able to take care of my family and my friends …” he said.
“I don’t need to be the biggest pop star in the world. As long as I have a core fan base and my family and friends around me and be able to support myself doing music, I’m good.”
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758. Read his blog, Sound Check Online, at www.ohio.com/blogs/sound-check, like him on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/1lNgxml and/or follow him on Twitter @malcolmabramABJ.