For rapper, creativity comes in many forms

By Bryan McKenzie

Published: August 31, 2008

Sense it in the music, feel it in the video, hear it in the book; Derek Perkins wants the beat of his life, the tone of his philosophy to come through.

The 25-year-old entrepreneur is an author, singer, actor and independent record label executive fronting Philosophy Entertainment. He’s recorded CDs, performed in videos and recently published a book of hip hop-styled poetry, “Poetic Philosophy.”

Always writing

He’s doing his best to put his thoughts into every form that fits.

“I’m always writing,” Mr. Perkins says, sitting in the Mudhouse coffee shop on the Downtown Mall. “I started my own label because I wanted creative control to do what I want. It’s pretty easy to stabilize everything I’m doing because it’s all part of the same goal and I’m putting my heart into it.”

If hard work assures success, Mr. Perkins will get it. It may come through his writing or acting under his given name. It may come through his music under his hip-hop moniker, C-Zar Wisemen.

Whether rhyming to a beat or sparsely punctuated prose, Mr. Perkins is about being himself. He’s not all about thugging or hanging in the VIP lounge with the movies stars. He’s all about striving to get ahead.

Mr. Perkins, you see, wants the whole entertainment enchilada, and he’s willing to work for it. He’s been like that since he picked up a pen as a sophomore at Monticello High School.

“There was torment and anger I was going through at the time and I wanted to express it. Picking up a pen seemed like a better idea than violence or fighting. I started to feel like the pen and paper were my best friends,” he says.

Even as he works toward success, he’s taking his truth to others.

“I know that it’s about contacts and that’s why I go out to Los Angeles to music conferences every year and try to put myself out there,” he said.

Real success

Sure, he wants success, but he wants it to be real, to be his. That’s one reason why he’s staying close to home.

“You hear of people who leave Charlottesville and go to New York or L.A. to try and get something going, but you can’t really be you if you go there,” he says. “You didn’t grow up in New York so you can’t be New York. It sounds false.”

Be, he says, who you are.

“I’m from here and my experiences are here,” he says. “You can make it from here, if you’re honest, because people will relate to your truth wherever it’s from.”

Being honest to Mr. Perkins is just as important as being successful.

“I always wanted to be an entertainer,” he says. “I’m being true to my form. I don’t want to be compared to anybody. I don’t want people to say ‘you’re just like so-and-so.’ I don’t want to be a fad or follow a fad because fads fade.”