What do you get when you mix Morehouse College and NASA? The manifested healing that is Shaman Work, a record label started by two brainacs that were engulfed in Morehouse College’s NASA Scholarship Program. Chris Craft, Lamar Gilliam and J.R. have constructed a record label that are here to distribute and promote music that goes against the conventional grain. They’ve worked with everyone from M.F. Doom, to currently C.L. Smooth, Blackberry Jones, Wale Oyejide, J. Rawls and numerous other artists that you will hear about before the end of 2007 and years to come. If not for the indirect funding, Shaman Work may have never seen the light of day. As Kanye West said about 3 years ago, don’t let the school use you, you use the school, Lamar and Chris were listening and with the help of certain entities the Divine Mind Network was launched which would give breath to Shaman Work Recordings. Three years into the industry, Shaman is here for the long run, they believe that there is a hip hop ear that is searching for something more than what commercial radio has been spinning and Shaman is here to fill that void amongst many others.

Scheme: What were you guys doing before you started Shaman Work?

Lamar: I was pumping gas (laughs). Chris and I went to Morehouse together. At Morehouse we started out with a bunch of guys who are into hip hop and started working on songs and recorded together. Throughout the process Chris and I were the ones who held everything together and made moves and turned it more into a situation of, hey we’re making these songs so what can we do with this now. We started out as producers and we still do produce but nearly as much as we did back then. With us holding everything together we naturally progressed into more of the business side of things. I guess an important aspect to add is that Chris and I were both NASA scholars at Morehouse. So our first four releases under the Divine Minds Entertainment entity were completely funded by the NASA Scholarship. Our first semester we stayed on campus because they kind of mandated it but we got cool with the lady who appropriated the funds for the NASA Scholarship Program. We figured out that as a student who lived off campus you would get paid more money for your scholarship than as a student who lived on campus because on campus money was a set number. However, you could get an apartment with a couple of roommates and say that you’re paying $700 dollars a month when you’re really paying $200 dollars and they write you a check for the semester and you do what you want with it.

Scheme: So did anyone think you were crazy for doing this? Basically putting NASA on hold to pursue this dream?

Lamar: (Laughs) A lot of people still do. The NASA connection really didn’t end in college, after graduating school I worked at NASA for a little over five years and just left at the top of 2006.

J.R.: Don’t put too much of this in the story, we don’t want to get raided or anything.(laughs)

Scheme: J.R. where do you fit into the scheme of all of this?

J.R.: I met Chris at the time when he was working on an online magazine and he was doing some music production as well. I was doing music at the time working with a label in New York. We connected more on the music level and before you knew it he flew out to Jersey and we did some music together. I would say years after we moved to Atlanta and that’s when we really connected when I moved down there.

“The thing is Shaman is the Native-American doctor of the tribe, the idea is that we want to be the healers of a pretty much corrupt rap industry.”

Scheme: How did you guys come up with the name?

Chris: When we have Divine Mind there was so many of us that we decided to split Divine Mind into three labels. Lamar had a label called Mirak. Our boy Kevin Johnson who owns AUC Magazine had a label called Vista and that was going to the R&B, Jazz, Latin and that was going to be more of our adult music. I decided to have a name called Shaman Works and I don’t know how the hell I came up with that name; basically I have this fascination with Native-American culture because I think I have some of it in me but I don’t know which tribe(laughs).

The thing is Shaman is the Native-American doctor of the tribe, the idea is that we want to be the healers of a pretty much corrupt rap industry. We want to approach it from a different way by doing our own thing and our slogan is making our ideas manifest. We’re the guys approaching this thing from a whole different angle.

Scheme: How have you guys been received thus far?

Chris: Great! Business is solid, but the simple fact that we’re accepted for the talent that we put out and for our original ideas, that’s enough to keep us going. Even labels that we look up to, they support us by giving us positive reinforcement on what we’re doing.

Lamar: To piggyback off of that, the most telling factor of how we’ve been received…a couple of labels that we really look up to like your Stones Throw, Babygrande, Rhymesayers etc. 85% of the people that give us a compliment or say they feel what we’re doing to either me, Chris or J.R. are putting us in the same breath as those exact labels and for the fact that we’ve only been doing this since 2003, it’s really an extreme compliment to what we’re trying to build.

J.R.: The people support the artists of Shaman Work, most of the time they support the brand. It’s rare that you find people who are into one artist are not into at least four or five of the other releases. So the brand embraces people who like the same type of vibe. Whether the release is C.L. Smooth or a Wale Oyejide which are two different releases in terms of sound, they still attract people to support both.

“A lot of the times they think that the album release date means the end of the journey when that’s the start of the real work.”

Scheme: Who do you guys have coming out this year that we can look for?

J.R.: I would say this year is the year of the up and coming. Although we’ve signed situations like C.L. Smooth or we’ve worked with M.F. Doom, people who are more established or have a name, we feel it’s very important to break artists and that’s what running a record company is about, that’s the challenge and excitement of it. We have Blackberry Jones who is a producer, emcee, DJ out of the DC area.

Chris: K-Banger an emcee out of New Jersey, and emcee named U-George who is a part of this group called Killer Whales and a more established producer/visionary J. Rawls. We also have our core for life like, Scienz for Life, Wale Oyejide and others.

J.R.: We’re building and establishing the roster that we have.

Scheme: What’s the hardest part for you guys about breaking artists who aren’t people that you would hear everyday on the radio?

Lamar: Getting on the same page with the artist so that they understand what it’s going take to build their career. I think the independent music scene has a different dynamic than what goes on in the mainstream, and what people see as far as success on that level a lot of times gives artists a misperception of what it takes to really be successful as an independent artist.

Scheme: Whats the biggest misperception that artists have about the industry?

J.R.: Soon as my record drops I’m going to blow up! Or, my record came out today I’m going to be rich next week or as long as I send out a couple of emails on myspace I should sell 20 million records.

Lamar: A lot of the times they think that the album release date means the end of the journey when that’s the start of the real work.

Scheme: If you guys are where you’re at now three years in, what’s the learning curve been like for you guys?

Chris: I would consider the three of us pretty smart dudes. We had the opportunity to work with an attorney who gave some real good advice and she really got us in to some labels where most labels couldn’t. We actually share attorneys with Stones Throw. We didn’t know certain things like when to put out an independent record, where to spend marketing, press and radio dollars.

J.R.: That’s the beauty of it, I feel like that’s what keeps it going. The fact that we don’t feel like we’re done there are always new challenges and something new to learn and it keeps the scenario fresh.

Lamar: Honestly, the industry changes so even if you feel comfortable, for example now we’re in the digital world and you have to stay current with the new ways to sell a record. All the mom and pop shops are closing, I mean Tower Records is closed so that’s a big void to fill, you have to learn the new scheme of things no pun intended (laughs).

Scheme: What were your expectations coming into the industry? Have they been met or have you been taken aback by different experiences?

Chris: I’m happy where we are but my expectations will never be met.

J.R.: I agree, I mean we see where we have come from but to expound on the expectations being met I feel like there is always somewhere else to go.

Lamar: Our success really drives us to challenge ourselves to see what we can come up with to top it.

Chris: Like I would think about stuff like oh, I would like to do an M.F. Doom release I can check that off the list. I would love to sign a legend, signed C.L. Smooth, check that off, so we’re knocking a lot of things off the list but now I would like to have a tour bus that we own and we can launch a tour anytime we want or I would love to start our internal marketing and viral marketing and promote the company to where we don’t have to outsource anymore.

Scheme: What’s your opinion on music and how it’s molding the up and coming generation?

J.R.: I would say from a mainstream level…we’re in trouble (laughs). I say this a lot to different people, but the reason it’s this way is because of us. I’ve talked with a lot of different circles and there are hip hop heads that say look at these youngsters they don’t know anything and we’re sitting here with all the information and not telling them anything. I feel like until that movement happens and we put the information in their hands and tell them that there is music now and back then that still has that same flavor that is so-called cool and that can actually teach you something and steer you in the right direction. Outside of that it’s up to the parents really to let these children know the images that they see in the videos are not reality.

Chris: Let me focus on the hip hop side of things. There are too many quitters in the independent industry. Look at the New York scene there were so many people that were doing it in the late 90’s early 2000 they just laid down, and what example does that set for people who look up to them on the artist level or the entrepreneurial level and there not isolated to artists, but there aren’t labels around anymore. That’s a product of horrible distribution and several circumstances. I’m from the south and as far as the south goes there are certain people that have a great work ethic but what their putting out there is horrible. The reason I isolate it to happen is because outside there is great music with John Mayer, Amy Winehouse and others and their record companies will support them for a whole year where these other record companies support these hip hop albums for two weeks.

Lamar: To put a positive spin on all of this with the infusion of the internet, itunes and myspace and all these other social networks, I think a large portion of the population that listens to hip hop is looking for us. That’s why you see the Def Jux, Rawkus, Stones Throw having the ability to sustain an independent label because there are a large number of people that want to hear something different than what they are being force fed.

Scheme: I was listening to a radio station and the DJ posed the question is hip hop is good or poison. Some people called in and were irate and stated how great hip hop has become and others just called the music awful. Do you feel like the hip hop community has become too dependent on hip hop to save a community of color? In other words, forget the books, parents and put it all on hip hop?

Chris: If you ask me I can’t stand this generation of parents and for me it starts at home.

J.R: It definitely does, and that’s the argument I brought up later, because it’s so hard to say that sometimes. You have certain homes that are corrupted that there really is no home, which makes the kid become an at risk youth who didn’t ask to be put in that situation; the next guiding light is hip hop that is on commercial radio. On the other hand we have to realize that this hip hop from the music side is such a phenomenon it engulfs the hearts and souls of many! The reality is it starts at home and the old school home where the community raised a child.