When you want to be hardcore, you're probably like everybody else. You throw in your Will Smith CD and have to pretend. But, some people, a chosen few with God-given abilities to rhyme and wear lots of jewelry, say, "Ahh, hell no," to the pretending and pick up a mic.

That's the impression you get, talking to Brown Eyez. Just too much talent to be pretending. At seventeen, the Poly high honor roll student (known to her teachers as Chauntrielle Ruffin) has performed live at numerous venues and already has a CD out, which includes tracks from other Eleven Records recording artists, all of whom are hoping Brown Eyez's name can provide them exposure.

It all happened four years ago. Brown Eyez was thirteen ripping the mic and blowing people's minds with her precocious style at a talent search sponsored by the Long Beach Eastman Boys and Girls Club, when Greg Smith, founder of Music Star Matrix.com and Eleven Records, first saw her. Recognizing her skill as well as an excellent opportunity for his fledgling record label, he was like, "We gotta talk."

In many ways, Brown Eyez is your typical seventeen-year-old. There's school. There's Jammin' Jackrabbits (an after-school dance club). There's the mall, the movies, shopping, and more shopping. And, then, she's an aspiring rap star with real skill and so much confidence and poise it's frightening. When I spoke with her, she was funny and charming and seemed to have shit together. That is what impressed me most-how she is able to be seventeen and normal. It kind of makes me think, "Why the hell was I such a blathering moron?"

Recently, I had the chance to sit down and speak with Brown Eyez. Smith and her stepfather Bennie Lang were there too.

562: How would you describe yourself as a student?
BE: A good student but a fun student. I like to have fun. But I get all my work done. I know when it's time to play and when it's time to do work.
GS: You going to be on honor roll?
BE: Yes, I am on honor roll, Gregory.
562:Plan on going to college?
BE: I'm going to be a U.S. Customs Agent. But, I want to get my license in culinary arts.
562: A chef who can rap? That can be your thing. The rapping chef. What's it like being a rapper in high school?
BE: It's funny actually. They compare me to people who've come out of here, like Snoop Dogg.
562: You seem much more focused than your typical seventeen year old.
BE: Yeah, I am. My surroundings. The people who surround me. They inspire me to keep going the way I want to go and keep my head straight.
562: When I listened to the CD you sound very mature and confident. But, you're only seventeen! What gives?
BE: I'm sassy. To tell you the truth. I mean it's fun involved with it. You can't do something and not like what you're doing and still expect it to come out the way you want it to come out. If you want it to come out in a good way, you have to be confident. I'm confident. I think I'm one of the best female artists out there. I'm just not out there like they are.
562: Right, but that'll come with time and more experience-
BL: Can I say something? I don't want to miss this part, so I'm going to represent this person. She really is confident, and she gets that attitude from her mother. It really comes from her mother. Her mother was what she (Brown Eyez) is now. It just happened for her.
562: Did her mom get all this started?
GS: I discovered her at a talent search four years ago. I was running another label. There was a talent search for, like, a hundred. Out of the talent search, she just came in and kicked butt. I pulled her mom to the side and said, "Hey let me work with her."
562: Do you write your own songs?
BE: Yes, with the help of my mother.
562: Obviously, one of your influences is your mom. Any other influences?
BE: Yes. Well, my mom is my major influence. She stays on my back. She's always there for me. But, she's not just the mother type. She's, like, the friend type too. She's also my best friend. And, of course, Bennie and, of course, Greg.
562: Rapper influences?
BE: Bap. She's off the Bad Boy label. Da Brat, Missy, Eve.
562: Yeah, Da Brat. I was going to say your style reminds me of the Da Brat.
BE: That's what everybody says.
562: The next step for you career-wise?
BE: I'm still going for this. But, I'll always have other things. I'm not just going to have an A plan. I'm going to have a B plan. So I'm going to go to college. Absolutely, college. But I'm still pursuing this. This is like the main thing. But after this-I'm not going to always be a rapper.
562: So after this, you're going to put out another CD?
BE: Yeah, I'm going to stay doing this.
562: How supportive are family and friends?
BE: Very supportive. Very, very supportive.
562: Even at school? Teachers? Other students?
BE: Some of my teachers are just like kids. They're like are you going to remember me when you get rich and famous.
562: Any worries as you begin your career?
BE: No. I don't have any worries. Take one day at a time.
562: Have you performed live?
BE: Yeah.
GS: Yeah. The next biggest show coming up is the Step To the Mic show.
562: What are you going to be doing there? Just songs off your CD?
BE: Hmm. Not the whole CD.
GS: She's closing the show. She's the feature artist. She's going to do like four songs. We're actually taping for television too. The taping is also going to be used as a mock we'll take to other locations to book the show. High schools and colleges. We're trying to make this Step To the Mic a college and high school tour. Instead of just being at the club.
562: Yeah, because I imagine with minors-
GS: Minors are just dying to see her and they don't have a venue. So I'm trying to create this show. I'm trying to make it universal. It's a show for adults and for teens.
562: I mean her album is pretty clean. Her side is, anyway.
GS: Yeah. I kept it as clean as I could still with the attitude of the street.
562: Do you have anything to say about the idea that rap is a sexist industry?
BE: I don't really have anything to say. I believe that you should take people as they are. If that's their talent and that's what they feel they can do, let them do it. Don't knock them.
GS: How do you feel about competing with the boys?
BE: Some of the guys that are out right now are not in my eyes, in my opinion, really that talented. But, if that's what they feel they can do and they're getting away with it, then let them do it. But , I don't really have any worries about going against anybody out there. I like to have competion and I'm always going to give my all.
562: Anything else you want to say?
BE: Cop that disc

Listening to her mother rap inspired Chantrel Ruffin of Long Beach and led to an album deal

By Theo Douglas - PRESS TELEGRAM

Staff Writer

Much of the best rap and hip-hop created in the genre's relatively short span can be seen as the history of the have-nots -- performers whose art benefitted from a feeling, real or not, that they'd been slighted, passed over or simply overlooked.

Want names? Try the likes of Public Enemy, N.W.A., Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, or Geto Boys on for size.

Others, though, like Eminem, Eric B. & Rakim, and L.L. Cool J have transcended that feel-bad equation, not eschewing the occasional gangsta lean in their lyrics, but largely rising above it.

Long Beach newcomer Chantrel Ruffin belongs in this second category.

Ruffin, aka Brown Eyez, dropped her first CD at the end of summer. No one is quite sure when it arrived in stores like seminal V.I.P. Records (just a block from her high school) or local Tower Records location, but "Watching You" ' has been on the street for a while now.

What's happened so far has been largely what you'd expect from an independent release, in this case one from Long Beach-based label Eleven Records. "Watching You" ' hasn't gone platinum, hasn't sold 100,000 copies, hasn't sparked Entertainment Weekly writers to interview Ruffin's teachers at Poly High School, where she's a senior this year.

But the nine tracks she contributed to a 20-song disc -- also featuring a varied lineup of local hip-hoppers and musicians -- may be doing something that all the careful production in the world can't create.

"Watching You" ' may have the beginnings of a buzz behind it, which for a artist starting at street level is as key as a rapport with one's audience.

V.I.P. Records owner Kelvin Anderson called it one of the best debuts he's heard in a long time, and local radio hip-hop DJ Adam Rodriguez put it into rotation on KBCH, Cal State Long Beach's student-run radio station.

Musically, her CD blends a growing lyrical sophistication with bright, bumpin' old-school beats that are just modern enough to avoid any retro stigma. And yes, while there's a certain amount of rap braggadocio, this is a clean rap record -- no gratuitous swears and no filthy material.

"She" s got the edge and she's got the look,'' says Eleven Records head Gregory "G" ' Smith. "The way she flows, her deliverance, her attitude, her voice, her tone. She reminded me of a young Michael Jackson, how he took over the stage when he got behind the mike. I see her as competing with Bow Wow and Eve and Romeo -- even Missy (Elliott)." '

All this attention has the 17-year-old honors student a bit nonplussed.

"When I started rapping, I didn" t think it was going to get to this level,'' Ruffin admits. "There" s a lot of people still struggling.''

Technically, Ruffin can still count herself in that number, having not achieved mainstream success. Yet, having been taken under Smith's wing as a young teenager and having recorded a tight new CD, she is a success by many standards.

Ruffin's professional story begins back around the turn of the millennium, at Long Beach's Eastman Boys and Girls Club, where she attracted Smith's attention during a talent search he hosted.

"I met her through her mom. Her mom brought her to my talent search four years ago," ' Smith recalls. "The (other) talent was OK, and then here she comes. She was only 14 or 15 at the time, and she killed it." '

Ruffin cites rappers Da Brat, Missy Elliott and Eve as influences -- but the person who may have played the biggest role is her mother, Pam Ruffin. A Compton native and former rapper and drummer herself, the elder Ruffin's affinity for rhyming apparently rubbed off on her daughter.

"She used to sit there and watch me (rap) when she was younger, and say 'Mommy can you write me a song?" I'd say, 'I'll write you a song, but first I have to show you how to do it,' '' remembers Pam Ruffin, 39, who grew up in the same Compton neighborhood as Dr. Dre, and attended Compton High School with N.W.A. founder Eazy E before he transferred out.

"The first time I got her into it, I did it to see if she liked it," ' Ruffin continues. "I didn" t push her. I said, 'Be sure this is something you want to do.' 'Cause I also went out and taught her how to play basketball. She's really good at it.''

The middle child, between brother Vincent, who is 23, and sister Libra, 13, Ruffin made the junior varsity girls' basketball team before hanging up her high-tops to concentrate on hip-hop.

"Me? I put my grades and the work I do first, because I know if I don" t have (one), I'm not going to be able to do the next one,'' says Ruffin, who has plans to perform this month at an Eleven Records talent showcase. "I always have a backup plan. I" m looking into being a U.S. Customs Agent. 'Cause you know you can't always be a rapper, you can't always be a singer.''

Maybe not; Ruffin's record label has the same humble beginnings she does. But if Smith has his way, "Watching You" ' will get lots of long looks.

"If I had a large label and lots of money, she" d be really big right now,'' Smith says. "But you gotta crawl before you can walk." '