Nicky Starks came to L.A. from Ohio on a Greyhound in 1994. He was 22 and had dreams of being a rapper. Instead he became one of the first to bring an urban, hip-hop vibe to adult video.
Darkside Entertainment, an independent entity since 1997, was one of the first companies to dedicate itself entirely to all-black video. That’s the way it still is.
Starks was a white hip-hopper, a type way less common in the early ’90s than it is today. He grew up immersed in black culture. He was also a porn fan who knew the movies were made in places like Chatsworth and Canoga Park.
So he wasn’t surprised when he answered an ad and found himself doing phone sales for K-Beech. A bit later, he moved to the warehouse at Sin City. “From that point on,” he said, “I’ve never been out of this industry.”
His break came when he signed on as personal assistant to Patrick Collins at the newly independent Elegant Angel. It was a time of creativity and turmoil. Starks was there for the signings — and departures — of Tom Byron, Rob Black, Van Damage.
He found Collins and his dedication to the new gonzo porn an inspiration. “It kind of opened me up to say yeah, what I’ve always wanted to see is black movies that — which they’d never really done — just introduce the black girls, let them talk in their real voices, their real personalities.”
Collins and general manager Greg Alves gave him the green light, and he began to shoot Sugar Walls. It immediately became one of Elegant’s top sellers. Starks did more ethnic lines: Just Don’t Bite It, Interracial Fellatio, Bomb Ass Pussy. When questions of ownership and royalties arose, Collins cut him loose, along with his editor Craig Daze. The kick out the door, Starks said, was the motivation he needed to go on his own.
He already had the Darkside name, “and people were familiar with it. The only thing I didn’t have was the name Sugar Walls any more. So I just called it Sugar. And luckily the Nicky Starks name was strong enough, people knew the quality.”
To sell the product, Starks went to Hank Weinstein, a well-known industry salesman, who he knew from Sin City. He set up shop at home in 1997, confident that “the black hip-hop thing” would sell.
His first lines, Sugar and Freaks of the Industry “were making my company survive, but I was month to month just barely kicking over. And then In the Thick hit and sold about double the amount of all my other titles, right off the bat. It just started making things hum.”
In the Thick remains Darkside’s top-selling line, with 15 volumes and a just-released two-disc “Best Of” set. “I can’t even explain it.” Starks says in wonderment. He also has Head Clinic, a blowjob line, The Bomb (b.j.s and sex scenes mixed together), Slippin’ Into Darkness (all-anal) and a big breast line, Tig Ol Bitties.
He releases two titles a month, including volumes of Byron Long’s Tenderonis and Mr. Marcus’ Made for Hardcore, his only interracial line. The newest Darkside director is DJ Yella, the rap pioneer (N.W.A.) turned pornographer, who shoots West Side Stories. “He’s actually part of something that helped me be what I am,” Starks said. “I started my own company because of Eazy E [the late N.W.A. co-founder].”
Two years ago, Nicky’s dad, Fred Wilson, came aboard as general manager. He’d been running a karaoke bar in Thailand and wanted to return home. His expertise has given the company a smooth-running foundation it didn’t really have before. Weinstein is still in charge of sales, and Daze continues as editor and main shooter, along with Starks.
Starks recalls that in the mid-’90s, “nobody had done the hip-hop generation girls with good hip-hop music. Back then it was me, Nate Woodburn, and then Jake Steed came along and TT Boy. Now it seems like every company on earth has jumped on the bandwagon. Not to mention every rapper that comes in our industry and thinks there’s a million dollars. Back in ’97 they told me, ‘You’ll never be successful doing an all-black company.’ So, I beat those odds.
“I won’t say I invented it, but I was at the forefront of bringing hip-hop into porn and I’m going to stay with that as long as it’s successful.”
For Darkside sales, contact Hank: 818.778.6500, 888.407.2289 or [email protected].