Nicky Starks, whose Darkside Entertainment has been called a “hip-hop porn” company, is determined to make a splash in the hip-hop music industry too.
He has produced his first CD, Clear Outta Nowhere. Four years in the making, its title is a reference to Straight Outta Compton, from N.W.A., whose late co-founder Eazy E was an inspiration to him.
Starks told AVN.com that he hasn’t yet decided how he’s going to market the disc, “if I’m going to try to distribute myself or go to one of those one-stops in the music industry. My goal is to get the word out so I can try to make a deal.”
Starks said his original ambition, when he came to California from Ohio in 1991, and before he fell into the adult industry, was to do music.
“Every door that I couldn’t get open before I was in this industry has opened right up for me now that I’m in this industry. I had stopped doing the music, but the doors were there, so I kind of went backwards and started doing it again,” he said.
“It’s not porn rap,” he emphasized, adding, “I have almost an uphill battle now. I do have credibility because of my company — but anybody coming out of our industry doing music is automatically looked at as not good or maybe no talent, and then on top of it they’re thinking it’s going to be porn rap. And it’s not. I have sex in my songs, but I talk more about me and who I am and my life up to the present.”
For the record, the album more than earns its “Parental Advisory - Explicit Content” sticker. Its 27 cuts take in a wide range of subject matter, and it’s a thoroughly professional production. Starks reveals considerable talent for wordplay and projection and he’s got the gift for relentless self-exploitation that is a large part of a successful rapper’s portfolio.
Starks’ music career is being managed by the well-respected, old-school rapper Melle Mel, best known for his work with Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5.
“He came to me,” Starks said. “He didn’t even know I rapped. He just knew I had credibility, being a white kid doing the black company and all that stuff. It just so happened that I was in the middle of work on this, and we just kind of got together. He said, ‘Let’s get it finished and we’ll take it around.’”
Starks feels he has something unique to bring to hip-hop. “I’m a white kid that’s rappin’— plus I’ve got 10 years in the porn industry, producing. Whether you want to call it a gimmick or just call it credibility — it is.”
Starks can be reached at (818) 778-6500 or by email at [email protected].
