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© St. Petersburg Times, published January 12, 2003
TAMPA -- You have to give a few extra points to a rap song that manages to weave in Jurevicious without fumbling the rhyme scheme.
In fact, the local radio hit Welcome To Rayjay gives hip-hopping nods not just to wideout Joe Jurevicious but seemingly half the Tampa Bay Buccaneers roster, coach Jon Gruden and the Glazer family (renowned mix-masters Malcolm, Bryan and Joel).
Not surprisingly, the tune by Tampa artist Krazy has been scoring big these days, with listeners of WLLD (WILD) 98.7-FM and increasingly with tailgaters outside Raymond James Stadium at Bucs games.
As of Wednesday, Welcome To Rayjay had been played 287 times by WILD this season and now is the station's No. 1 requested song.
It begins with Krazy and his writing/singing partner Gitt sparring over who's a true Bucs fan, then kicks off with lyrics set to the melody of Jermaine Dupri's urban hit, Welcome To Atlanta.
"Welcome to Tampa, home of the Raymond James, where the Bucs put it down and they bring the pain. Can you hear the cannons shootin' and the fans rootin'? You rookies are child's play now that we got Jon Gruden. ..."
The song was the brainchild of the WILD's morning show, hosted by Orlando, not the city but the program director of the top-rated Tampa Bay radio station in the 18-34 demographic.
"When Welcome To Atlanta came out, it was just so huge that a lot of markets started doing their own customized versions of the song," Orlando explains. "L.A. had Welcome to Los Angeles. And Krazy did Welcome to Tampa for us, and his first line was "home of the Raymond James.'
"So when football season arrived, my marketing director said, "Hey, we got Gruden now, why don't we do a Welcome to RayJay.' "
The call went out to Krazy, a 31-year-old rapper who grew up in Tampa as Jadie Singletary. Krazy has earned a loyal following on the Tampa Bay hip-hop club scene in recent years with his catchy, often humorous rap tunes. His popularity was so strong that Orlando and his morning show staff immediately took notice when the station started in 1998.
They began playing his club hits, giving Krazy regional and national visibility. When Krazy got the call for Welcome to Rayjay, he went right to work. "I wrote it in one day," he says.
Then Orlando brought Krazy and Gitt to the station, where they cut the track with show producer Tommy Hilfinger, not to be confused with Tommy Hilfiger of the clothing line.
The song became an instant hit on the morning show, and a recurring bit as well.
"People went nuts over it and started to request it," Orlando says. "So when the Bucs would win, we'd play it as the only song on the morning show. So people would call in and say, "I love the Bucs, but stop playing that, it's been like 11 times this morning.' And I'd go, "Oh, okay, we're going to play something smooth now.' Then I'd play the song again.
"Now fans have become rabid about it. They call in and say, "You're not playing the song enough this morning!' All other songs take a back seat."
" ... Derrick Brooks, John Lynch and all three Johnsons, Simeon, Shaun King y'all don't want problems, McCardell, Gramatica, who you gonna get man to stop Mike Alstott and my boy Pittman? ... "
If the Bucs reach the Super Bowl, Orlando sees the song becoming as big as the Chicago Bears' Super Bowl Shuffle in 1985.
"We wanted to do something to hold up the banner of the Bucs and for community spirit," he says. "It's not to plug the station, and we're not making any money off of it. We just wanted to do something to make the players feel proud and to represent our area well."
" ... Buccaneers back, breaking teams like dishes, what you know about Stecker and Jurevicious?"
You can hear the song at http://www.wild987.com/wildmusic/xclusive.shtml.