Don't expect hearts and flowers from "The Original Dirty Rapper" in a Valentine's Day show coinciding with his 59th birthday.
By JULIE GARISTO
Published February 12, 2004
[Publicity photo]
• Blowfly, a.k.a. Clarence Reid, has also had a respectable mainstream music career, writing hits for other artists and recording a few of his own.
Who is Blowfly? Also known as Clarence Reid, and sometimes "the Original Dirty Rapper," he has often flown under the radar of mainstream pop culture despite a prolific and sometimes chart-topping career.
Like a heady mixture of "Weird Al" Yankovic, George Clinton and Redd Foxx, Blowfly performs soulful, funky rap and R&B parodies in outlandish costumes (usually involving a shiny cape and pair of bouncy antennae), freestyling X-rated rhymes over popular tunes.
He developed quite a following in the 1970s for his blue material. In 1980, one of his albums was banned because of graphic language - 11 years before 2 Live Crew's controversy.
"I'm ahead of myself," he jokes in an interview.
The ban didn't keep Reid down. In the early 1990s, he performed with Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers at a Los Angeles bar called Club Lingerie, and then formed a band named after the establishment. Around that time, a documentary filmmaker captured his act on film and called it The Twisted World of Blowfly.
Reid, born in Georgia on Valentine's Day 1945, started working in the cotton fields when he was just 7, after his grandfather died. He played with song lyrics to amuse himself while he toiled, and he sang those naughty songs to other children in his hometown of Vienna. He quotes his grandmother in a cackling voice: "I don't know why those little white girls like you! You ain't no better than a nasty ol' blowfly!"
The nasty ol' Blowfly knew he was meant for bigger things. He hitchhiked to Miami at 13 and got a job washing pots at a cafeteria, singing while he worked. His boss noticed his ear for harmonies with the other workers and referred him to record distributor Henry Stone, owner of Tone Distributors, where he worked in the warehouse. That alliance would later lead to him writing hits for artists such as Gwen MacRae, KC & the Sunshine Band and Betty Wright while on the staff at Florida's top disco label of the era, TK Records, founded by Stone. He also had his own singing career of a more conventional sort. He recorded Nobody But You Babe in 1969 with his act Clarence Reid and the Delmiras, reaching No. 7 on the Billboard R&B chart.
Reid ventured underground, recording The Weird World of Blowfly. His subsequent releases, Porno Freak and Blowfly for President, maintained his adult-only popularity. Yet Reid is deeply religious and can be serious, as in a song he penned about terrorism. "Mr. Terror, you made a great error by ignoring God's love. You've got the whole world against you. Even prayer won't save you."
In December, Reid did his first show in Florida in 23 years, with his new band, which includes Chris Chavez on guitar, J.P. Dias on bass and Tom Bowker on drums. The band is developing material for a new record, including a medley mocking R. Kelly's I Believe I Can Fly (hint: Blowfly takes Kelly to task for his alleged activities with young girls) and Whitney Houston's The Greatest Love of All.
Reid's appearance Saturday at the Green Room in Ybor City arrives on his 59th birthday. He plays with another R&B artist of yesterday, King Coleman, best known for (Do the) Hully Gully. DJ Kalani spins funky hits of the '70s between sets.
Asked if being born on Valentine's Day made him more of a ladies' man, Reid says jokingly, "The ladies love Blowfly," and then retorts in a shrill, grandmotherly falsetto, "Blowfly, shut yo mouth!"
Not likely.
PREVIEW: Valentine's Day Fest with Blowfly, King Coleman, DJ Kalani and a '70s costume contest, 9 p.m. Saturday, the Green Room, 1701 E Eighth Ave., Ybor City. $12. Call 813 241-4954 or visit www.greenroomtampa.com
