Rapping up a dream

Rachel Merrick of Tarpon Springs, a.k.a. M.C. Cookie, wants to show the world that girls can hip-hop, too, and bring a positive message.

[Times photos: Bob Croslin]

Rachel Merrick, a.k.a. M.C. Cookie, performs at the recent American Cheerpower competition at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.

	For more information on M.C. Cookie and her CD, Boombox, visit her Web site at www.mccookie.com.

PALM HARBOR - Rachel Merrick leads a double life. In one, she's an eighth-grader at Tarpon Springs Middle School who likes to hang out with friends. In the other, she's M.C. Cookie, a teenage rapper who wants to make it big in the music world.

But Rachel isn't your cookie-cutter star.

"I don't want people to focus on my age, my Jewish heritage or my race," says Rachel, 13. "And I'm a girl. There's not many of us out there in the game."

Through her music, she aspires to break gender and racial boundaries in the entertainment industry.

Rachel earned her nickname when a photographer was assigned to create a layout of the rising star. While doing research, the photographer heard Rachel rapping as M.C. Cookie in the upbeat song Go. From that point on, she was known as M.C. Cookie.

Before she ventured into hip-hop, Rachel wanted to be a dancer. After attending a workshop in 2002 with Cris Judd, Jennifer Lopez's ex-husband and former backup dancer, she decided it was for her. Judd gave her numbers for a few agents. At a photo shoot with various artists, she met photographer Ed Amos, who introduced her to the record industry, and everything changed.

Amos, who is involved with such celebrities as Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Nick Cannon, pulled a few strings and set Rachel up with Jamaica Johnson, her producer.

Rachel hit the studios at age 12 to record R&B, but then Johnson heard her rapping. From then on, M.C. Cookie was a rapper.

Rachel recorded her CD in Orlando on weekends. Unlike most artists her age, Rachel is heavily involved in her music. "I write most of the songs," she says. "It takes a couple days. I get in that mood and work until it's all finished."

The first single, Supersonic, is a cover of JJ Fad's hit and can be heard locally on Radio Disney, WWMI-AM 1380.

"JJ Fad showed the world that the rap game wasn't for just guys," Rachel says, "and that's a message I also want to send."

She performs with four backup dancers that she selected. The dancers are multiracial, underscoring Rachel's belief that hip-hop is all-inclusive.

On days she doesn't perform, Rachel's schedule includes attending school, doing homework, going to dance practice and rehearsing choreography and songs for her shows.

Most kids at school are supportive of Rachel. She put on a mini concert with friends in her math class as a treat for the students. They all sang along to Cars With a Boom. Rachel's math teacher, Annette Alahouzos, complimented her poise onstage. "M.C. Cookie is the happening thing at Tarpon," she said.

Rachel is better known in Orlando, where her music has been played on radio station 102 Jamz, WJHM-FM 101.9. And most of her concerts are in Orlando.

Fans "scream, and they jump on me," she says. Her songs also have been playing in Tallahassee, Gainesville, Fort Lauderdale and Las Vegas, and in cities in Alabama and Texas.

M.C. Cookie aspires to be a positive role model. "I try not to dwell on the negatives," she says. When she was younger, she was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and specific learning disability, but she succeeds at school, having made the honor roll several times.

In her music, she advocates getting an education. U Don't Wanna Do It includes the lyrics, "U only get one chance, betta make it all right/Stay in skool, make da grades and keep it tight."

Rachel gives benefit concerts for DARE, the antidrug campaign for kids; and Child Watch and Give Kids the World, two groups that help terminally ill children. "I like giving the kids something to look forward to," she says.

M.C. Cookie also has performed at Planet Hollywood in Orlando, New York City and Honolulu.

Rachel is with Interlude Entertainment, an independent label. If her record sales continue to climb, she hopes to sign with a major record label.

Kayla Merrick, Rachel's mother, has devoted considerable time to helping her daughter with her career. And her father, Jim, often tells her, "There's two kinds of people in this world: those that dream about it and those that do it."

Rachel is living her dream. "Hip-hop is just everything to me," she says.

- Bhavana Vangara, 14, is a ninth-grader at Palm Harbor University High School.

For more information on M.C. Cookie and her CD, Boombox, visit her Web site at www.mccookie.com

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