Two friends from the Bronx rap about living with spinal cord injury.
By Michael Lee
The friendship of Ricardo Velasquez (left) and Norris Namel, formed out of their shared experience as disabled men from the same project in the Bronx, preceded their partnership in music.
Norris Namel, 25, was celebrating his sister’s sweet 16. Namel, then 17, and his cousin were horsing around with guns when his cousin accidentally shot him in the neck. Ricardo Velasquez, now 30, was walking towards his building from a party on the night of June 8, 1996, when he heard gun shots. The next thing he knew he was on the ground bleeding and everything went dark.
Both Namel and Valazquez sustained spinal cord injuries (SCI). But it wasn’t just their SCI that brought them together. It was their passion for music, which, beyond inspiring friendship, also inspired them to form a rap group and nonprofit organization they call 4 Wheel City.
Namel, a.k.a. “Tapwaterz,” is the rapper and Velasquez, a.k.a. “Ricfire,” produces the music. After his injury, Namel didn’t think he could do much of anything. He had a T-2 level SCI. “For me it was like my world was flipped upside down and everything,” Namel said. He described the change “a big mental and physical adjustment.”
Namel was at Lincoln Hospital of Burke Rehab in White Plains, New York, from January to June 1999. He called it “a real humbling experience.” He was in shock at not being able to walk and the only person he could talk to was a fellow patient with SCI.
“I was at a place where I was trying to find myself because I was in rehab for six months,” he said. He was later transferred to Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan.
Velasquez, who had a T4-level SCI, stayed at Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx for a month, was transferred to Mt. Sinai Hospital for rehabilitation and discharged a month later. Finding a place that was wheelchair accessible proved difficult. “I didn’t have nowhere to go ’cause now I’m in a chair, I couldn’t get in [my apartment] ’cause there wasn’t a way to get in.” He eventually applied to the wheelchair-accessible Morris Housing Projects back in the Bronx, where he lives today. It’s also where Namel and his mother Vanessa live.
Parallel Lives
Namel was formerly part of another rap group with friends, but when he returned home, the group had separated. “For a while I was becoming like this wheelchair kid in the community with no real ambition,” he lamented.
Velasquez was waiting for a pizza at the projects when Vanessa asked him, “Would you mind being Norris’s friend?” He happily obliged because of a favor done to him when he was in rehab.
“I remember after I got shot there was this one guy out there for me that was schooling me, telling me how I was going to be,” Velasquez explains. “He was the first one who took me outside the hospital to get some fresh air . . . Now I’m going to be able return that favor to someone else.”
Valesquez supplied Namel with tips and how-to’s based on three years’ experience of being in a wheelchair. The two men soon realized they had a common interest: rap music. They began collaborating on music solely to have something to do during the day.
Since then, the pair have formed an independent record label, 4 Wheel Records, and have already put together two albums.
Velasquez’s apartment is his recording studio; most recording studios are not wheelchair accessible. He upgraded from a standard drum machine to the digital VS2000 and bought a synthesizer, keyboard, computer, and microphone with his social security checks. He sacrifices a lot to make his dreams come true and to take care of his 10-year-old son. He describes his sound as “a little bit of everything, being that I come from a Spanish culture they have little bit of Spanish flavor and hard drum with that Latin melody.”
It’s through music that they reach their audience- with a disability or not. They perform weekly at Mt. Sinai Hospital for patients. And they’ve performed at City Hall, Lehman College, and radio stations. Compared to the popular gangster rap and party music, the rappers say, theirs is more reality-based.
For some artists, it takes years to find a voice and message. After Namel was injured, he found something new to talk about on record-informing everyone about their disability and the injustices. He’s quick to note that his hook isn’t a gimmick. It is what it is.
It’s through music, the pair say, that they got back to living their lives. Namel went back to school and graduated from Lehman College with a B.A. in Business Management and works part-time for 311, New York City’s information line. Velasquez is designing a hip-hop clothing line and works hard on his music everyday.
More than anything, 4 Wheel City want to show that they’re just like anyone else. Their nonprofit organization, also called 4 Wheel City (www.4wheelcity.com), includes information on housing, jobs, living, and other topics. “We noticed that there aren’t a lot of people reaching out to the minorities-the blacks and Latinos in a wheelchair,” Velasquez says, “and we was like, you know what? If we start our own organization, they are gonna relate! A lot of time people come home from rehab and they don’t give you any type of information- maybe a social worker, but sometime you need more than that, someone to talk to.”
Hard Work = Recognition
All their endeavors go back to the music they create which is getting them what most independent artists dream of-recognition. Last October they were on the red carpet at VH1′s Hip-Hop Honors Awards interviewing hip-hop celebrities like Def Jam founder Russell Simmons, and rap artists like Da Brat and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, thanks to a woman who was touched by their story. They are also pitching a documentary to VH1 about their life and were featured in the Daily News article, “50 Unsung Heroes.”
This month, they will be performing in the 2007 Very Special Arts Start with Arts Family Festival in Columbus Circle on June 8-9. And they recently finished a documentary, The Wheels In Me, about their struggle to build 4 Wheel City.
Velasquez hopes other people with disabilities follow his and Namel’s example. “If you’re not doing anything, find something that you love to do that you got the passion for,” he says. “You’re going to find something that makes you happy, whatever it is-acting, singing, whatever you want to do, just go for it, don’t even think about it. We’re disabled and still got the will to live and do a beat. I think that will inspire other people with disabilities and people will see we’re the same.”
You can reach 4 Wheel City at their Web site, www.4wheelcity.com. They also have a Myspace page where you can listen to their music at www.myspace.com/4wheelcity.
Michael Lee is a frequent contributer to Action.
