From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Like Butta

Spread your hip-hop weekend further with Tuesday night's show by Butta Verses' Fresh Air Fund.

by Kamila Pritchett

May 24 2006

John Cullen wants only three things: to get paid, to get laid and to smoke his ganja in peace. Known to local hip-hop fans as Butta Verses, the Coral Springs-based Cullen is a solo artist and partner in the duo The Fresh Air Fund who enthusiastically raps about sex, drugs and partying. Yet as readily as Cullen admits to using illegal narcotics, a habit he says got him kicked out of the Marines, he's adamant that his music doesn't glorify the criminal lifestyle that often goes along with it.

In fact, he scoffs at people who idolize drug kingpins, Mafia figures and the like. "Dudes walk around wearing a Scarface shirt, but that was a movie. The guy on the shirt is an actor," Cullen argues. "If I wear a Scent of a Woman T-shirt, is that cool? It's the same actor, right?"

Cullen's music doesn't squarely fit into any prescribed hip-hop genre, melding elements of gangsta, conscious and old-school East Coast rap to produce generally upbeat, lighthearted songs. On his 2004 mix tape, Taste Odyssey, Cullen smoothly delivers funny anecdotes about his run-ins with groupies, experiences with feel-good substances and life in the music industry atop funk and soul samples that recall the music of weed-informed acts such as A Tribe Called Quest and Redman.

"The music I'm making is like the hip-hop I was listening to from age 10 to 19," says the 30-year-old, Bronx-born Cullen.

In 2004, Cullen got his first taste of national exposure when De La Soul featured him on a track on its album The Grind Date. The veteran hip-hop group has since invited him to open four of its tours, including one in which he shared a bill with John Legend and Common.

Through his connections with De La Soul, Cullen met South Florida MC D. Schwartz, a.k.a. Filth, who has also worked with the group. Initially viewing each other as competition, the two rappers eventually decided to collaborate in an act called The Fresh Air Fund, which will perform Tuesday in Miami Beach. In 2005, the duo released its debut mix tape, Fresh Air Ain't Free, which features tracks reminiscent of East Coast hip-hop acts Nice and Smooth, Black Sheep and Das EFX. The group is named after a program in which inner-city kids from New York travel to the country to experience nature. "When people would hear us rap, they'd say, 'Damn, that's like a breath of fresh air,' " Cullen explains.

The Fresh Air Fund has performed at the 2006 Bob Marley Festival in Miami, The Art of Moving Butts monthly hip-hop event at the Poor House in Fort Lauderdale, several MC battles at I/O Lounge in Miami and virtually every hip-hop venue from Miami-Dade to Palm Beach County. But the duo's strong work ethic is motivated by a desire not to earn respect and adoration but to help Cullen garner at least one of his three favorite things.

"I want to get paid," he says. "I want to make sure I'm making quality music, but shit -- I want to get paid."

The Fresh Air Fund will perform a 21-plus show at about 11 p.m. Tuesday at Mansion, 1235 Washington Ave., in Miami Beach. Call 305/531-5535 or visit Mansionmiami.com.