E-Mail This Article to a Friend Familiar faces Clinton Sparks blows up; the Trouble reunite BY CHRIS RUCKER

Rolling into the release party for Clinton Sparks’s mix tape Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too last week at Aria, I got frisked as if it were the Source Awards — and barely made it in at that, since my sneakers were below dress code. Boston’s highest-profile hip-hop DJ drew an overflow crowd to a playas’ ball that looked more Manhattan than Back Bay. N.O.R.E. (a/k/a Noreaga, known to even casual hip-hop fans for his verses on such Neptunes productions as "Grimey") made a grand entrance, slinging boxes of sneakers into the crowd before ducking into a smoke-filled VIP room. Talib Kweli was in the house. The Celtics’ Antoine Walker was dancing up on the couches. Boston MC Esoteric fielded cell-phone calls while being interviewed by a TV crew. Meanwhile, champagne flowed like Miller High Life at O’Brien’s, the no-smoking ban was ignored by thugged-out, spliff-toting crews, and off-duty strippers prowled for hook-ups. Mix-tape up-and-comer Statik Selektah took a break from his nationally syndicated radio show to spin before ceding the decks to Hot 97 (NYC) legend Cipha Sounds; local Hot 97 jock Chubby Chub took over later on. In between, man of the hour Clinton Sparks hopped on the mike, hurling shout-outs to homeboys including Crazy Beef Records, Hustle Simmons, and, ahem, the Boston Phoenix (thanks, dude!).

The vibe was indicative of what makes Sparks such a welcome anomaly here: Boston enjoys a vibrant and well-respected underground hip-hop scene, but when it comes to commercial heavy hitters, our town just doesn’t have the grip of New York, LA, Atlanta, or Detroit. Sparks, a triple-threat producer, mix-tape mastermind, and syndicated radio DJ, has a knack for attracting A-list talent: Busta Rhymes, P. Diddy, Mobb Deep, and Black Rob are just a few of the folks contributing exclusive tracks to Brainwashed. And the disc is a mere teaser for his official Koch debut, Get Familiar, Volume 1, which, due later this year, will feature joints from Slim Thug, M.O.P., D-Block, and Dipset star Juelz Santana.

The title of Brainwashed refers to Sparks’s very first mix tape, Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed, which he issued seven years ago, before he’d conquered the national circuit. Back then, he pressed up CDs on his own dime, sending 20 complimentary discs to each of 300 stores around the country with a note introducing himself. Soon people got familiar. "I included my number for reorders or future orders and the calls started coming," Sparks says when I catch up with him via e-mail. "It’s like drugs: [if] you give a friend some good shit for free, they are gonna come back to you when it’s time to re-up. I knew my CDs were put together well and once you heard it, you would be feeling me."

These days, Sparks runs his own on-line CD and vinyl shops, regularly pulls down mix-tape awards, and has a satellite-radio slot on Eminem’s Shade 45 channel; when I e-mailed him, he’d just got back from a tour of Asia and spring-break gigs in Cancún. But he’s always kept his home base here, and his home-town pride runs deep. "I work from here, I try to get artists to come here. I represent Boston everywhere I go. On TV, in magazines, when you see me, you will see a ‘B’ hat. And by the way, it was extremely difficult to get outsiders to even pay attention to me because I was from Boston, but I think I’m doing a good job of changing people’s opinions of Boston talent." Homeboy, we’re backing you all the way.

Although no dates are yet confirmed, the classic mid-’90s Boston punk band the Trouble are planning a reunion in conjunction with a Bridge9 re-issue this summer of their only album, Nobody Laughs Anymore, previously available from GMM but long out of print. (Guitarist Sam Cave went on to join the Explosion.) "The Trouble full-length is one of my favorite Boston records," says Bridge9’s Chris Wrenn, for whom the reissue has been "a long-time goal." The label is also planning an odds-and-ends disc compiling the band’s 1995–1999 singles and outtakes.

Chris Rucker is the host of New England Product, which airs Sundays from 9 to 10 p.m. on WFNX 101.7 FM.