Making music: University Entertainment

MANKATO May 14, 2008 01:41 pm

— It’s no small feat putting together a music and entertainment label — recruiting talented artists, organizing and promoting events, and competing with the plethora of others music-heads trying to make it big in a swollen industry.
What’s more difficult is managing all those challenges on top of a full load of college courses.
Yet Maurice Pendleton and James Burnett are both trying to make dreams of life in the recording industry become reality all while going to school full-time at Minnesota State University. And so far, they’ve been largely successful.
Pendleton and Burnett are the force behind University Entertainment, an event productions company and artist label that’s slowly gaining a following in the Mankato area. The company organizes and promotes shows of local rap, hip-hop and spoken-word artists in the Mankato area. Pendleton (whose stage name is U-sity) claims the honor of being the first officially signed artist to the company label.
Meanwhile, Pendleton, 20, is working toward his undergraduate degree in the music industry field and Burnett, 24, a recent transplant from Atlanta, is a graduate student working on a cross-discipline degree in ethnic studies and public administration.
Their lives as students influence the mission of the company, which doesn’t promote rap music with stereotypical lyrics or themes.
“There’s no drugs or anything negative like that in our shows,” Burnett said.
“We’ve got a positive org-anization, started by students,” said Pendleton. “We love music and want to get it heard.”
Like Pendleton, Burnett is an artist in his own right. He does both rap and spoken word and says he tries to use his art to “send signals to the listeners about independence and going out on your own.”
If his music weren’t message enough, University Entertainment’s successes should herald that lesson loud and clear, he said. In less than a year’s time, the company’s grown from hosting private parties in apartments around Mankato, to putting on large shows at area colleges, including MSU and Gustavus. Earlier this year they hosted an event with an estimated 250 people in attendance at the Mankato VFW. And last week they organized their first show at Buster’s Bar in Mankato.
These successes might come as a surprise to some. In addition to the challenges facing anyone trying to set up a new business, there was no guarantee that a promotion company focusing primarily on rap and hip-hop would have much chance in southern Minnesota, a unique hurdle Pendleton and Burnett didn’t try and downplay.
“(This area is mainly) Anglo-American,” said Burnett, “but the community has been very supportive. I find this area is on the cusp of providing the resources these types of groups (like University Entertainment) need to really thrive.”
The partners are largely optimistic and don’t get too bogged down by expectations or preconceived notions.
“Our goal is to create and generate trend-setting music,” said Pendleton, adding that it’s not what kind of person or kind of music, it’s just about, “people who have talent, period.”
And the two have started to catch the attention of the local establishments. Buster’s general manager Mike Hokeness said that he was impressed by the professionalism and sincere commitment behind University Entertainment. He said someone’s age or years in the business doesn’t necessarily ensure a successful product the way energy and passion do.
“It doesn’t really matter where you come from,” said Hokeness, “You just never know.”
Pendleton and Burnett have big goals ahead, many that will take a new level of support from local show-goers and community members. The company is now primarily focused on Mankato, but the two hope to expand to surrounding communities, engage college students and others throughout Minnesota and eventually break into the Twin Cities scene.
The two are also planning to open a low-cost recording studio for students to use in Mankato. Pendleton’s father owns New Identity Barbershop on Front Street in Mankato and the hope is that by June they’ll have the upstairs converted into a recording studio, specially geared to give young artists a chance to record their music or spoken-word without a lot of money.
But they point out, they wouldn’t have gotten this far without the community’s support, and they won’t be able to get to that next step without even more.

Photos

Wize Guyz performed at Buster’s Bar recently. University Entertainment promoted the show. The Free Press