When The Rising Sun Quest broke into the Waterbury hip hop scene he was one of the first rappers to have a cd.

   On a recent warm afternoon outside the Leitner Family Observatory in New Haven (corner of Prospect and Edwards streets) Quest laughs and recalls, "When I first came out with a cd it was a huge deal. It was like, 'Yo, we got our shit on a CD!."

As one might guess, it was the '90s and the scene from New York to Los Angeles was exploding with brand new emcees, beat boxers, and DJs.

Now, just 29 and still young enough to get pimples, Quest remembers this time as an era when rappers meant something with their rhymes.

"What it was like was, the artists that came out were real. It was like they were you and they were going through their struggles and you got to hear their struggle and sometimes it was similar to yours and sometimes it was way more than yours but you got to see a personal side to the artists."

Today, he laments the scene is a little different. More of a "business," he says.

"What you are going to make money on is ass-shaking and cars, you look at BET and the only music getting played is Lil Wayne and Rick Ross and I don't want to shoot that stuff down because it's a business, and there's a lot of local artists that want to follow that model and the chances of them getting far with that is so slim."

He furthers, "The music industry is going through a huge change so that's kind of why I'm struggling a little bit because I was built in an era where people went out and bought cds and people went to shows."

In support of Quest's latest release Journey Towards the Sun (May, 2008) and in honor of days gone by, he's throwing a party at Waterbury's Brass Horse called The Formula for Friday Night. With his crew the Ant Farm Affiliates- a Connecticut collation of like minded artists- Quest hopes to put on a show that is loaded with everything the old school is about. Think DJs, b-boys, b-girls, rapping, drinking and don't forget dancing.

For Friday's event, Quest will headline, with Spaz the Working Class and Sketch Tha Cataclysm rapping as well as DJ SirCumference and DJ Mo Nicklz spinning.

Though accused of sounding old and gripey by a New Haven radio station for ranking on the current state of hip hop, Quest explains that his distaste for the way things sound on mainstream radio is just his integrity.

Raised on Wu-Tang and lyricists who had intent when writing a song- not dollar signs in their eyes- Quest set out to emulate those types of artists.

Born from a high school lunchroom cipher, Quest created two albums, his debut, Stellar Evolution (2001) and an EP Surviving (2004) before his latest release, Journey Towards the Sun.

Explaining Journey which he said is more upbeat than previous works, Quest says, "This album should take you on a journey to my mind which in turn is kind of like yours."
From the opening track it's hard to deny what he's pushing.

Why I Write explains who Quest is and later, his track About Me, further explains this local artist.

Quest wrote in About Me, "Every holiday there was a party in the crib/ Got the family together, it was never about the kids/ On my birthday people would show up to get drunk/ I'd be like, 'It's my birthday,' and they'd be like 'So what?'.../ I just wanted you to know who I am, where I'm from and where I stand/ because usually I write rhymes about the things I see but this one is all about me."

Our Dreams explores Quest's struggle becoming a hip hop artist and he describes the song as everyone's song because the refrain, "That should be me."

Across America people have been responding to Quest's humble and honest lyrics which speak to a plethora of people enduring struggles and also celebrating rights of passage.

From Florida, Quest said he received a letter from a girl who was going through what he raps about on Escape from What. With sincerity Quest continued, "She was waiting for a song like that, that could turn her life around. She said it was exactly the words she needed to hear to make things right."

He says the listener has become a fan and he depends on this grassroots sort of promotion for his fan base.

So it's not about a catchy song with ambiguous lyrics or an iced-out wardrobe?

Quest laughs, "You see what I'm driving. Do you think I care about image?"

Quest, who drives a teal green Ford station wagon which may have been made the year he started rapping, adds, "I don't have to support an image." He says his satisfaction is measured by his fans, those he promises to stay true to by writing heartfelt lyrics.

As a married man and father of three, Quest is content to book a few shows a month and continue to make music he can be proud of. Because he has a steady job outside of hip hop, he feels that his music is not a "be all, end all." He says, "It would suck to only have this music right now because then you are forced to change it up if somebody is interested... be willing to compromise and I won't."

Though the current face of hip hop tends to be painted bleak with catchy, meaningless refrains and silly dances that require little coordination, Quest does give props to artists like Talib Kweli. He explains of Kweli, "He does a little commercial song here and there but he still remains true to his fan base and he's not going to turn is back and do an about face on the people who have supported him. There's still hope."

Genuinely a sincere and real man, Quest says of his nostalgia for an older sound, "I am just stuck on the stuff that I listened to growing up. Everyone connects to the music that they grew up with." And with his kids in mind he furthers, "Whatever my kids decide to like, I'm not going to say, 'That's not real hip hop.' I think that's unfair because nobody was telling me what to listen to when I was a kid."

Enjoying the early evening as dusk arrives at the observatory, which overlooks New Haven, Quest concludes, "Did hip hop really change? Certainly it changed but it's growing... it's a powerful force right now, maybe it's for the better and just because I don't like what's being made doesn't mean that I can't recognize what the power is."

And for Quest the power may not be in sales yet, but it's certainly and always has been in his words.