Carlos Loco

Copyright © 2004 Noblesville Daily Times
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes


Front Page News

Far from the Mo'
Noblesville rap artist documents life change in song
By Scott W.L. Daravanis | Daily Times

Posted: 12/16/04 - 11:25:13 am EST

Carlos Loco works on new material for an upcoming album at MMC Studio on 8th Street in Noblesville. Loco sang his debut rap hit "Noblesville" at the Good Samaritan telethon on Dec. 4.

Carlos Loco doesn't have to worry about Noblesville Mayor John Ditslear taking over his job someday. Ditslear did his best to dance to Loco's debut rap hit "Noblesville" near the end of the Good Samaritan telethon Dec. 4 on HomeTown Television.

"Me in my blue suit and red tie n I wasn't dressed up to be a rapper," Ditslear said humorously. "Dancing to Carlos' song was one of those fun things I get to do."

If Ditslear and most of HomeTown Television's viewers had understood the words, they would have heard the story of how Noblesville has changed the life of a "gang-banger from the ghetto."

Loco, whose real name is Carlos Thomas, has 12 brothers and sisters n eight from his mother and four from his father, each of whom struggle with drug and alcohol abuse. He was abused verbally and physically, created his own battle with booze, sold marijuana and stole things to financially support himself. And that all happened before he got out of elementary school. Thomas bounced back and forth between his mother's home and foster homes. He was arrested for chasing a classmate with a knife when he was in the second grade. He attended 30 different schools and didn't graduate from any of them.


"It was the life I had come to know," the Detroit, Mich., native said. "I never knew how to survive by working. It was always hustling, dealing drugs and scamming the welfare system."

Deep inside that "street kid" exterior was the belief that he could live a better life. Thomas said he remembers sitting in drug houses selling in Detroit while simultaneously reading books so he wouldn't get too far behind in his school work. He took some of that knowledge to night-school programs and earned a General Education Degree (GED), which he used to enroll in Saginaw Valley State University in Saginaw, Mich.

His college career lasted only a semester because while at a Halloween party, he touched a pumpkin. When police investigated a reported burglary at that address, officers used that fingerprint to associate Thomas with the crime. A year and a half later, the charges were dropped, but by then he was back with his mother in Detroit.

"I went back to the hood and got stuck hustling drugs," he said.


And now for something completely different

A cousin in Anderson, Ind., convinced Thomas to move in with him "for a change of environment," he said.

Talk about a culture shock.

"Detroit is 90 percent black. It never occurred to me that the rest of America wasn't black," he said. "I had a hard time reshaping my attitudes and characteristics from when I was in Detroit."

Thomas' cousin got him a job at Noblesville's Warner Body, but after a while, he came to realize that because of his cousin's own addiction problems, he couldn't rely on his cousin to get him to work on time. Thomas didn't have enough money to buy his own car, so he moved to Noblesville to be within walking distance of his job.

Once again, Thomas, a black man without money, was a fish out of water as he tried to find an apartment in one of Indiana's most affluent communities.

"A lady told me âI don't rent to your kind,'" he said. "I knew all the people of Noblesville couldn't be like that. My friends at Warner Body were not like that. They showed me love, so that lady didn't discourage me. Eventually I got an apartment and now I call this my second home."

One day, Thomas took two CD players to work at Warner Body. One player had an instrumental version of a top rap song; on the second player Thomas had recorded his own rap lyrics set to the beat of the music on the other player. The response was favorable.

"My co-workers validated that I had the talent," he said. "That got the ball rolling."

Failed opportunities

1999 turned out to be a career-building year for the young rapper; too bad he didn't realize it.

The extroverted Thomas shared his rap with co-workers and customers while working at Taco Bell on State Road 32. One customer asked him to perform before 50 people at a private party in the South Harbour Clubhouse. Three weeks later, he was asked to perform at a party in North Harbour, and then before 500 people at a private party near Morse Reservoir. That exposure led to a performance and interview on Indianapolis radio station WIBC. He had great fun, but he didn't take the leap from opportunity to success.

"I didn't understand the business side," he said. "I didn't know that rap is 90 percent business and only 10 percent show. I was more interested in the show."

That was when he started to see how much better his life had become since he left Detroit, he said. He used those feelings to write the song "Noblesville," which he rapped on HomeTown Television.

"The rap documents my awakening and how my life got better from the dark life I had in Detroit," he said. "Noblesville has been an inspiration for me. The city uplifts me."

Thomas' life change is evident in the words of the first verse written in rap slang. One note here: Thomas mentions "the Mo'" which stands for Motown n the nickname for Detroit.

"People here are hospitable / Far from the trauma drama I've come to know / Growing up in the Mo'."

Thomas notes how the ghetto made him a strong individual, but in the last lines of the first verse, he shows that he didn't like the area where he grew up.

"Shootings were outside my window / I never slept with a teddy, but stayed ready with a stiletto / Sleeping with one eye open fo' combat / Residing here I see it's country, fo' sho'."

"In the morning, I open my eyes / Twisting the blinds open, scoping the sunrise / High in the sky / The birds chirp a lullaby / Saying to myself âthis country living is fly,'" Thomas raps in the second verse. "Nothing compares to a peace of mind."

One man show

Thomas is still doing things by himself, but now for a new purpose. He saves nearly every cent he earns at McDonald's on Conner Street so he one day can record a CD, which he plans on marketing himself. He performs for free at school and club functions so he can be seen by as many people as possible. He smiles; he laughs; he uses terms like "sir" and "ma'am;" and he donates his time, which is how he got to rap before Ditslear, HTV19 owner Rick Vanderwielen and telethon co-host Judy Johnson near the end of the Good Samaritan Telethon on HomeTown Television.

"Carlos is a real nice kid, and it was great that he came out on his own to help out with the telethon," Ditslear said. "Maybe my suit will set a new trend."

Whether dressed in a suit or in the black stocking cap and yellow T-shirt Thomas wore on the telethon, life changed for Carlos Thomas, when he found "Noblesville, Indiana / Far from the trouble I know / Growing up in the Mo.'"

Copyright © 2004 Noblesville Daily Times

1998 Auditioned for MTV's "I Wanna Be A VJ2" which he was seen on national television.

2000 Performed on the "Spirit of Norfolk" boat in Norfolk,VA. The crowd went crazy due to Carlos' great showmanship.

2001 Wrote "U.S.A.(I'll never forget 9/11) on the very day the tragic events were happening.

2002 Auditioned for Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs at MTV's "Making The Band 2". Carlos' performance was aired on national television. He also was interviewed by Detroit's WXYZ Channel 7 News immediately following his audition for Puff Daddy which aired locally in Detroit.

2009 Currently working on "I Love McDonalds"(mixtape).
www.mcdonaldsrap.com
- Noblesville Daily Times