For years, it seemed there were few pros to being Consequence.
Despite semi-stardom rapping with A Tribe Called Quest at age 16, the Queens-born lyricist spent more than a decade working security jobs and living with his mom as record deals with Rawkus, Relativity and Elektra fell through.
However, a chance friendship with Kanye West and an unflagging dedication to his craft culminated in a deal on West’s GOOD Music label and the recent release “Don’t Quit Your Day Job” – and an April tour with chart-topper Young Buck.
“God teaches you lessons in life,” says Dexter Raymond (Consequence) Mills, 30, who performed at Harlem’s famed Apollo Theater last weekend as part of a concert wrapping up Spider-Man Week in New York, the citywide celebration coinciding with the new “Spider-Man 3,” which opened May 4 – and which may have also inspired him.
“When Spider-Man couldn’t shoot webs, there was a vulnerability there: ‘If I ain’t got webs, how diligently am I being Spider-Man?’ It’s like that with me. If I don’t got rhymes, is that all there is to me? Can I get back to the guy behind the mask? The guy behind the music?”
Consequence tapped his rhyme resources in high school. A cousin of A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip, the young artist honed his skills in ciphers with stars such as Busta Rhymes, Reverend Run and Phife. He got his break in 1993 when he spit verses on the B-side of Tribe single “Award Tour.”
“I was in school, I had the record out, and (to girls) I was like, ‘Yo, you really need to holler at me, ’cause I’m going places!”‘ Consequence recalls with a laugh. “They were like, ‘I’m going places too, like my next class. See ya!”‘
Unfortunately, his shine was short-lived. Though he appeared on Tribe’s 1996 album “Beats, Rhymes and Life,” the group fell apart shortly afterward. So did the solo record he was to release through their production company.
What followed was a murky era of drinking, smoking and moving back in with his mom. A humbling moment working dock security at an Estee Lauder warehouse jump-started his will to flow and determination to return to rap.
A co-worker saw him on MTV in an old Busta Rhymes video and questioned him about it. Consequence denied he was the emcee on screen.
“When you go from being on TV to being back in the private sector it gets awkward,” he says. “I couldn’t do that to the brand of Consequence. That was the ickiest experience. But it was also a blessing.”
He attacked his writing with new passion and focus. Paychecks all went to the studio to record tracks and mixtapes. In 2002, he met Kanye West – at the time, not yet a megastar – and they became fast friends.
Eventually, West featured ‘Quence on his hit records “The College Dropout” and “Late Registration,” and signed him to his label.
