Toyy discovered by zombie who discovered Nelly

My girl Toyy is on the Nelly track now - she has been "discovered."

It's not the first time. Toyy has been wined and dined in New York, she has rocked a full house at The Pageant, she has released a mix tape (Toyy's Story) that was the hottest disc in town for a minute, she has won local awards as an emcee, and she has earned as much genuine respect on the local scene as anybody.

But only now has she had the magic Dale Ashauer touch.

Dale writes:

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I was running sound for Cafe Soul last night, and who got up and sang some smoooove R&B? Toyy. We talked after the show, and I got her demo cd. I know almost nothing about rap, but there's a few strong hit possibilities and some great soul. Intelligent lyrics and poetic phrasing. Solid music tracks.

Maybe history will repeat itself. The last time an aspiring rapper handed me a demo it was late '99 (I think). A young northside guy stopped at KDHX and asked me to play his single, "Country Grammar," so I did. Look out.

Maybe I have the magic touch or I'm the magic to be touched or something. I might be the rap genie in the 40-ounce can. I hope so. Toyy is pretty awesome.

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Dale is a musician and sound engineer though, as his note makes clear, not on the hip-hop scene. On most other scenes, though. It would have taken a minute to make the connection, since last night Dale wasn't in a fright wig or plastered by zombie makeup, but he and Toyy had met before, on location shoots for my movie, Blind Cat Black. Dale was the zombie wrangler and one of the zombies. Toyy was The Absent Minded Tightrope Walker, the star.

One of the movie's editors, Kevin Belford, has been so nice as to YouTube four of the 28 scenes. Two of those actually star our star, Toyy:

This Monster Traveler in Hashish (which features pop phenom Bradd Young)

Black Coal (which features the artist Jason Wallace Triefenbach).

The photo of Toyy is from that there movie shoot, on location outside Sam Light Loans.