BY PRANAY CHAURASIA and ASHER KLEIN / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER The boos were coming in thick before Eric

Martinez's biggest show in Santa Ana in February. Hundreds of people were there to see seasoned rapper Gucci Mane and didn't care for the two kids who first took the stage. But the booing stopped when the first song dropped, Martinez said. "We turned half of the crowd into believers," he said. "People started bouncing; people started getting into it." Martinez, 21, is one of a few rappers in Fountain Valley aspiring to command a crowd like Gucci Mane. He plays the same club, the Observatory, on Friday, performing music he's been producing in his home-built studio for three years. The music is inspired, in part, by the drug dealing he sees in the city. "Black tar in the back of the car, drug dealing in my city selling sacks of Bushard," Martinez raps in "Nightmares," referring to heroin dealing he sees near his house. But unlike rappers like Gucci Mane, who revels in his past as a drug dealer, Martinez said he hopes to draw attention to the negative impact drugs have on Fountain Valley's youth, an impact that sent him to rehab when he was 16. "Heroin is huge right here," Martinez said. "It's not even a secret. Mostly all of my friends I used to hang out with all still do drugs, smoke heroin. "I started doing my own thing." MORE DRUGS, MORE PROBLEMS Martinez really knows the drug scene in Fountain Valley and neighboring Huntington Beach, where some teenagers have found easy access to hard drugs such as heroin. Abuse of heroin and other opiates has cropped up in the past six years after a long absence, according to Fountain Valley police Capt. Mike Simko. "It is a constant battle, and it's a terrible drug," he said. Martinez ran with a crowd that did lots of drugs. He was 15 when he first started using. "I was doing heroin, meth, anything you can think of," Martinez said. Drugs aren't a part of his life anymore. When he was a junior at Coast High School in Huntington Beach, his parents admitted him to a rehabilitation center in Utah.

There, Martinez found himself writing lyrics for the first time, being drawn into rap as he never had before. "I found a few other guys who freestyle and did the same thing as me," Martinez said. "We just kept supporting each other and going and going. That was basically all I had." Through rap, Martinez said he was able to stay positive during a repetitive daily routine. When he left after six months, Martinez started recording and loved it. But in March 2011, he was still running with the wrong crowd. At 18, Martinez was arrested for breaking into a couple of cars after a party with some friends. He was drunk, he said, but not on drugs. He served 30 days in jail after pleading guilty to four misdemeanor counts, including receiving stolen goods and grand theft. Some rappers glorify crime and jail time, but Martinez said he learned being locked up was no life for him. "I don't relate to that. The crime pays part; it never has for me," he said. His parents were still supportive, so he wasn't nervous when he approached them to say he wanted to pursue rap as a career, he said. "My dad was No. 1," Martinez said. "He's like, 'Either you're gonna go to college and I'm gonna pay for that, or I could put that money I saved up for you and put it into this.' And I was like, 'Let's build a studio.'" RHYTHM AND RISE Martinez and his frequent collaborator, Josh Spetzman, aka Pecks, were in that studio in Martinez's garage on a recent Thursday, nodding to a smooth beat. Martinez looks to spread a positive message against drug abuse to his listeners, especially to kids who face the temptation of drugs every day in Orange County. He's four years clean (though he still raps about smoking marijuana) and hasn't gotten in trouble while serving his probation. In the song, "Nightmares," Martinez describes the chronic struggles of drug addicts: "Getting kicked out. Sleeping on his friend's couch. Turning to the needle in his arm he's going to let out. I think I'm about to pass out." He has passed that message onto Pecks, 18, who said he'd be back in juvenile hall without Martinez's influence. "I thought, 'Dang, what am I going to do with my life?'" said Pecks, who currently is serving community service for theft. "The people who are my most positive influences are at the same

time the worst people who could be in my environment. But (Martinez) saved me. I can't tell you how much this guy has saved my life." The duo is in the studio at least twice a week, producing and trying to break into the rap industry, Martinez said. Cypress-based Pecks has a slew of recordings, and Martinez is releasing his first, "90's Baby," in the next few weeks. They say they've played more than 100 shows throughout Orange County. Using those shows as a platform for their music is how they plan on making it in the music business. A little like drug dealing, it's all about finding the people who'll get hooked on their mixtapes, they say. "We're gonna push that and see where we can go with them," Martinez said. "I will push them to labels. ... I'll push them anywhere I can, if someone offered me the right deal. "As of right now, it's all independent." VOICES Martinez's parents were supportive enough of his career that they let him invest his college fund money in a semiprofessional studio in their garage, complete with a recording booth and highend audio and video software. Lannette Martinez, 52, housewife: "I think he has what it takes. ... I don't want him, when he's 30, to look back and say, 'I can't believe my mom and dad didn't support me. What could have I accomplished if they would have?' Now we're going to find out. We're going to see where this is going to go." James Thomas Martinez, 51, longshoreman: "You want your kid to be happy. This is his dream. This is where he wants to go, and I want him to be happy, so we're going to be 100 percent supportive."