The Zumba prostitution scandal has inspired a rap song that has gained attention on YouTube and Portland radio stations.
The song, “I Wish I Knew,” had received more than 25,000 hits by Saturday evening, five days after Wells rapper Cam Groves posted it on the video-sharing website.
Additional Photos
Since then, he has been interviewed by Mark Curdo on WCYY and Rob Steele on WJBQ. Both radio stations have been playing the song several times a day, and it’s also on WBLM’s playlist. Groves, 27, said the scandal was perfect fodder for his kind of music.
“It was kind of right up my alley,” Groves said.
The music video was shot on the rocky coast in Kennebunkport.
It also features suggestive video, obtained from the Internet, of Alexis Wright, the 29-year-old Zumba instructor who has been charged with prostitution at her dance studio in Kennebunk. The case grabbed national media attention last week when police started to release some of the estimated 150 names on Wright’s client list.
Groves said he wrote and filmed the music video, intended as a parody, in one day.
In his rap song, Groves laments not knowing about Wright’s second job until she was shut down by police.
At one point he peers into the now-vacant Zumba studio.
Given the subject, the video may not be appropriate for younger audiences.
The video opens with these lyrics:
Should I write, this song?
I might as well.
If I had known, I would have been your biggest clientele.
And continues with:
I don’t care how long the johns list,
I just wish I were on it.
Groves’ friend, Ryan Peters of Wells, who is known as the rapper Spose and whose song, “I’m Awesome,” became a hit, said that Groves expresses the “regular guy’s perspective” on the scandal, “which is sometimes shameful and hilarious.”
Groves, 27, who holds down a day job as a carpenter, is a graduate of Wells High School.
He has been rapping for about five years and appears at the Big Easy in Portland and other New England venues.
He said he is pleased with the response to his latest song.
Groves has put a half-dozen music videos online, but the biggest response until now was about 10,000 views.
“And that video has been up for a year,” Groves said.
He said he originally wrote “I Wish I Knew” to make his friends laugh, but they convinced him to make it public.
When Groves turned up with Spose at the Kennebunk High School Homecoming on Friday night, Principal Susan Cressey told them she knew all about “I Wish I Knew” and gave them strict instructions not to play the song or mention the client list.
They left Groves’ song out of their performance, but mentioned the scandal, Spose said, by referring to the list as “the L word.”
“The kids would have enjoyed it because the song is pretty funny and timely, but some of their dads, probably not,” Spose said.
Staff Writer Beth Quimby can be contacted at 791-6363 or at:
bquimby@pressherald.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
