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Local hip-hop producer building national reputation

A call from John Legend gave the Springfield rapper his big break

Marshall Gorby Local hip-hop producer Shawn Terhune (aka Shawn Diggy) will drop his new mix CD at a release-party on Saturday.

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By Andrew McGinn, Staff Writer Updated 3:30 PM Friday, June 19, 2009

SPRINGFIELD — It was March 2000, and a rapper named BigShawnDon was big news in the News-Sun — he’d come home to shoot a music video.

Four years before the name John Legend had yet to come into existence, this was as big as it got around here. “Locals may have a chance to be in the video,” the paper reported.

You probably never saw the video.

“They just didn’t give us the right push,” recalled Shawn Terhune, the Springfield rapper who has a new name, a new direction and a new reason to live.

As Shawn Diggy, the former BigShawnDon is building a reputation behind the scenes as a producer for Legend’s Homeschool Records crew.

“I was so tired of grinding on this stage,” Terhune said. “I couldn’t get a break.”

After years of, as he put it, “inching my way in,” a call in 2005 from Legend, whom he casually knew from their days together at North High, finally put Terhune on a national stage.

“I checked my e-mail,” he said, “and I had a ticket to New York.”

There, he produced three tracks for Legend’s protege, Estelle — one of which, “I Wanna Live,” is available as a digital bonus track on her 2008 Homeschool debut, “Shine.”

“That put me in show business,” he said. “That put me in the network.”

Now Diggy is ready to reintroduce himself.

He’ll unveil his new mix CD, “The Production Vol. 2,” with a release-party on Saturday, June 20, at, ironically, Legends in Enon.

The disc marks the evolution of Terhune from a local hip-hop producer to one with growing clout.

Whereas the first volume of “The Production” series had only local talent on it, this one includes tracks by himself, Estelle and Vaughn Anthony, Legend’s younger brother who is awaiting a distribution deal for his Homeschool debut.

Terhune has produced more than two dozen tracks for possible inclusion on Anthony’s album, and raps as well on some.

Anthony, Terhune and others will perform at the weekend event.

“My dream is coming true,” he said.

But he first had to turn his back on the streets.

“I was on the road to sheer destruction,” Terhune confessed.

While he prefers not to talk about the past — “I don’t want to open up any closed doors” — he credits the birth of his son, now 4, with his redemption.

He only needed to see the pregnancy test.

“When she showed me the positive test, my whole life flashed before my eyes,” he said, “and my potential flashed before my eyes.”

After a year in New York living with Anthony, Terhune moved back home to be closer to his son. Technology allows him to be part of the business from the convenience of his basement studio.

At 35, Terhune still hopes he can take a path once taken by Kanye West — get in as a producer, get big as a rapper.

And don’t let the age fool you. He’s ready to turn the tables on anyone who ever doubted BigShawnDon.

“Right now, I feel like I’m in my prime,” he said. “I’m a late bloomer.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio.com.