The Tape presents: Rueben Rockwell
Written by ashkap on Monday, 28 of December , 2009 at 4:44 pm
DC’s fresh son had a talk with the Tape, laying down his story and some of the ideas behind his music. Our discussion of DC, LA, the music industry, and the art of hip hop went on for over half an hour, so we condensed it into something that we hope is a portrait of Rueben Rockwell.
The Tape: So, you grew up in DC?
RR: Yeah, Washington DC, 8th and H to be exact. To give you a little history on the neighborhood, H street starts in the White House and ends in my neighborhood. A tunnel runs straight from the White House down H street. It’s the president’s hidden tunnel. And WOL, the independent black owned radio station, is right on 4th and H. DC was cool. I’m a public school kid, my mom was a teacher, and I grew up while DC was like engulfed in the Reaganomics era. The criminals kind of dominated that era, and I was kinda a baby in that, a success story out of that. My life is the opposite of that.
The Tape: One of your tracks is all about a man named Rayful, so tell us a little about him.
RR: Rayful Edmond, damn that go back to my neighborhood. Rayful Edmond grew up a couple blocks from my street, like a mile away, on a street called Orleans Place. It’s right across the street from the only deaf university I think in the world… I think there’s one more in Europe. It’s a whole university of deaf kids, on this whole strip of Orleans that’s the most terrible strip in history. Rayful was a smart dude, he was voted in high school most likely to do anything, the man could have done whatever he wanted, he could have been Bill Gates but he was a young millionaire off the drugs, off the streets, and he left a fucked up impact on the community. So it’s like Rayful was like the Tupac or the Jay-Z of that era, and you know, he was kind of like a legend, but every dog got they day. He end up turning a state’s witness and telling on everybody, telling on a bunch of people. It was one of the biggest stories in my environment growing up, even though his era was over, it was all folklore about Rayful Edmond.
The Tape: Where do you get inspiration for your music?
RR: Well, what I try to do is take influences from other music and my experiences in life, and maybe even just things that I aspire to be or lifestyles I aspire to live. Yeah, there’s definitely a message in my music, even if the message may not be like a “save the children” message or something. I’m painting a picture and directing you through it. I feel like, you know, even if I do got songs that’s street or about the block its just based on my experience, its not glorifying anything. In every interview, I take a chance to say that those were some of the worst choices and worst times of my life. I was out there makin bad choices, you know, just a kid makin bad choices. But now I can paint the picture. I use life as the backdrop
The Tape: Your newest tape is called Reaganomics 202
RR: Yeah, it’s the second installment of these mixtapes I’m about to put out in 2010, I got Reaganomics 101 and this is Reaganomics 202. The production is from these guys called the Hitboys, and THX who’s a west coast producer. I been blessed to get some hip little production for these tapes, I also got a lot of soulful, Isaac Hayes style. When you press play you automatically entrenched in what I’m talking about, so if it’s a song about me riding through the city you right there riding next to me, and I mean the shit is dope you know. Its definitely, in my eyes at least the bare minimum of where the product need to be at. Especially comin out of my town, being that it’s already a market there and there’s so much energy around hip hop out there. It’s rare anywhere in America, and in DC they got that vibe going on. So because of that I’ma give some music away and have some up for retail.
The Tape: What are your plans for the future?
RR: Basically, I’ma put out these two mixtapes and something out for retail, and actually I applied to the Musicians Institute (Since the interview, Rueben was accepted into the Musicians Institute program) and with that hopefully I’ll be able to get around the labels. To be honest with you it’s such an untapped market where I’m coming from, I’d rather do it independent, and not get dropped from the top. Like this dude WALE, he had more promotion and publicity than most veteran rappers, and the label dropped the ball, they didn’t translate his myspace friends into record sales. You need a grassroots presence if you wanna sell some records. Not hatin on nobody, but I’m gonna take it on my shoulders to bridge the markets. Hip hop is 24/7. It’s bigger than just retailing, and I walked away from that industry. If the material is timeless, it will always sell. It will always be wanted. As soon as the material is garbage, it’s over.
And finally, the tracks. While “Got Money?”, and especially “Loosing Myself wouldn’t be out of place at the top of the charts, “Can It Be?” is a smooth track that reveals a different side of Rueben Rockwell.
DC’s fresh son had a talk with the Tape, laying down his story and some of the ideas behind his music. Our discussion of DC, LA, the music industry, and the art of hip hop went on for over half an hour, so we condensed it into something that we hope is a portrait of Rueben Rockwell.
The Tape: So, you grew up in DC?
RR: Yeah, Washington DC, 8th and H to be exact. To give you a little history on the neighborhood, H street starts in the White House and ends in my neighborhood. A tunnel runs straight from the White House down H street. It’s the president’s hidden tunnel. And WOL, the independent black owned radio station, is right on 4th and H. DC was cool. I’m a public school kid, my mom was a teacher, and I grew up while DC was like engulfed in the Reaganomics era. The criminals kind of dominated that era, and I was kinda a baby in that, a success story out of that. My life is the opposite of that.
The Tape: One of your tracks is all about a man named Rayful, so tell us a little about him.
RR: Rayful Edmond, damn that go back to my neighborhood. Rayful Edmond grew up a couple blocks from my street, like a mile away, on a street called Orleans Place. It’s right across the street from the only deaf university I think in the world… I think there’s one more in Europe. It’s a whole university of deaf kids, on this whole strip of Orleans that’s the most terrible strip in history. Rayful was a smart dude, he was voted in high school most likely to do anything, the man could have done whatever he wanted, he could have been Bill Gates but he was a young millionaire off the drugs, off the streets, and he left a fucked up impact on the community. So it’s like Rayful was like the Tupac or the Jay-Z of that era, and you know, he was kind of like a legend, but every dog got they day. He end up turning a state’s witness and telling on everybody, telling on a bunch of people. It was one of the biggest stories in my environment growing up, even though his era was over, it was all folklore about Rayful Edmond.
The Tape: Where do you get inspiration for your music?
RR: Well, what I try to do is take influences from other music and my experiences in life, and maybe even just things that I aspire to be or lifestyles I aspire to live. Yeah, there’s definitely a message in my music, even if the message may not be like a “save the children” message or something. I’m painting a picture and directing you through it. I feel like, you know, even if I do got songs that’s street or about the block its just based on my experience, its not glorifying anything. In every interview, I take a chance to say that those were some of the worst choices and worst times of my life. I was out there makin bad choices, you know, just a kid makin bad choices. But now I can paint the picture. I use life as the backdrop
The Tape: Your newest tape is called Reaganomics 202
RR: Yeah, it’s the second installment of these mixtapes I’m about to put out in 2010, I got Reaganomics 101 and this is Reaganomics 202. The production is from these guys called the Hitboys, and THX who’s a west coast producer. I been blessed to get some hip little production for these tapes, I also got a lot of soulful, Isaac Hayes style. When you press play you automatically entrenched in what I’m talking about, so if it’s a song about me riding through the city you right there riding next to me, and I mean the shit is dope you know. Its definitely, in my eyes at least the bare minimum of where the product need to be at. Especially comin out of my town, being that it’s already a market there and there’s so much energy around hip hop out there. It’s rare anywhere in America, and in DC they got that vibe going on. So because of that I’ma give some music away and have some up for retail.
The Tape: What are your plans for the future?
RR: Basically, I’ma put out these two mixtapes and something out for retail, and actually I applied to the Musicians Institute (Since the interview, Rueben was accepted into the Musicians Institute program) and with that hopefully I’ll be able to get around the labels. To be honest with you it’s such an untapped market where I’m coming from, I’d rather do it independent, and not get dropped from the top. Like this dude WALE, he had more promotion and publicity than most veteran rappers, and the label dropped the ball, they didn’t translate his myspace friends into record sales. You need a grassroots presence if you wanna sell some records. Not hatin on nobody, but I’m gonna take it on my shoulders to bridge the markets. Hip hop is 24/7. It’s bigger than just retailing, and I walked away from that industry. If the material is timeless, it will always sell. It will always be wanted. As soon as the material is garbage, it’s over.
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Comment by Bill Gordon, Jr.
Made Monday, 5 of April , 2010 at 8:16 am
This is telling it like it was and is ……………..
