How Do You Compare Rocko Rapper To Other Contemporary Pop Artists?

Rocko Rapper or Rodney Ramone Hill Jr. is a rap artist-actor from Atlanta Georgia. People started to take notice of his skills when his first album Self Made climbed to number twenty one on the Billboard 200, made it to sixth on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, and went number four on Top Rap Albums. All this, followed by controversy over lyrics supposedly condoning date rape in his single U.O.E.N.O which climbed to number twenty on the Hot 100. Is he comparable to icons like Jay-Z or Tupac Shakur? Not quite. And besides, he doesn’t have a troubled past like Tupac. He was a producer first and foremost before he decided to cash in on the rap artist scene as a recording artist.

"Cash in" might well be an apt term for Rocko Rapper. The artist’s initial work, best reflected in his seminal single "Umma Do Me" blatantly expounded on what this rapping of his was all about: money. Indeed, his recording company A-1 Recordings and consequent evolution from releasing mixtapes before graduating to full-blown albums is nothing but savvy. How savvy is Rocko? He dropped Rick Ross in order to get radio time for U.O.E.N.O and Ross was eventually bumped off as an endorser for Reebok. Mind you, this controversy over the supposedly date rape-condoning lyrics only served to induce curiosity for the song and raised Rocko’s profile as an artist.

Rocko Rapper sings lyrics that are as racially charged as any other gangsta rap song. You keep hearing the word "nigga" (for nigger) – once used to belittle and denigrate and now used as a badge of honor. "High class niggas", Rocko sings. These are interwoven between lots of mature language: motherfucking bottles, fucking floor, monster truck that "sit tall as fuck". Call it bravado or posturing. Rap acts are about being tough – or acting tough, because your audience wants to feel tough. It’s a world where you live a block away from drug dealers and you pass muggers down the street, a world where the police stop and frisk you against the wall because you don’t look like you’re up to any good or you fit a certain profile. They resent this treatment and they listen to the rapper sing it and it makes them strong, or at least the release of aggression makes things better for the moment.

In this way, the rapper’s song isn’t always about himself. Rocko Rapper himself admits that he is more interested in the vibe that his creations inspire rather than the actual message of the songs. The songs speak in general. The million dollar watches, million dollar cars, and million dollar cribs are what any man on the street aspires for. It is the ethos of every rapper, the rapper lifestyle, the kind of lifestyle that adolescents admire in their favorite artists. But this is a general formula – the bling and the guns and the bitches, and any and every rapper like Rocko sings about it.

Rocko Rapper began with being a ghostwriter and producing songs before he came out with his Rocky Roads Records label. He knows where he is going. You should too. You should have a plan. Artists must always keep themselves, reinvent their songs to stay relevant. Even if you have the skills and the style, you will not last a year singing the same old rap songs over and over again. Changing your stage name every year is a bit over the top, you just have to be a real artist: be creative. There is no lack of inspiration for the real artist, you just have to express what you feel is important and chances are your audience will identify with you. Be your own audience and critic. And never give up. That record contract might just be a few mixtapes away.