The West Coast has a new movement of young artists that are rising up to be the faces of the future for the region. One of the artists in the forefront is a young rapper out of Carson, CA by the name of Roccett. Having labored on the Los Angeles underground scene for a few years, Roccett began turning heads nationally as it was announced that Atlanta trap star Young Jeezy signed him to his CTE label. In 2007, after releasing a widely well received mixtape with self proclaimed West Coast Mixtape King DJ Warrior called Colors, Roccett also appeared on his mentor Young Jeezy’s U.S.D.A. – Cold Summer street album with a song called “Respect Da Shield.” 2008 is shaping up to be another good year for the young rapper as he recently released his 3rd official mixtape, Corporate America, and is gearing up to release his still untitled debut album. AllHipHop.com sat down with Roccett to discuss his budding career. On his beginnings…My first rap name years ago was Logic. I actually bumped in to a few people with the same name and I couldn’t roll with that. My real last name is Rockett so I just ended up using that but with a different spelling. I started doing this [rapping] when I was like 18 or 19 and I’ve been going hard with it ever since. I went to jail for a little bit but even while in jail I still had some mixtapes on the streets. As soon as I got out I just started going hard with it. I’ve been making an impact on the streets for the last five years. [Roccett “Respect Da Shield” Video]Regarding Young Jeezy and being signed to his CTE label. I met him a few times in Miami through mutual friends that we have. We would hang out on a normal basis whenever he would come out here to the West Coast. He heard me spit one time while hanging out and he signed me right then and there. Jeezy is a heavyweight in this game – he’s in my top five of artists today that’s making music. Me being a newer artist, I am learning a lot from him. Some people think that it was all luck that he heard me and signed me on the spot but I feel that even if he didn’t sign me, somebody else would have. That same hunger and drive [Jeezy] had coming up is what I have. He’s going on his 3rd album and in three years from now, I want to be going on my 3rd album too –and then 10 after that! This business is hard work. It’s about 80 percent business and 20 percent rapping. You’ve got to go out there and get it. Where he fits in to today’s style of rap music as a new West Coast artist. I just do me. People that pay attention to the timeframes of rap music will see that it changes up periodically. Something might last for five or six years. Early rap music had a lot of that “hip-to-the-hop” style. Eventually the West Coast came in and we did our thing with our Cube’s, 2Pac’s and Snoops. Then the East grabbed it again with Jigga and Roc-a-fella. Then of course we all know that the South grabbed it. I’m just waiting for our turn [again] on the West Coast – you’ve just got to be patient with it. [Roccett “You Can Hate Me” Produced by Reef]
I am not going to go outside of my box just because everybody is making a certain style of music now – that’s just not me. If you are making real solid music that people can feel, your music will always be here. Even though people are playing a lot of dancing type records now, you will always hear 2Pac thrown in the mix. It’s music that you feel and you can’t get away from it. It’s like a lot of the R&B Oldies, when you make real good music it lasts forever. I am just trying to make real good music. On being involved in the National Ad campaigns for the Makaveli Branded and Blanco clothing lines. Man, you are trying to hit me with the model tag (laughs). My manager worked all of that out and asked me if I wanted to be a part of Makaveli Branded and I’ve been doing that for about a year and half. I’ve been in ads for them and the Blanco clothing line in major magazines like The Source and XXL. I might even do more. Whenever the opportunity presents itself, you’ve got to jump on it.Roccett Colors Mixtape [Mediafire Download]On his latest street release Corporate America, his upcoming debut album and Akon possibly signing him… That’s more like a street album than a mixtape. I did all original tracks on there – except for one – I did take a 2Pac beat. I’ve got original verses on there from Young Buck, Young Jeezy, Slick Pulla, Gorilla Zoe, and Akon. I treated this like an album and tried to make a masterpiece – even though it’s just a street album/mixtape. For my debut album, we are looking at September of this year right now. I am signed to Jeezy through CTE but we can still take it to any company like a Def Jam per se. I have been talking to Def Jam and to people over at Interscope. We don’t know where we are going to yet but it’s all in the works right now. So we are looking at September. That might change to a later date or even next year, but that’s the timeframe that we are trying to get it out by. There is no album title yet although I’ve been going over five or six names. I’ve been talking to my manager Rick and to Jeezy about it, but they’ve told me that when you figure that out to keep that info tucked until you are ready to run hard with it. Akon has been talking about signing me to put the album out through Konvict Muzik but nothing is in stone yet, we’ve just been talking about it. I’ve known Akon for a while just by me grinding out in the streets. He heard my Colors mixtape and went crazy about it – even back then he was trying to make it do what it do as far as working together. We’ve been in touch going back and forth since then trying to see what we can possibly make happen – and he jumped on my Corporate America mixtape in the meanwhile.
