Rome Interview (Talks BYI Entertainment, No Excuses Street Album)

[D-Nice]

http://illuminati2g.com/site/2010/11/07/rome-interview/

I2G chilled with one of the rising stars on the west coast rap scene, Rome for a interview. We discuss his new street album, No Excuses, which dropped a couple weeks ago, the current status of BYI Entertainment, his plans for the rest of this year and beyond and much more so check it out. For those that have not copped the street album, here is the download link.

http://www.djbooth.net/index/mixtapes/entry/rome-no-excuses

Illuminati 2G is here with Rome, how’s it going?

Right here chillin man, what’s going on?

Not too much. You recently dropped your street album, No Excuses. Tell me a little bit about the album.





Yeah it is presented by DJ Skee, Dj Booth and BYI Entertainment. Features production from Tha Bizness, Marquez, Drumma Boy, myself and features from Mistah Fab. I am getting great feedback and the supporters are behind it.

Do you have any videos or singles set to drop from the album?

I have a single coming soon with myself and Mistah Fab entitled International Music, produced by Tha Bizness. I shot 4 videos for the album, but we are going to pick them out in a timely manner. I don’t want to drop them all at the same time and bombard the fans. We are working really hard and this is the first mixtape, I plan on dropping 3 more between now and the end of next summer.

This is the first installment and the next one should be even bigger than this one. But we are definitely pushing the line with this one and we have a lot of things coming up. I am going to work the album a lot because I really enjoyed making it.

I feel a lot of people put out mixtapes and other projects and after a week or so people forget about it.

You started your career more as a producer, but you have always been a artist. How do you juggle the two at the same time?

I have been doing music all my life. I actually started making beats so I could rap over them because I got tired of instrumentals and being influenced by other artists by taking on their beats. I have been doing both since I can remember and I was a professional music producer by the age of 16.

That was when I started working with a lot of artists in the industry, some Grammy award winning artists. I have always done both as far as production and rapping, I always wanted to rap but the production side took off so fast that I rarely had time for my own projects.

When I sat back and was thinking about what to do next, I decided to take a pay cut and start out on my own putting my own projects out. All my fans from my production supported my decision and that was what kept me going. Because the music industry right now is really fucked up and if you don’t have the support of your fans, you are really running on fumes.

When the fans support what your doing, nothing else matters, you just want to share and spread the word about the projects that you are working on and that is the space I am in right now. I really did not get to produce that much on this album, but on the next one I will. Also you will see a lot more of my production on other peoples projects as well like I used to do when I was younger.

Are there any artists that you are currently working with now that will be coming out soon?

As of right now, no because I am pushing this No Excuses project. But for those unaware in the past I worked with artists like Jim Jones, Rick Ross, Glasses Malone, Mistah Fab, Cool N Dre. Cool N Dre basically took me under their arm until I started doing my own thing. Because you never want to get caught up in someone elses web. I am trying to get back to production, and last year I had my son and my whole world changed for me.

I had to figure out how to mix both worlds to make it work.

Absolutely.

The easiest thing for me to do was to grab my pen and paper and start writing. But now that he is older and the music is getting better and we are making money here and there, I can start building back up my studio and production room and get back to the beats.

Because really that is the bread and butter at the end of the day. When it comes to beats, you can do so much more than music. You can do TV, commercials, ringtones, and on a independent level too that a lot of people do not know about.

It’s just a matter of finding the lane again and getting to where I want to be. As of right now it is getting there with a lot of support from the fans, blog sites that help out, too many to name, but definitely you guys, Illuminati 2G. All those little things help out and turn into something bigger. It is about finding that love again and once you get it, you get straight to work.

What is the status on BYI Entertainment? I know a couple years back you had the deal with Interscope and it seemed like Omar Cruz was on the cusp of being the next big artist to drop on the west and the buzz died down for a little bit.

Now you are dropping more projects and now the buzz is starting to grow back again. What is the status on the label right now?

BYI Entertainment there was a change in roster. When my name was called upon, I was sitting on the bench doing me and doing my free throws very morning. When they called me and asked if I was ready, I took my warm-ups off and I went for it.

I am not going to speak for any other artists but right now BYI is full motion on Rome.  We are trying to come back and we still have our connections with Interscope and our other partners as well, but we going full throttle with my projects and the label.

I have known Lulu since I was 18 and he was the one that actually got me doing music again. I started out young in the music industry, so by the time I was 18 I had already had enough. But he told me yo just stick with me and let’s do this.

I consider him a friend to me so right now we are going with my projects. We still have producers like Marquez who did most of my album and we are always looking for talent but for now we are going with the whole Rome/BYI thing.

Do you have any upcoming shows or tour dates?

Not right now but we have some plans in the works. 2011 definitely top of the year we will be doing a lot of shows, we also have the South By Southwest tour coming soon. We just got a agency to help us out with that because touring is vital for a artist.

I will be also bringing with me all my mixtapes for the fans to pick up that don’t have them yet. 2011 we are going to be out there touching every city.

What is your website information?

www.twitter.com/ayorome. www.myspace.com/rome. www.facebook.com/romitobaby. I also have my new website that is going to launch and it is going to be the epitome of a independent rapper’s website, www.ayorome.com. That should be up in the next week or so, but I am happy I am up on game on a lot of the technology that artists like myself can use to reach out to the people and my website does that. If we are going to do it the independent way, then we have to go all out.

Alright well that is all the questions I have for you, appreciate you getting down for the interview. Is there any last words or shoutouts you want to get out there to the people?

I want to shout out BYI Entertainment, DJ Skee, DJ Booth, Mr. Kartoon , Estefan Oriol, Marquez, just everybody who made No Excuses possible. Especially Illuminati 2G also for taking the time out to talk to me as well. 2011, I don’t want to sound cliché and say that the year is going to be mine, but I know I am going to work hard. That is my motto, work hard and no days off.