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or many inner city males, either you sla ng crack rocks or yo got a wicked jump shot. When Jermone u Rockett realized his crossover wouldn’t be breaking any NB year-old focused his A ankles, the then attention on anoth 16er everybody’s into sp orts when you’re yo hustle: rapping. “You know, ung,” the rapper no Roccett remembers. w known as “After I saw that I wa to be in school, on the bench just bang sn’t Jordan or Kobe, I used in’ on the tables an rhymes together.” d putting In hindsight, Rocce tt, now 22, made the doned the hardwoo right choice when he aband and picked up a microphone. After mixtape grinding, years of heavy the Carson, CA reside nt’s impromptu pe caught the attentio rformance n of ATL’s favorite Snowman. “[Jeezy] folks that I used to knew some get at,” Roccett ex plains. “We went do function he had. Th wn to this ey had a freestyle session outside. So I went out
cARSON, CA there and did my thi ng. He was like ‘Ni gg you in the booth.’ Since then it’s been a, you’re nice. We need to get CTE Entertainment’s ne west acquisition, Ro .” Now, as Corporate Thugz ccett Inglewood, CA emcee 211 as the group Ro has been paired with ccett & 211. We all know Jeezy is one for thug mo tivation. But by pa artists who are me iring two mbers of the coun try’s most notoriou (Roccett is a Crip an s gang rivalry d 211 is a Blood), has Jeezy lost his mind? Roccett insist crack-cooking s it’s not an issue for the new CTE du o. But gang affiliatio ns aren’t Roccett’s on ly questionable cir in joining the CTE cumstance regime. He’s found himself fending ag throwing rocks du ainst critics e to Roccett joinin g a Southern label izing from A-Town and capitalaffiliations which inc lude an appearanc upcoming USDA alb e on the um and a track with Atlanta’s Killer Mik e entitled “LA 2 ATL” which ha s caught the atten tion of Hip Hop pu rists from coast to coast. “A lot of peop le gonna go to the So ask me, ‘How you uth and get a deal? ’,” Roccett says. “The South got so much love for music, perio d. Jeezy embraced me with open arm s.” Regardless of Jeezy’ s southern hospita lity, Roccett has co ntinued to grind on his own. His new Co lors mixtape with DJ Warrior has kept his name buzzing in the streets and his face is more recog nizable by the day as a sponsored art ist for Makaveli Brand Clothing. “Jeezy’s an artist before he ’s anything else, he ’s got to take care of his music,” Roccett says. “Being signe d to an artist, you’v e gotta be patient an d wait until it’s yo ur turn to make it do what it do. But I als o know how to work too.” When his work finall y reaches the masses, Roccett ho pes people will relate to his music and understand his message. “If you’r e from the hood, yo u got dead homies, you getting up going to work, your baby ma or maybe you’re ha ma trippin’, vin and everything’s gra g a good day vy. I done been through all of that, my nigga, so I relate to however you’re feeling,” he says. “And I’m [ab out] to put it on tra ck so you can feel me , and the world can feel me.” // Words by Randy Ro
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