Paatien tly n W iti g
W
hen problems emerge in our lives, we tend to turn to different outlets that will take our minds off those problems. Some people talk to their family or friends, others turn to liquor or drugs, and some just deal with it however they can. But for Fayetteville, North Carolina native Randy “Rain” Watford, he found his outlet through rapping when he was only nine years old. “Nobody wants to sit there for a couple of minutes or fifty minutes straight and hear about your problems,” the 20-year-old says. “So instead I would make songs as a form of entertainment to get people to listen to what I was going through.” Rain was raised on both sides of the Mason Dixon line. He was born in North Carolina, but at age 16, decided to quit school and move to NY to live with his father. “I already knew I wanted to rap when I was younger, and I felt that school couldn’t help me out with that,” Rain explains. Having an understanding and style of two totally different places, Rain has been able to reach both East Coast and Southern rap fans alike. “In NY, it’s a much faster pace. Down here, niggas is more on their slick shit, so I just found a way to combine the two,” he says. In 2006 Rain collaborated with HipHopGame. com and released the mixtape Another Day Another Dolla, which caught the attention of many independent and major labels. But none of the labels were telling him exactly what he wanted to hear. “I wanted to hear that the label is going to be behind me 100%,” Rain urges. “Today when some rappers come out they have one single, and then a month later their album is dropping. You didn’t even give the people a chance to know you.” Without accepting any deals the labels had to offer, Rain took it upon himself to start his own label, First In Flight Entertainment. He describes his music as “reality rap” because it’s not always about partying and sex. “My music is about what happened after the party and why it got shot up or how you got an STD after fucking that bitch,” he says. Reality rapping has earned him attention from the likes of Dame Dash, 50 Cent, and Don Cannon, who hosted his mixtape Highly Unanticipated. Rain has also been featured on TRL, Rap City, and even got to freestyle with Hip Hop legend Erick Sermon on Rock Me TV. With this stream of notable accomplishments, it should only take a few more storms before he floods the game. Words by Jee’Van Brown Photo by Mike Hustle
92 // OZONE MAG