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Home » Interviews » Roam Interview (April 2003)

If there is any truth to the old classic saying that all roads eventually lead to Rome, then Pure Pain recording artist, Roam is destined to be one of the most popular rap artists of the new millennium.

 

Armed with an incredible a flow as smooth as melted butter and blessed with an uncanny gift for crafting vivid urban street poetry in the grand tradition of legendary street bards such as Rudy Ray More and Sir Todd “Too $hort” Shaw with strong hint of serious lyricism Roam’s debut LP entitled Bad Daddy will be turning rap fans around the world on their ears. 

 

A few months ago I had the pleasure of talking to Roam at the Pure Pain Studio in Savannah. Here’s what the man who says he’s always on the go had to say.

Down-South: Where are you from?

Roam: I was born in Savannah Georgia and I moved to Fort Worth, Texas when I was three and I been there every since. I moved back here in 1999.

Down-South: What year did you moved to Texas?

Roam: In 79.

Down-South: So you pretty much grew up in Texas?

Roam: Yeah, I pretty much represent mostly Texas.

Down-South: What neighborhood in Fort Worth did you grow up in?

Roam: I grew up in an area called Berryhill.

Down-South: What it’s like growing up there?

Roam: Berryhill is pretty much like dead in the middle of the hood. You got the hood when you go down Berry Street, which is the street that goes down the middle of the hood and ends up on top of a hill. And at the top is like a little neighborhood that’s kinda run down called Berryhill. It was nothing but a hood with a bunch of kids. You got other neighborhood’s with a bunch of dope dealers, but Berryhill was kinda where the jack boys were because you don’t ride up in Berryhill all times of night. It wasn’t no drugs going on so if you come through there stuntin’ you were getting’ jacked. That’s just the type of environment it was.

Down-South: Now you didn’t get involved any type things like that did you?

Roam: Ah, I mean I had homeboys I had to do what I had to do to stay cool with my homeboys.

Down-South: So you fell victim to peer pressure?

Roam: Pretty much, yeah, either you do or you just lead a boring lifestyle ‘cause ain’t nobody gonna wanna mess with you because you ain’t down. So you pretty much had to hang with the crowd.

Down-South: Coming up, what kinda music did you listen to?

Roam: I pretty much listened to rap music. I was always into Too $hort. I mean I got all of Too $hort’s albums. I listened to Eric B. & Rakim. Rakim is my favorite lyricists. Then Tupac came around and I am a big Tupac fan. I was always into lyrics. I was a writer. I wasn’t always a rapper. I used write poems and stories and stuff so lyrics always meant the world to me.

Down-South: So how did you go from being a fan to be a participant?

Roam: Well, what happened was I was always listening to rap and I always wrote poems and stuff. And there was a talent show at the YMCA in about 85/86. I had entered the show and I read one of my poems. They had the music going in the background while I was performing so instead of reading the poem I rapped it and I won. That was my first time seriously rapping and I won a talent show. So after that I started turning all of my poems into raps, which is what I mainly do now. When I write a rap it’s mainly that I’m writing a poem, but I’m writing it to be turned into a song.

Down-South: So you started out as a poet like Pac?

Roam: Yeah, I was a poet…I was a poet.

Down-South: So when did you decide that rap was something that you wanted to do full time?

Roam: Pretty much around that same time. I got serious with then and there was just no way for me to back out. All I would do is just write and rap. We had a fair like down the street from my house in Berryhill. It was a fair that would come down the street like every month and everybody would go down to that fair and just meet up and battle.

I used to just have my stuff together battling. If somebody wanted to hook up, we’d get together and battle other crews, so I always took it serious at that time I just didn’t have no place to get the exposure that I needed at that time.

Down-South: What year was this?

Roam: Around 86/87.

Down-South: So what did you do in the meantime?

Roam: Well, I was always an athlete. I was into sports, playing in the school football team, playing in the hood. You know it was kinda rough, but I had a pretty much normal childhood. I Grew up in a single-parent home. My mom wasn’t all that strict on me so I pretty much be out in the street playing.

Down-South: When did you leave Fort Worth for Savannah?

Roam: I came back in 98..99, really 99…

Down-South: What brought you back?

Roam: I got into a little trouble in the streets out there. What happened was that I had just moved to area called Eastwood on Casimee Street. That’s not too far from Berryhill but it’s a CRIP Neighborhood. And I was in a record group and we had some artist and they lived in a house right next door to my mom. They had a little studio. They were CRIP affiliated and they stayed in a lotta trouble. One night we went out and one night we went out and they got into a shoot out. One of the guys got shot, the car got shot, but nothing happened to me. And a few weeks later I was with my son at the park and some guys tried to shoot me at the park. I got away, went to my mom’s house and they did a drive-by shooting and shot up her house. My mom’s was like I think it’s time for you to get outta town. So I just packed my bags and came down here to be with my grandmamma and my father.

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 Down-South: Were you ever a member of a gang?

Roam: Naw I never joined a gang. Back in Texas it was called CRIP affiliated all of my friends had turned CRIPS at that time. I never really actually ever joined the CRIPS and most of my friends were CRIPS. Anybody that knew me knew that I was affiliated with the CRIPS because of my neighborhood and the people I hung around. 

Down-South: So once you hit Savannah what happened?

Roam: Well I had a choice, my pops, he had just moved to Atlanta and he wanted me to move with him. My main thing was just getting back up on my feet. See when I left Texas, I had a crib and everything. I left my furniture and my clothes. I just hopped in my car and came here so I had to pretty much get back on my feet. The first thing I did was found a job. And when I got my first paycheck the first thing I did was buy some studio time. That’s how I got here to Pure Pain to set up some studio time.

Down-South: Luqman, (the CEO of Pure Pain Records), told that there was a connection between your family and his also?

Roam: Yeah, Luqman and my uncle Curtis grew up together. They were always good friends. As a matter of fact Curtis was the one who turned me on to Pure Pain. He knew I was always trying to rap. He told me that he had a friend named Luqman with the studio Pure Pain. He pretty much put the word out that I was coming. He told them that I was rapping and that I was back home trying to start all over again. When I came they already knew who I was when I walked into the door. And from then one it’s been on and popping.

Down-South: So you went in there intending to record an album on your own?

Roam: Yeah that was what I planned to do. I was living with my grandmother and I was working, I had planned to put every penny I had into putting out my own record. But when I came into the studio, the producer made the beat for me and I laid the first verse and he just stopped the session and came in with Luqman and the CEO and some other folks and they all signed me right then and there. It was just timing. I just got here at a good time because when I got here there wasn’t a whole lotta artists here when I got here. The label was practically new. Crime Affiliates had just finished they album and they had about two other artists so I just hopped on the boat at a good time.

Down-South: Did you do any work on the first Camoflage album?

Roam: they song that I did didn’t make the album. It was like a little club type booty-shaking song about hoes. And it came down to the final count they had said that the song didn’t fit the album. And that was real depressing to me because here I am been here since 1999 and this is a year later and I’m still didn’t get my chance to shine.

Down-South: What about Strictly for the Streets?

Roam: Yes, I was on that song “I let Rounds Go,” track number eight.

Down-South: What about Keepin’ It Real?

Roam: Yes, I’m on track number four called “Strictly For My Nigga” and I’m on the “Bring It On” track and they got the snippets from my album Bad Daddy on there.

Down-South: Tell me about the songs on the snippets?

Roam: The first song on the snippet is called “Pimp By Blood.” The concept of the song is about how I can pull a girl up out the club. It’s about how I can shoot game to women to get them go home with us. It’s about how we shoot game to get women to do what we want. The next song on there is “I Be That Nigga.” It’s mainly about how me. I’m say what type of guy I am. From the beginning to the end I drop verses like “I’m slicker than Slick Willie, I talk more shit and sell more hay than a hillbilly. Around my way nigga’s coughing and firing up that fire green, while I lay back and get more head than a guillotine.” So you know I’m just spitting all kind of shit about me, basically just saying some slick shit and letting everybody know that I’m creative. The main thing that sets me off from other is the shit I say. I say a lotta slick shit. The third song is called I want you. I had to do something nice for the ladies.

Down-South: Who produced the album?

Roam: We got three producers: Dushawn, Fat Boy and G. Cope of Uncut Productions.

Down-South: What do you want people to walk away from this album thinking?

Roam: That this boy is raw as hell.

 

 

 

by: Charlie Braxton. © 2003 Down-South.com

 

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