Rocko’s Independent Life: “All The Major Executives See Me And Salute Me”

For Rocko—the Atlanta rapper behind one of the year's catchiest (and most controversial) tracks "U.O.E.N.O."—the major label music industry is more than a bit passé. After building buzz through his Rocky Road management company for others, Rocko dropped a series of mixtapes which led to a record deal with then-Def Jam chief L.A. Reid in 2006 and a major label-backed debut Self Made in 2008. But the Def Jam deal didn't stick, and Rocko went back out on his own under a new umbrella, his newly-formed A1 Recordings, eschewing the major label factory line in favor of his own DIY model. And well, to make a long story short, it's working—he not only grabbed his first Top 40 hit on the Billboard charts with "U.O.E.N.O.," but his A1 artist Future has been popping on the top of the charts on tracks like "Tapout" with Lil Wayne, Birdman and Nicki Minaj and "Bugatti" with Ace Hood and Rick Ross, and he's looking to expand his label's roster in the coming months.

But now, Rocko's back on the grind, hitting the studio and prepping two albums—Seeing Is Believing, previously slated to be a mixtape but upgraded to album status due to "anticipation" and the followup One of One, which he says "takes you into a whole other side of me"—and a mixtape, as well as more projects with Future, whose upcoming album Future Hendrix Rock describes as "global." "[Future] and I, we probably got three albums worth of stuff done," Rocko told XXL last week. "It's not a thing about me and him working together—we already got so much music together. Now it's just about me putting together a good body of work from my eyes, or what I feel I want my stuff to sound like, then I can go back and pick a song or two that we did, the ones that fit the format."

Rocko also addressed the recent series of apologies from rappers such as Lil Wayne, Drake, J. Cole and Ross, the latter whom had to apologize for a lyric on his verse on "U.O.E.N.O." that was perceived as condoning rape, an incident which eventually lost Rozay his lucrative endorsement deal with Reebok. "[Those incidents] make me more conscious of what I say on a record, 'cause I don't want to apologize," Rocko said. "But at the end of the day, I understand why they did that...you always gotta stand up on what you say and your actions, you gotta be accountable for them."

Rocko swung throught the XXL offices and broke down the secrets to his independent success, the explosion of "U.O.E.N.O." and his recent forays into acting alongside Gucci Mane.—Dan Rys (@danrys)

Why have you been sticking to the independent path?
I started it—I was signed to a major label, and when I did the deal—it started like this. I was working with some guys, indie, indie promoters, indie marketing people, all indie people, and I did a deal with Def Jam. One of the indie guy calls me and goes, "Hey man, congratulations on the deal," and I was like thanks I appreciate it, and he was like, "I'm over here working on your stuff now." I said you don't have to work on my stuff anymore, I'm signed now, I signed with the label. He was like, "Yeah motherfucker, you signed with the label, but the label hired me to stay and work on your shit." So I'm like, huh? Wow. The same people I know, they using the same people I use? So all they're doing is giving me an advance on my money, money that I'm going to recoup at this royalty rate, pennies on the dollar, that I already have, that I don't really need from them.

I could see if I was a new artist, somebody that really needed the money, like a starving artist in the game that need the money that just needs a foot in the door. I didn't need the money. I took the advance, but I didn't need the money. So immediately a lightbulb went off, like huh? Then I found at that at the major label, most of the people in the office are interns, they subcontract the work out to these indies, the same guys I was working with, and they got indie marketing people from marketing firms and different labels and all kind of stuff. So I was like, for real? Shit, I could do that and keep all the money. [Laughs] You know what I'm saying? So I told L.A. Reid, you know what? This just not working for me, I wanna be independent. At first he wasn't really trying to let me go and I just told him, I really wanna be independent, I really just wanna do my own thing. He thought I was trying to leave to go somewhere else, but I was just trying to leave to go independent. So he let me go, and shit, I've been independent ever since.

It seems like the biggest obstacle for younger artists is not understanding how it all works, and when they do find out they can craft it for themselves.
Exactly, and for me right now I'm just, I stay just trying to reinvent the wheel. Now with all these streams and everything, I'm monetizing all that stuff. You know what I'm saying? All this revenue, and it comes straight to me, whereas if I was signed to a major label it would go straight to them. Everything. So people are like, are you gonna do a deal? And I'm like, man, I don't care to do a deal. I'm at the top of the charts right now without a deal. All the major executives, the chairmen and chairpeople, they see me and they salute me, talk to me and pick my brain. It went from "Nah, we can't afford Rocko," to, "Well, we can talk about it," to, "Whatever it is, let's just make it happen!" [Laughs] And that's how it goes when I see them. Like L.A. Reid—I was over in the Epic building the other day, and he was just like, "Man, you're so smart. In my generation I never saw anyone doing what you're doing." All the way independent. There's people that are independent that have the independent major labels behind them, major distribution and things like that behind them, but I'm 100 percent independent.

Have you been focusing on building your roster at A1?
Yeah, trying to get it together. Trying to build my star up a bit too, that's why I said this year I'm gonna focus on putting out more records. Before I was putting out one song a year and just riding the wave, so this year I'm just gonna put out more and more records, hit after hit after hit after hit, I'ma focus on doing more visuals, more interviews, and just see how that work for me.

What are you looking for in new artists?
I'm looking for artists, I'm not just looking for a rapper, not just looking for a singer, I'm looking for artists. When I say artists, it's like—I didn't pass the BAR, so I can't be a judge, so I can't judge what's art. I want people that's comfortable with themselves, and I want them to tell me what's art. Show me what's art from their eyes. So those type of artists are what I'm looking for, somebody who's not afraid to step outside the box and just be an artist rather than try and do what they think is hot at the time. Just do what you feel is right, and go from there.

Did you expect the type of reaction you got from "U.O.E.N.O."?
I did, man, I can't even lie. When I did that song, I was in the studio working on a mixtape, I had this mixtape called Sounds Crazy. I just wanted crazy sounding beats, different sound effects, things just that sounded crazy, crazy sounds. So I was in the studio and Future came, and we were just going through beats. And he wanted to do some beats that we would normally do, and I was like nah man, this is Sounds Crazy, we gotta do beats that sound crazy. So we just going through beats, and I heard that beat, and I was like, "This beat right here sound a little crazy." So I pulled it up and I was like, "Load it up!" Then he just get to freestyling and shit—that's why at the beginning of the song you hear, "This sounds craaaaazy," 'cause it was from the Sounds Crazy mixtape. But everybody that heard it was like, "Hey, what happened to that song you and Future did the other day?" And I was like, "Which one, we did like five of them." They were like, "That one, that craaaazy one, the one that sound crazy—you don't even know..." Everyone in the studio was like yeah, I like that, I like that. 'Cause at the time, I hadn't even done my verse on it yet, and everybody was talking about it. So I was like, I'm gonna put somebody else on this and then I'm gonna put a verse on it, and we'll see. So I sent it to Ross, Ross sent it right back, and that forced me to do my verse. I did my verse and then just threw it out. And man, that just—it just blew up.

Was it then that other people started calling to get on the remixes?
I started getting people tweeting it—Kendrick Lamar tweeted it, Wiz tweeted it—so I reached out to them. And then a few people reached out to me, like Chris Brown reached out to me, a few people reached out to me. But Wiz tweeted that it was dope, so I reached out to Wiz and he was like, "Man, I wanna get on it." So I was like, "I'm about to send it to you." I sent it to Wiz probably like 9, 10 in the morning and I got it back probably about 1, like he got a studio in his bedroom or something. He sent it right back, immediately, he went in immediately. And Kendrick hit me on Twitter, so I followed him, we followed each other, so I DM'd him and told him to send me his number. We just started talking, and I sent it to him. Actually Kendrick's verse came in around the same time [as Wiz]. But Wiz verse was so hard; that's when the controversy first started, so I was like I gotta drop something, that's why I dropped Wiz's verse. And I had Kendrick's verse, and I was saving Kendrick's verse for the official remix, but I guess he got impatient. He was like, man I want to put mine out while the song is still poppin. But I can't be mad, that's a good record. I can't say I have a favorite, I like everybody's verse, 'cause everybody did something different, everybody stayed in their lane with it, so I liked everybody's verse.

Lately Ross has had to apologize, Drake and J. Cole had to apologize, Wayne had to apologize; how do you feel about this trend—hip-hop used to be unapologetic.
Yeah, aw man. I think people are just looking for people to blame for everything these days. Something wrong with this, something wrong with that, blame the rappers, he's the one who said it! It's crazy, because like you said, it didn't used to be like that. So they make me more conscious of what I say on a record too, 'cause I don't want to apologize. I hate apologizing, you know what I'm saying? But at the end of the day, I understand why they did that, because it is what it is; certain things, when you think about it, you're like, "Damn, I did say that. I didn't mean it like that, but I said it." You always gotta stand up on what you say and your actions, you gotta be accountable for them. So I understand why they apologized.

If anything, it might make rappers focus on setting the lyrical bar a little higher.
Yeah, no doubt. Make you a little more conscious of what you're saying, no doubt. It's crazy, 'cause it's like, being an artist you should be able to say whatever, to say what you're feeling. The First Amendment, the freedom of speech, you got the freedom to say what you wanna say. But people, you gonna be scrutinized for everything anyway—I might walk with my shoes untied, "Your shoes untied! Your shoes untied!" They try to critique everything. It's crazy.

I read that you were getting into acting and were working with Gucci Mane.
Ah well me and Gucci, we did a movie, we did a comedy, it was like 45 minutes. We were just doing it just to sell independently and just make money like that, because our supporters, our fans would buy it. He called me a few weeks ago and was like, "Man, we wanna put it in a film festival, we wanna do this, we wanna do that, and they saying it has to be 60 minutes or 70 minutes, so we gotta go back in, we gotta shoot some more, we gotta do this, we gotta do that." I thought we were done with it. But it was fun, and it's gonna be funny. I told him we gotta really really like the stuff that we add, we really really gotta top the stuff we already got, so we gotta get some dope writers, and then finish it up. 'Cause the dude we had writing on it was cool, 'cause we went in and did it and we was just, a lot of the stuff we improvised. But going in, finishing it up, if it's gonna be like that, we gotta really come up with some crazy stuff.

Have you acted before?
Nah, I've never done it, but it's something I've been telling myself I always wanted to do. So I went in wholeheartedly and I just gave it my best shot, and everybody just said, like, "Oh, you're a natural." I got offers to do other movies and everything just off that trailer alone.

We spoke to Zaytoven about acting alongside Gucci—how was it working with Gucci as an actor?
He's just a silly dude, he's a fun, fun dude. You be cool with him and he's actually a cool dude, he's a fun dude to be around. On set he'll keep you laughing, you'll be laughing all day. I had fun doing the movie, and I think the fans are gonna really like it, 'cause I'm really acting. I'm really acting.

What kind of stuff have you been working on with Zaytoven?
Man, you know with Zay, I pick the beats that nobody else picks. You know, Gucci and them, they pick all the same beats. The man got a million beats, so I go to his house—I might go early in the morning—and I just sit and I pick the beats that don't nobody want. He got to a point where he made a file with the different beats he knows nobody's gonna pick, just to make it easy for me when I come listen to beats, 'cause he know.