Blood Preps Solo Album, Wants To Be A Role Model

Bloodraw’s nobody’s sidekick. Fresh off USDA’s Cold Summer, on which he teamed up with Young Jeezy and Slick Pulla for a full-length album, the Panama City, Florida rapper is prepping his solo debut, My Life: The True Testimony, due June 17, on Da Snowman's Corporate Thugz imprint through Def Jam. Accustomed to sharing mic time with heavyweights, Raw said he's eager to shine off his own star power.

“Pretty much anybody who’s followed Bloodraw’s career, that’s been the question asked so many times, Why did Bloodraw make the decision to sign with Jeezy," Raw told XXLMag.com. "Because we pretty much know that he can stand on his own. But really my decision with the whole thing is that my set up… I feel like is gonna be even better because of what was presented in a group [U.S.D.A.] besides a superstar artist and being able to be presented and co-signed at the same time. Now I’m ready for my solo project.”

Where some rap sheet emcees are quick to run down their criminal records, Raw said he would rather not dwell on the past. The husky rapper was indicted by federal officials on conspiracy charges back in 2006. Exonerated later that year, Raw now hopes at-risk youths can learn from his mistakes.

“I’ma be real with you," the rapper explained. "Any dude that really came from the streets, we ain’t gon talk about no choppers and all that stuff that we used to do, because we overcame that situation. The reason why I take being a role model seriously is because, the things I’ve been through during my life, I know that the decisions that you make as a child will stick with you when you become a grown up.

“Sometimes, a child who has no opportunity, they don’t know how to do and what to do in making the right decisions,” he continued. “I feel like if I’ve done been through all these things and nobody’s telling the kids or nobody’s telling the people in the streets the consequences of what they doing. Everybody is glorifying it and saying it’s cool and at the end of the day, I’m not telling you not to do it, I just gotta tell you the consequences." -Carl Chery