HipHopWired: For all of those that are unaware, can you give an introduction?
Roccett: My name is Roccett. I’m from the West Coast…Carson, California. I do Hip-Hop, I’m a rapper and I get it all the way in. Green Up Entertainment is the label that me and my manager Rick Edwards have. I was signed to CTE with Young Jeezy, but I am no longer signed with him. I’ve probably worked with everybody in the game that’s big in selling records right now and there’s a couple I haven’t worked with. I been doing it for about 10-12 years just grinding and trying to make something happen.
HipHopWired: You’ve been in the game for some time. When did you decide to become serious with rap? At 25, do you feel that you have a lot of knowledge about the game even with your age?
When I was 18, that’s probably about the time that I started to get serious with it, but I’ve always been doing it since like 9th grade in high school just beating on tables and all that. Once I got 18, I got serious and tried to make something happen out of it. I feel like I’ve grown, but I still feel like there’s a lot more that I need to do. I feel like I have done a lot and working with all of these artists in the game is good, but I haven’t sold any records like that yet so I feel that there is a lot more that I need to do.
HipHopWired: How do you separate yourself from the flood of artists that have come into the game as of late? What type of music do you try to put out?
Roccett: I’m just me. I’m a different person. There’s just so many people in music right now and you don’t know who is who and what to believe. If you look at my videos and listen to my music or meet me in person, you will see that I am genuine and I don’t try to do gimmicks or try to be something that I am not. I’m just me and I give it to you how it is. I thank god that people respect me for it and here we are today and they are still checking out for my music.
I guess it depends on what kind of mood I’m in for the day. If I feel like I’m in my I hate the world mood, then you’re gonna get a record like that. If I feel like making a girl record or however I feel, I do it. I don’t really categorize my music. I just make it and hopefully somebody likes it.
HipHipWired: Can you explain exactly what happened with you leaving CTE and your relationship with Young Jeezy?
In life, there’s times where you need to make decisions that are better for you and your career. To be honest with you, Jeezy didn’t really put out anybody. That’s my boy and we cool, but there was no artists that he put out that was successful. I don’t think he did a hard enough effort to put anybody out that would be successful. I’m not knocking him because he’s a rapper too so at the end of the day, he has to worry about his own career so how could he really be worried about yours unless he’s really ready to take that role. I just felt like I have a solid team behind me and I’m not trying to be in the music game to be somebody’s sidekick. I want to be my own man and have my own music.
If the person you’re with isn’t ready to make those proper decisions that you feel as a person is proper for you, then you need to be a man and make your own decisions. Some people might feel like I’m crazy for leaving Young Jeezy because that’s him, but at the end of the day I’m trying to be a successful artist too and I’m not trying to be someone that hangs out with a celebrity or goes here and there. I did that before I signed with Jeezy so now I’m just trying to make what is best for me. Whether that be signing with another rapper that I think is ready to put me out or going straight to a label or whatever, I feel like it’s going to be a decision that I make and I am going to roll with it.
HipHopWired: You’ve had your own label, Green Up Entertainment, since 2004. Can you elaborate on how it came together?
Roccett: Green Up is really me, my manager and my homies. All your life, all you try to do is figure out a way to get some money so we came up with the slogan “Get Your Green Up” and however you do it, you have to get as much of it as possible if you’re trying to live comfortable. That’s the slogan and motto and we live by it. We started the record label and we’re just trying to grow right now and build a buzz and pretty soon we’ll have our own artists that we will be putting out.
HipHopWired: What’s up next for fans to be looking forward to from you?
Roccett: I got a mixtape coming out called The Free Agent. I was going to call it The Chronic 2009, but I might just call it both. I’m no longer signed to anybody so it’s just going to be me jumping on some beats doing some mixtape flavor, but I got some songs on there also. It’s gonna be a brand new 14-15 songs that you haven’t heard with me going all the way in and hopefully the fans will be digging it because I can’t wait to release it.
I want to do an album because I feel like on mixtapes, I can’t really give you everything except for me spitting. There’s records that I want to do that I feel are good records, but they aren’t meant for a mixtape. If I do a song about my mom or my brother or sister, I want that to be on the album. I feel like it’s album work and I want to put that out, but not on a mixtape. It’s like people don’t even respect you on a mixtape unless you do some crazy rap bars. I’m ready to do an album so bad and I don’t care how we put it out as long as we put it out and I get to put my feelings on wax and hopefully sell some records.
HipHopWired: What advice would you give for the young cats trying to think that they can just jump in the game?
Roccett: There’s a lot more to it. It’s more business and politics than you would ever imagine. Rapping is probably about 10% of it all, whether you’re a good rapper or a bad rapper it doesn’t really matter now. You need to have a good, solid team around you and the right people and the right squad to make you successful in the rap game. There’s a lot of people out there with talent that I feel should be getting looks and be in the rap business, but it just doesn’t work like that. You have to have your business together and yourself in order or else you won’t even get a chance to get looked at.
Music is a reflection of your life with things that you have done or things you have gone through. I don’t knock anybody’s music because there isn’t anything wrong with dancing if that’s what you like to do, but sometimes there’s good days and bad days, good love and bad love, bad things and good things that happen in life and I feel like there is nothing wrong with a rapper saying those things either. It’s just sad that a lot of people have gone through things and don’t put it in their music. I feel like the fans will relate to you more if put what you went through in your music.
For more information on the West Coast’s rising MC, log on to iamroccett.com
Roccett – “Dear Jeezy, Dear Meech”
