Nathan Thomas XL-Erated!!! from Romen Rok on Vimeo.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Romen Rok On Vinyl!
Pro Town Recordings is putting out a 12" vinyl release of rare unreleased FunkBunker Fleet. There is also a song entitled "Crash Test"that is going to be on the record and on my new project which is almost complete. The record also features material from Blunts and Milk (Swerve and Dj-Albums) J-Strest, Info Mite, Chachi Carvahlo, Cev2, Roe Diggs and others. All songs are produced by Dj Al-Bums. The pressing is limited to 300 copies, so if anyone is interested, email me and I'll give you the contact info for purchase
Thursday, December 4, 2008
It's Not A Road!
Here's a promotional video that I did with my homey Need Not Worry a couple years back for an event promoted by my boy Mr. Mortal who's behind the camera. Enjoy!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Van Jones is the f**kin MAN!
My homeboy Ricky Rap-Star flew in from Atlanta over this past week to take part in a convention in Boston called GreenBuild. He was there on business on behalf of the Atlanta library system who are planning to build a new green library. When he came back to RI for the weekend he put me onto Greenbuild's website on which he introduced me to Van Jones. This dude Van is a great public speaker. He hits all topics with precision on what it means to be "green" and how to bring it to your own backyard. He's funny, smart and worth the listening time. He inspired me to think about how to handcraft package my new cd with post consumer materials that I can find from somebody's unnecessary waste. Make sure to give fam a listen to. The lecture he did this past week can be found here.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
On the recommendation of my boy Cas-Uno I picked up a book called "Things Fall Apart" by African author Chinua Achebe. It tells the story of a prominent African tribesman who falls into a string of curses and is exiled from his tribe for 7 years. On return to his tribe, most everything has changed for the worse. Even in the face of superior adversity his tribal principles remain intact and unmoved. This short book is a great read. In-fact, it was the inspiration for the title of The Roots album in 1999. Support your local library and go pick a copy up son!
Friday, November 21, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
So, last night I rented a movie called Castle In The Sky from the library. Do not sleep on the library for dvds. They have practically the whole Criterion Collection there (Pvd). Anyway this is an animated film from master Hayao Miyazaki from Studio Ghibli , who is my favorite feature film animator since I was a kid. This film tells the story of two kids searching for a castle in the sky called Laputa, which was the original name of the film when it was released in 1986 in Japan. I remember when my brother went to see it in the theatre back then, and I was pissed I didnt get to go. As always Miyazaki uses a child as the main character in the story to portray innocence and love, fighting against a world of corruption and greed. Miyazaki's obsession with flight and fantasy are represesnted here in Laputa to it's fullest extent. I think everyone should should check this flick, young bucks to old stiffs. You won't be disapointeed in any thing Miyazaki makes especially my favorite jont, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
It's a sad world B.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
New Project coming very soon.
"It's almost finished son, for real."
I know I sometimes seem like 'the boy who cried album' but my project is seriously almost completed. There's gonna be 13-14 tracks on it with production by Joe Beats, Esh The Monolith (who just released his new cd with Labeless Illtelligence), Dj Al-Bums, and myself on the mpc 2000xl. I have a six week deadline to be finished with the recording, mixing, mastering, and artwork. I don't know the official release date because I don't know how I'm gonna officially release it yet. But, I'm real happy with the music and I can't wait to perform it live from front to back. Come back soon for updated info!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Big shoutout to My homey Ryans little art gallery in Pawtucket called Milk and Cookies. Right now it's hosting a favorite RI artist of mine named Will Schaff who's been repping on a worldwide scale for a while. Make sure to check it out. Stop by White Electric coffee house to check my friend Smiley Jones new exhibit with crazy stuffed dolls and photos as well.
Blake's Tavern
Come down to Blake's Tavern downtown Providence every Saturday night. I'm not there every Sat. But old crew is always in the house.
Providence Phoenix Feature!
Enjoy!
Here's the original link...
Featured the week of 9/11-9/18 by writer Chris Conti.
The Edgewood section of Cranston may not be known as a hip-hop hotbed, but that neighborhood raised a razor-sharp emcee named Romen Rok, who will finally follow through on his promise to deliver a full-length debut by the end of the year. His name has been well-known around the local independent/underground rap scene since his days with Funkbunker Fleet, who released one album, Slap & Spit, in 2003 and won the Independent Music Award for rap album of the year.
While friends and former colleagues roll in renowned camps like Poorly Drawn People and Labeless Illtelligence, Rok revels as a solo unit — particularly onstage, where the 28-year-old breathes fresh life into a show. He's his own hypeman and the madcap antics are complemented by a slick-witted lyricist who never loses focus on the task at hand. I witnessed a Romen Rok set a few months back at Jake's, when he opened for Albany, NY rhymer DEZ. Rok came out, looked over the setlist he scribbled down a few minutes before, then tore into a 30-minute serving of vicious bars and metaphors while running around with a giant pair of cardboard scissors and a Hannibal Lecter mask. I remember hearing "Ragu, Nanu-Nanu, eat cats like Alf do" all in one punchline. It was energetic, goofy, and fearlessly self-deprecating, and the 40 or so heads turned from head-scratching skeptics to all smiles by the end of his stint.
He came up with the Romen tag in 1994 while "doodling in a sketchbook high on Robitussin" at age 14. He attended Cranston East ("It was horrible") but never graduated "because of a failed history class in summer school.
"Looking back I should've just dropped out at 15 and done something useful with my adolescence, like live in South America and help people build houses," Rok told me. Writing rhymes developed from creative outlet to full-time obsession, as chronicled on "Lou Diamonds Forever," dedicated to a friend who recently passed away but left an indelible mark on Scampoli. The track will be included on Rok's debut.
"Lou rolled with a crew called Hazardous Material from Elmwood Avenue," Rok said. "I looked up to them and hearing them at the feasts back in the day, freestyling and beat-boxing, was amazing. You had to come with some serious styles to enter those ciphers. My man Lou Diamonds was the first out of them to show me love and became a mentor to my style."
And the first time he rhymed onstage in front of strangers?
"It would have to be the Pharcyde show at the Strand back in '95," he recalled. "I remember Slim Kid Tre asked the crowd if anybody rapped, I threw my hands up and he pulled me up on stage. I spit a verse and the crowd went nuts. My crew couldn't believe it."
Romen Rok has since shared the stage with indie icons People Under the Stairs, Mr. Lif, and Pharoahe Monch. He was recruited by Storm Davis, another renowned local wordsmith, for "Steps of the Brownstone" from his 2006 debut Kegstand Poetry for the Recovering Alcoholic, and has a working relationship with Joe Beats that dates to "The Clock with No Hands" from 2002's Reverse Discourse. Beats has returned the favor, producing four tracks for Rok's debut.
"Romen Rok is one of the purest artists I've ever met," Beats said, "but if it was up to him, rappers wouldn't need to release albums, they'd just say their piece on the street."
Rok sounds as if he's getting down to business; while "Poo Poo In the Pamper" and the hialrioius "White Chicks" (both at myspace.com/romenrahlo) won't make the album, Rok fed me a few lines of new material: "Hey yo, free yayo! Nah, Free Tibet/Free the minds of the youth, they obsessed with gettin' respect/It's like young bucks are too hard for their seat belts/They'd rather look real when they crash through the windshield."
Rok has temporarily pulled the plug on his live schedule as he wraps up his disc, but you can catch him and his crew spinning hip-hop downtown at Blake's Tavern every Saturday, where he occasionally rocks the mic.
"When people go out at night they want to be entertained and feel happy," Rok said. "I'm not scared to look ridiculous and make people laugh because I know I'm no joke and when it comes down to it — in the end, I'll bite your face off.
-Chris Conti
Here's the original link...
Featured the week of 9/11-9/18 by writer Chris Conti.
The Edgewood section of Cranston may not be known as a hip-hop hotbed, but that neighborhood raised a razor-sharp emcee named Romen Rok, who will finally follow through on his promise to deliver a full-length debut by the end of the year. His name has been well-known around the local independent/underground rap scene since his days with Funkbunker Fleet, who released one album, Slap & Spit, in 2003 and won the Independent Music Award for rap album of the year.
While friends and former colleagues roll in renowned camps like Poorly Drawn People and Labeless Illtelligence, Rok revels as a solo unit — particularly onstage, where the 28-year-old breathes fresh life into a show. He's his own hypeman and the madcap antics are complemented by a slick-witted lyricist who never loses focus on the task at hand. I witnessed a Romen Rok set a few months back at Jake's, when he opened for Albany, NY rhymer DEZ. Rok came out, looked over the setlist he scribbled down a few minutes before, then tore into a 30-minute serving of vicious bars and metaphors while running around with a giant pair of cardboard scissors and a Hannibal Lecter mask. I remember hearing "Ragu, Nanu-Nanu, eat cats like Alf do" all in one punchline. It was energetic, goofy, and fearlessly self-deprecating, and the 40 or so heads turned from head-scratching skeptics to all smiles by the end of his stint.
He came up with the Romen tag in 1994 while "doodling in a sketchbook high on Robitussin" at age 14. He attended Cranston East ("It was horrible") but never graduated "because of a failed history class in summer school.
"Looking back I should've just dropped out at 15 and done something useful with my adolescence, like live in South America and help people build houses," Rok told me. Writing rhymes developed from creative outlet to full-time obsession, as chronicled on "Lou Diamonds Forever," dedicated to a friend who recently passed away but left an indelible mark on Scampoli. The track will be included on Rok's debut.
"Lou rolled with a crew called Hazardous Material from Elmwood Avenue," Rok said. "I looked up to them and hearing them at the feasts back in the day, freestyling and beat-boxing, was amazing. You had to come with some serious styles to enter those ciphers. My man Lou Diamonds was the first out of them to show me love and became a mentor to my style."
And the first time he rhymed onstage in front of strangers?
"It would have to be the Pharcyde show at the Strand back in '95," he recalled. "I remember Slim Kid Tre asked the crowd if anybody rapped, I threw my hands up and he pulled me up on stage. I spit a verse and the crowd went nuts. My crew couldn't believe it."
Romen Rok has since shared the stage with indie icons People Under the Stairs, Mr. Lif, and Pharoahe Monch. He was recruited by Storm Davis, another renowned local wordsmith, for "Steps of the Brownstone" from his 2006 debut Kegstand Poetry for the Recovering Alcoholic, and has a working relationship with Joe Beats that dates to "The Clock with No Hands" from 2002's Reverse Discourse. Beats has returned the favor, producing four tracks for Rok's debut.
"Romen Rok is one of the purest artists I've ever met," Beats said, "but if it was up to him, rappers wouldn't need to release albums, they'd just say their piece on the street."
Rok sounds as if he's getting down to business; while "Poo Poo In the Pamper" and the hialrioius "White Chicks" (both at myspace.com/romenrahlo) won't make the album, Rok fed me a few lines of new material: "Hey yo, free yayo! Nah, Free Tibet/Free the minds of the youth, they obsessed with gettin' respect/It's like young bucks are too hard for their seat belts/They'd rather look real when they crash through the windshield."
Rok has temporarily pulled the plug on his live schedule as he wraps up his disc, but you can catch him and his crew spinning hip-hop downtown at Blake's Tavern every Saturday, where he occasionally rocks the mic.
"When people go out at night they want to be entertained and feel happy," Rok said. "I'm not scared to look ridiculous and make people laugh because I know I'm no joke and when it comes down to it — in the end, I'll bite your face off.
-Chris Conti
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