June 6, 2019: Ro0k
Bio
I got started in the music world around 8th grade in 2008. I remember one night listening to The Cool by Lupe Fiasco and feeling so inspired by one of the songs that I stared writing my own verse.
Eventually I took it seriously by 9th grade when i wrote my first original rap, it was called Jedi Mind Trick. In 10th grade I was releasing my first mixtape, passing it out in my class’ hall. It was called Nowhere To Go But Up and that’s around when I decided to go by the name Aarborne. my first major performance was for my whole highschool that year, those stage jitters only get easier to deal with with every gig. focusing on honing my craft and accepting all criticism, i saw myself ready for a deal early but kept humble. i remember getting my confidence freestyling practicing with the homies in the college study hall room. Good times man.
The summer after my senior year, i had my first show at a real venue. I was opening for a friends band at the Recher back before it got changed to Torrent, and only like 10 people for my set. I still had a blast though. Fast forward to college, I’ve been working on my craft in my spare time and have released a few tracks on Soundcloud but no full debut project yet. I did however start at hip hop club at UMD when I was there called MD Hip-Hop Collective around March 2014. I remember afternoons on Fridays there would be these freestyle sessions up in the radio station space that the school had had going on for a long time. The club helped tie a lot of us together. Good Times man. I was in a few sessions with the rapper, Brain Rapp, and there are videos of Logic at some of these sessions way in the past. We had meetings every Thursday for a while and got a few local artists to come talk. Jay IDK came and talked to us and gave us signed copies of his mixtape at the time, Sex Drugs & Homework. We even threw a cancer benefit concert at our Student Union on December 4th, 2014. That was really fun. Unfortunately the club died after i had to withdraw early my junior year so then i started working. i put my music on hiatus for various reasons and looked at it as an opportunity to rebrand. that’s where the change to Ro0K (row-okay but rook works too).
i didn’t stop making music totally however, and helped open up for friends at places like Sidebar Tavern and Soundstage. From there i also realized how necessary it’s felt to help solidify the baltimore music scene, and just talent scene in general, so I started my own label in 2017 called O-Bay Entertainment. I got really tired of outside perception of Baltimore being either the Wire or the Freddie Gray Incident. We have not launched to the public yet but hope to ASAP now. Fingers crossed for summer 2019. As a new business that’s waited so long to get in the game though, we actually need to do business and show profits this year or we’ll be forced to shutdown so everyone needs to buy our super special exclusive merch when we launch!
Links
Set List
FeLiNa Lucy Dirty Mattress Bloody Knuckles
Credits
Host: Alex Carle, City Line Kids
Producer & Streaming Manager: Kraig Greff
Business Manager & Videographer: Jacquie Greff
Copywriter & Photographer: Mya Montgomery
Graphic Artist: Dee Sambataro
