Chicago has been getting a lot of publicity lately, but for mainly all the wrong reasons, with teenage gang violence at an all time high. One of the rising rappers representing the Chi is MMG’s Rockie Fresh, who surprised many by signing with Rozay this past summer. Chopping it up on Sway In The Morning, Rockie talked about how much more time he’s spending in the studio now that he’s on MMG. He also addressed the violence in his hometown, and how he does not feel the youth have older people guiding them, and how he hopes his positive music can help influence them.
The biggest change for the Driving 88 rapper, since signing to a major label, has been the ability to afford ample studio time, “For me to be put on that kinda team, I got the opportunity to bring a different kinda fan base to it with the style of music that I make...I just been recording way more...able to be in the studio way more than I was.”
Addressing the rash of deaths in Chicago, Rockie Fresh feels that when he was coming up the teens had older guidance, but now the kids seem to be on their own, “what separates my age group from people younger than me, is we did have a few older people that was around kinda guiding us. And now that’s out the picture,” adding, “you can’t expect them to be mature and make mature decisions.”
Attempting to reach his fan base, and the wayward youth, Rockie elects to use a simple and positive approach, “My perspective it’s not preachy, and it’s not deep either...a lot of people now they got short attention spans, so if they wanna catch on it’s gotta be on the surface.” Saying he wants to be similar to when Kanye first came out, the MMG rapper talks about being positive, “show people it’s fun to be positive too. I think a lot of times young people think being positive is a lame or corny thing.”
Check out Rockie's Electic Highway mixtape dropping on HNHH at 3pm EST.