With their new single Losing It and an album on the way, Rock City is getting ready to blow. The brothers from St. Thomas, after a few years of songwriting for such people as Mario have decided to come to the forefront and really show people all their talents. Enter Tim & Theron aka Rock City.......illRoots.com: First off thank you for the time out of your day
Don't Talk aka Timothy:Thank you, Appreciate your time
Spokesman aka Theron: Thank you.
illRoots.com: Why the name "Rock City"?
Theron: Alot of people don't know this and we don't let the whole world know that St. Thomas is also known as "Rock City" its very mountainous and its very rocky. All the islands in the Virgin Islands as far as the US Virgin Islands have nicknames: St Thomas is Rock City, St Cory is Twin City, St. John is Love City. All of these have meanings behind them but Rock City is because is mountainous and rocky and me and my brother were like what better name then something that represents our home and where we are from. When we say "Rock City" we aren't just repping ourselves we are repping our home.
illRoots.com: As far as your careers from beginning to the present, How do you feel you've grown as artists?
Theron: We've learned alot, we've struggled and been through a whole lot. I think now we are very mature and we understand alot of things that we didn't understand before. We are alot more wiser about our decisions and that helps us move the way we move now. Of course back then we weren't smart enough to know that we needed a really good team behind us guiding us where we needed to go. Now I like to say we have the best if not one of the best teams from our manager, to our publicist, to our product manager, to our A&R, our promotion people, our team of producers we work with.
illRoots.com: I hate structured interviews, they are so boring and every synonym of wack.
Tim: We appreciate that because me and my brother do alot of the same type of interviews. I guess because we are new artists that everything is pretty protocal but its nice to mix it up a bit, it gets pretty boring.
illRoots.com: Right, exactly. So tell me one thing that is important to know about Rock City?
Tim: Alot of people don't know me and my brother are REAL brothers, we don't just say we are brothers because we are boys. We in the house right now and our parents are upstairs chillin', we are really family.
illRoots.com: Out of all the people you've worked with over the past few years, give me one story?Theron: Okay we were in the studio with Busta Rhymes down in Miami and this was our first time meeting him. He came to the studio and we were playing him some of our records and he was playing us some of his records and it was just a really memorable moment.
Tim: We grew up, especially my brother, and everyone down in St. Thomas nows that my brother is the biggest Busta Rhymes fan on earth. We are both fans and we were in the studio with him but he was like "Oh man, you dudes got records", and just to sit in the studio with a legend and we'd have never met him before and he was just as excited as us. He'd play his record and he would perform his record right there and we would play our record and we would start perform our record and for a while it was just back and forth. I'm talking for like an hour, and we were like "This is Busta Rhymes!!"
Theron:He looked at us like "Yall are future", you don't even know, yall got something and we looked at him like "Fuck us, ni**a you are the..." [Laughs]
illRoots.com: [Laughs]
Theron: From day one to know that has to be one of the most memorable moments.
illRoots.com:Yall single "Losing It" single is pretty dope but the first time I heard you guys was when Steve and Kendall over there at the Best of Both Offices had put me on to the "Go Low" joint with Beans because the big homie Rik Cordero laced that video.
Tim: That really was right place at the right time. We were in Philly with Dre and Vidal and they were playing some of the record and we were like "Can we get on the Album?", they were like "The album is basically done". Beans walks in and we play him some of our records, and he's like "We got this one song that don't have no hook on it, a reggae vibe would be dope on it". So they pulled the beat up and within 5 minutes me and my brother had the hook for it. My brother was like "We fire shots through the city" and I'm like "Go Lowww". Beans is like "Go Lay that shit, Go lay that right now". We were like " o..okay". We laid it down and they were like we are going to put it on the album. Then they called us and were like we are going to shoot the video in New York for it get up here. We like "HELL YEAHHH".
illRoots.com: Dre and Vidal's entire camp are just so talented man, when Chris invited us up for an interview, I met this producer Dirty Harry and later his partner, they are monsters.
Tim: Yeah I remember them, they played us some records. We were in the studio till the sun came up. Everything was just so cool up there man. We fuck with yall, it was love up there.
illRoots.com: Those guys are musicians though, real artists at what they do. I think the musicality in the game is lacking, what are your opinions on Hip-Hop in 08'?
Theron: Definitely its not what it was then. That golden era of Hip-Hop, the whole Rocafella, Ruff Ryder movement. I feel like right now its definitely evolving into something different, you know alot of people say hip-hop is dead.
Tim: Man let me tell you something. I don't want to say Hip-Hop is dead or wack to me its just a new generation. When we were coming up I remember people saying "That ain't real music, thats wack", to them and there generation. But to us they have to accept that this is not our time. I mean people older than us say "Its the same stuff on the radio", to us it was different because we liked it, but come on man. I remember when it was the shiny suit era and everything looked the same.
Theron: For me the only thing I will say about Hip-Hop, as far as the music side of Hip-Hop is that....basically there is a record we have called "Stop Lyin" and the basic prowess is there is so many artists out here that have to talk about trapping and moving weight and being the hardest person out. I feel like back then Hip-Hop didn't always represent that, you had a few people like the Kid and Playz and then you had the backpack rappers. I feel everybody had they shine. Right now its only one thing shining and for me I can personally wish that a little bit of back then can come to right now. Meaning I wouldn't hate on anything because there is a calling for everything but I just feel it was little bit more balance.
illRoots.com: Well Kardinal taught me that Hater is really a term used by wack rappers to be the ultimate beneficiary. So if somebody comes along like the Cool Kids that is completely different from or better yet the polar opposite of say CNN then those hardcore rappers say that is uncool in hopes of a backlash on this other genre. If you turn the masses against them then thats more money for me type mindframe.
Theron: Right
Tim: Right
illRoots.com: I'm not "hating" on the music I just feel the term as is SWAG is overused to the point where the meaning becomes construed.
Tim: Not only that but I feel the radio has alot to do with artists careers and they will play the hell out of a record and eventually you love it but it may be the wackest song ever. You heard it so much and your little nieces are going around the house doing the dances and singing the lyrics. Everyone is doing this 24/7 and when you hear it on the radio you are singing all the words. You catch yourself singing all the lyrics and your like "Damn, I hate this song", but they played it so much. In music I think artists got too serious and we stopped thinking about the fun and thats why the term hater became so heavily used. We are not allowed to voice our opinions if its winning but if its not winning then everybody agrees. A hater is someone who doesn't like you personally for no reason at all.
Theron: When they don't like you, then they automatically don't like anything that you do. I might not like a person but if what they are doing is dope I can't hate on that.
illRoots.com: I think alot of terms are so overused, Swaggar is confidence thats it. Stop using Swaggar as an excuse not to say meaningful shit.
Theron: Yea, but its like now "He doesn't have any swag though". What the fuck, in my mind I'm like "When did that ever become a necessity. Swag is confidence but its just a reflection of you, so what do you mean he doesn't have any swagger. If a ni**a is being himself then thats all the swagger he needs. They will tell you that "He's not a star, He doesn't have any swag". Get out of here.
illRoots.com: Thats what a bigger entity or company will throw out. He's got lyrics, his songs are good but there is no swag.
Theron: I don't know what swag is because I thought swag was just confidence and I feel like me and my brother have that in what we do. Yet in this business you have to have extra, you have to walk around holding your dick with your chain hanging low and be like "Ni**a ain't nobody fucking with me out here". That's not swag thats arrogance and people constantly confuse the two. My thing is like the way record sales are going and the way things are you have to humble yourself.
illRoots.com: Yea exactly like Jay-Z for example he is at the top of his game but you still see him giving homage, paying his respects to certain people. I mean as much money as LiveNation gave him they should interview that man while he's taking a shit.
Theron: For real, that's real.
Tim: Yea.
illRoots.com: 150 Million dollars, thats A-Rod money, but he's still humble. He is at the top because he makes music he feels and it sells. Why is it that if being yourself sells then if your not yourself. Another thing is we will never know is Stevie Wonder did songs he liked or anybody because yes there has always been business in this but you never know what people are thinking. Pimp C didn't want to do the song with Jay and look it was huge.
Tim: Exactly, we tell everybody we did not want to do "Losing It" at all. We didn't want to sing it. We wrote the song for Trey Songz. Our A&R Erica Grace kept at us for like a month and we were like "Okay, we'll try it". We respect our team and we tried it and we liked it. Honestly she was right. Me and my brother were like we don't know if its first single.
illRoots.com: Thats not even in your power.
Theron: Its not, at the end of the day we picked the record that we feel we liked and you never know whats going to blow for the people to like it or dislike it. We could put "Losing It" out and you could have got on the phone and been like "Man these guys are the worst". Artists are so content on saying "I have a smash", How do you know? Because 10 ni**as in a room said its hot.You are about to play it for millions, you will never know that. Akon didn't know his album was going to do so well.
illRoots.com: Okay well thank you guys so much.
Theron: No thank you Jay, I really wake up and thank god every day to let me make this music and this is my 9-5 job. I wake up and go to the studio and make music for a living. Its all a blessing.
Tim: Yea thanks for the time Jay, anytime.
illRoots.com: These two are extremely talented and need to be recognized for there work. So watch out for them because they are with Akon's people and he will put the right moves behind them.
