Following a strong start to his year with releases like the superb 41, we were blessed with the opportunity to chat with artist and rapper Verde Rose to find out more about his musical journey and his plans going forward. Here’s how it went.
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Hey – thanks for the interview, great to be able to chat with you! How has 2019 been going so far?
No Problem, I’m always looking for opportunities like this to further my supporters’ knowledge of me. 2019? Lol, this year has to be a spoof! Just playing, if I have to say anything about this year, I’m just paying the last of my dues to finish my preparation for success. I’m dealing with a lot of bad, but you know they say “if everything falls apart it’s only so something new can be built from scratch.”
For those who are new to your work, how would you describe your sound and your approach to making music?
If I honestly had to describe my sound, I couldn’t, I’ve been a big fan of all types of hip hop for about 15 years so there’s really no telling how I’ll come on the track, or what type of song I’ll make. I try to give a lot of variety with my projects so that there’s something for everybody when you review my catalogue. I believe my approach is different than most artists, I write the majority of my songs without a beat and choose the beat afterwards so when I get in the studio I’m already ready to record 100%, sometimes I’ll leave a few blank spots to fill in while recording but majority of the work is done prior to me arriving.
41 is a great track – how did it come to be, and what does it represent for you?
Thank you, it’s funny that you asked that though because I’ve kind of been waiting to tell somebody about it. I WROTE 41 IN JAIL, on my bunk; at the time of me writing it, I was thinking about the original song For Once In My Life by Paul Williams of The Temptations and how it was featured in the movie The Temptations. I made a few jokes to the woman that it’s about that I would sing it at our wedding and that I’d sing it like he did in the movie, that’s why the song fades into that clip at the end of him signing a bit off beat, cause it’s funny but if you haven’t seen the movie you wont really understand. For me it represents a moment of happiness in a less fortunate situation and a time capsule, I wrote it to be timeless as the original song and the sampled – Real Love by Mary J. Blige.
What about your latest release Lajit – what do you hope people take away from this one?
Lajit is one of the “hardest” songs I’ve ever recorded, it’s old though, like 2015 and it’s actually the title track of my album. I try to keep it public because if I perform anything to get people’s attention, it’ll be that. Nowadays people are looking for that type of music. I don’t really know what they’ll take from it, I hope they take some knowledge or can listen and look back on it when their reality sits and say, “Verde told me this would happen” because sometimes you gotta just sow the seed, the tree might not grow for many years.
You get pretty personal in your bars, do you always write from experience, and do you ever worry about revealing too much of yourself in your art?
Always experience, my reality, current or former situation; I’m the eldest male in my family so all of my siblings are younger, I speak from that perspective of an older brother with hopes that you don’t make the same mistakes as me. Like so they can say, “My brother already told me how this will end up, I don’t have to deal with it and if I do have to deal with it, I ‘m prepared to.” I come from a different life, and a lot of people from my life don’t tell you the full story, they only share the glamour with you and have no remorse when it doesn’t work quite as well for you as it did them.
What is it about hip hop that draws such passion from you?
I don’t really have much of passion for anything, I told this story in a previous interview, so I’ll just quote my answer from there, “That’s really a crazy story, for years I wouldn’t talk about it for fear of “jinxing” it in a sense, but since it’s years after the deadline then I guess I’ll share it here in my first ever interview.
Not many people will believe this cause they don’t believe in anything but one day at a random church at the age of 21 a guest speaker prophesied to me and told me by the time I was 25 that I’d be “bigger than Tyler Perry.” I originally was angry that he was speaking to me so loudly, saying so many personal things about me in front of all of those strangers, but that’s one of the main reasons I took it serious, he knew so many things about me that I never shared with anyone else.
Long story short, from then on I had to figure out exactly how I wanted to bring that prophecy into fruition and was left with two options, to do it with music or stay in the business that I was in. While being a devout believer and follower of Christ and feeling that the prophecy would come true one way or another, I decided to try it with music because the only feasible means of me obtaining that in my other business was being on the America’s Most Wanted list, which I figured I was fully capable of by the age of 25 at the pace I was going.
How do you decide which producers to work with?
As I mentioned above, I choose my beats after I write my lyrics and it actually makes it very difficult because I have to be able to say what I said in writing the way that I want to say it on the beat. I sit for hours and go through beats, I have thousands just sitting in my email or on my computer. As of recently, I try to only work with producers that support the artist equally – when I first started my career I was more interested in working with bigger producers, but they don’t support much. You might get a better quality from them, but they don’t let you into their network, so you really are better off shopping with producers that are eager to work with you more than someone who doesn’t need it.
Is live performance an important part of your plans?
When I first started my career I was really eager to get on stage, I even put a small tour together in preparation for the album, but I grew tired of only being able to perform one song when I have at least six that I feel you need to hear, so I haven’t done any shows in a while. I reached out to a few people last year to see if I could possibly get some thirty minute slots versus the usual five minutes and I didn’t have much luck. I don’t really know how I’m gonna handle it, but I believe when it’s time the right opportunity will present itself to me.
What’s the live scene like where you are?
I live in Atlanta, Georgia, there’s always an opportunity to perform here. You could probably do a show every day of the week if you wanted to. Some are free, some you have to pay for. Since we’re such a big city, a lot of opportunity comes through here. If there’s a major showcase group, they’ll stop here and open their stage for us. Or, even other artists, there’s always another show here that you could possibly open for. We even have a music festival called A3C that comes every October, so if you’re able and willing you can always perform.
What do you hope to put in motion throughout the rest of the year as an artist?
I don’t know, I’m already behind for the year. Like I was saying on my live video last night, I intended to release an EP in January, a mixtape in February, and follow with my album on the 22nd of this month, but I never got to record the EP or mixtape so I’m just holding my album tight until I feel that I’m where I need to be to release it. I put a lot of work into it so I don’t want that to go to waste.
If anything, this year I’m just building my name more, trying to get on as many blogs and independent radio stations as possible. This might be my last “for read” interview, I don’t want anybody to get tired of them. I can’t say what the future holds, but as I said above, when the time is right, everything will fall into its proper place.
If you could collaborate with anyone at all, past or present, who would you choose – and why?
That’s a difficult question, it really would depend on what I aimed to accomplish from the song. I think right now, just because I’m in dire need of more listeners, I’d have to pick the biggest artist in hip hop for the song – which is Jay-Z. Since he doesn’t do many verses, he has hundreds of thousands of people that are gonna find whatever song he’s on and make sure they play it a hundred times until they know all the words. Sometimes all it takes is an opportunity like that to solidify a career.
But, if I was just basing my choice off of who I like right now, it’s an artist named Sampha from The UK – I really enjoy his music, it’s a bit therapeutic for me. I would love to work with him. I have a few other choices just from being fans of those guys; J Cole, 21 Savage, VL Deck, Future, Ludacris, Youngboy Never Broke Again, Kevin Gates, Yo Gotti to name a few!
Is there anything else we should know?
I think I’ve said more than enough, but I’ll type some more any ways; PRAYHARD AND HUCCLEHARD – (Positivity Revolves Around You, Helping After Reformative Detours and Hungry Unique Chess Club Lieutenants Exercising Humility and Real Dedication) are the only movements I’m directly involved with, I belong to no other entities outside of those except Chess Club which is a part of HuCCle Hard.
My name is Verde Rose, pronounced = [beɾ.ðe]. It means GREEN IN SPANISH, so my name is “green rose,” that makes me a color and not a human. I’m always with you, even when my physical form isn’t, because I’m a color, I’m green – green is me. Also, St. Patrick’s Day is this weekend, remember to wear green or get pinched, it’s been that way your whole life.
Thanks for your time, you can follow me on Instagram @PRAYHARDvee, but I can’t follow back because my account has been frozen since last year, and I just made a new Twitter because they deleted my other one @Spinktut. My Facebook is Verde Rose, but I don’t use it much. Also, you can find me on Soundcloud – Verde Rose; thanks for your time!
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A big thank you to Verde Rose for his time & insight. Find & follow him on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
