Artist Biography:
Rocky City (Minneapolis)
By Kandis Knight
Rocky a.k.a Rock City, grew up on the south side of Minneapolis, MN. His sound is uniquely different from that of his fellow Midwestern peers. Many people know him for his drive and hustle. "A beat should take an artist on a journey. I want people to feel my music before an artist puts lyrics to it," says the young producer.
As a child, Rock City’s musical ear and talent for using sounds was noticed by many and it developed into his lifelong passion for making music. At the age of 10, Rock City began teaching himself how to play the keyboard, key by key, until he perfected his skill. Rock City was eventually involved in jazz band, he learned drums and percussion while in Church.
In the 8th grade, other students watched Rock City's musical talent flourish. He became a popular member on the drum line and eventually started teaching his fellow classmates how to play various instruments. Rock City also made a hobby out of writing music, this only added to his multifaceted background.
As a teen, Rock City learned how to create his own beats, from rap songs and television shows and was extremely passionate about orchestras. As a High School student, Rock City began marketing and street promotions with a Minneapolis based entertainment company called The Pharohs Entertainment.
By grinding hard and proving himself loyal, the company invested in studio equipment so Rock City could pursue his musical passion. Today, Rock City has produced numerous albums and songs. Including Rocky Vol.1 a producers mixtape with acapellas featuring Jay-Z, Nelly, Lil' Flip, MOP.
The success of Rock City Vol. 1 caused Minneapolis to quickly warm up to the young producer. Instantly his telephone phone started ringing. Everyone wanted a Rock City beat. In less than 12 months every track from Rocky Vol. 1 was sold and Rock City’s talent caught the attention of an A&R from Interscope, who seeks out tracks from Rock City to this day.
Recently, Rock City signed a deal as inhouse producer with Minnesota Timberwolves Troy Hudson "T-Hud" who recently started an independent record label, Nutty Boyz Entertainment. Rock City has since helped to secure features for T-Hud including 36 Mafia, Freeway, David Banner, UGK, and Trick Daddy.
T-Hud’s album Drafted is set to drop July 17th, 2007 distributedby EMI/Capitol Records.
The Minneapolis City Pages recently wrote up Rock City’s latest production, Rocky vs. FiC, which received great reviews. FIC (Rapper/MC) who Rocky battled on this project with his tracks, caught the attention of a Rocafella Recording Artist Freeway. Freeway heard a track entitled Beat Bang and immediately wanted to hit the studio and do a remix.
After the Freeway’s remix released the entire Twin Cities was cheering for Rock City as the hometown’s most adored producer. The Beat Bang project led to Rock City’s second project entitled Who Made the Beat Bang featuring a musical mixture of industry accapellas from Lupe Fiasco, Cam'ron, Young Buck, Bubba Sparxx and also highlighted local Twin Cities talent such as, Street Kingz (Featured in Cocaine City and Ozone Magazine), T-Hud (Troy Hudson of the MN Timberwolves, Nutty Boyz Ent), and FiC with a track from Memphis Bleek.
Rock City landed his 1st album placement his year with Def Jam/DTP Recording artist Small World, whose album is slated to drop September 18th 2007.
Musical Influences: Neptunes, Justblaze, Timbaland, scott storch, Dre, and Hi-tek i guess who ever is popping at the time.
Equipment used: Protools, Acid 4.0, MPC 1000, sample cd's, TritonKeyboard Fantom, Stanton turntable, and live instruments.
Discography:
-Rocky Vol. 1 (all tracks produced by Rock City)
-Rocky vs. FiC (all tracks produced by Rock City)
-Who Made the Beat Bang vol. 1 (all tracks produced by Rock City)
Produced by Rockcity:
-FiC ft. Freeway,
Beat Bang (remix)
-FiC ft. Memphis Bleek,
Timing-Chuck Wooley ft. Freeway,
Out-T-Hud ft. UGK,
Good Weather Music-T-Hud ft. 36 Mafia,
Accolates:
Gangsta Awards Producer of the Year,
Twin Cities Hip-Hop Awards 2006 Producer of the Year,
KMOJ 2006 Song of the Year, "I Rep MN" produced by Rockcity, Twin Hip-Hop Awards
No comments:
Post a Comment