Send "Roach Gigz " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 It's easy to forget, as Eminem wrestles with turgid seriousness and Lil Wayne with drug-fueled hubris, that the reason both rappers connected with so many people in the first place was because they were so much fun. Bay area rapper Roach Gigz is clearly influenced-- as he'll admit-- by both artists, as well as by his spiritual inspiration, Mac Dre. But unlike so many rappers whose influences become oppressively imitative, Roach Gigz effectively captures the masters' irreverent best by simply being himself. His new mixtape, Roachy Balboa, is one of the most energetically fun rap records released this year.His rapping has a muscular dexterity that sounds instinctively balanced between acrobatic rap style-- this is unquestionably a rap fan's rap record-- and keeping things interesting. Every track seems to follow this labyrinthine ADD logic, sinewy flow interlocking off-the-cuff thoughts with irreverent joie de vivre. His grimy humor helps to ground the uncapped mania of spirit. The beats largely reflect this feel, madcap rapidfire high-pitched vocal samples over unhinged and busy treble-friendly production. The tracks that stand out the most work against the grain; "Goomba Pimpin", for example, relies on slow, low-slung warped-bass sonics. It also kicks off with a hint at the creativity behind the writing process. Beginning with a classic writer's block story track conceit ("So I was pickin' the vegetables out my cup of noodles"), the first verse travels a meandering path before resolving itself in an unrelated direction: "Took a piss on the block/ Now I got a court date, man I hate the cops/ True story." Ultimately what makes this record so good, though, is that Roach Gigz is simply a charismatic, likable guy, and that this personality really comes through in his music. He hints at some raw currents of paranoia and griminess, some nihilistic humor, the kind of thing that used to catch rappers headlines, but the rapper's emphasis on realism means this hip-hop shock-humor is relegated to a single color in his overall approach. He also drops too many lines that belie some sense of morality, that make it clear he's got a purpose and a story to tell, to be too much of a hip-hop loose cannon. Not to undersell Roach Gigz' crazy-living bona fides; the guy is only 22, and this record sounds like it, the echoes of teenage delinquency still rattling around in his brain....full text |
| Southernhospitality |
| After months upon months of writing about and listening to dope tracks upon insanely dope tracks from the recently ranked top 10 Bay Area freshman Roach Gigz, Southern Hospitality finally caught up with San Francisco’s elastic vocalled emcee about his life, lifestyle and music: Enter Planet Roach… First of all, shout out to Southern Hospitality, the UK and every single person around the world who listens to Roach Gigz, I love it, thank you. Can you break down the name Roach Gigz for us? What’s the story behind it? When you’re born at home in your apartment that’s just what happens – my mom named me after the first thing she saw at the moment. Nah, I’m playing. I don’t remember exactly when, my memory likes to take days off work, but I know it was definitely the homies that started calling me Roach. I want to believe it’s because one time I was hittin’ the dubee stupid hard and I swallowed the whole thing, burnt my throat and shit, true story, but really it was from Next Friday and the character Roach. You know, the white boy who fed all the weed brownies to the dog. He was just cool as fuck, and didn’t really give a fuck, and that was me at the time. Plus I was like the only one around who wasn’t black, it just lightweight stuck. And then Gigz, I was just on that Mac Dre shit heavy, and I used to be at all the functions hittin’ it, and people knew me from that, well at least in the city they did. So somewhere along the line Gigz got added, but I don’t really dance all like that no more, so I’m thinking I should just keep it at Roach G, what you think? Where in San Francisco did you come up? And what was life like for you growing up? I rep for the whole seven square miles of this mothafucka man. Born and raised. I’ve stayed all around the city, so the whole San Fransisco is where I came up at, but the ‘Moe will always be where my heart’s at. At first it was just me and moms, no dad, didn’t even meet him ’til I was seven or eight. As I got older I started goin’ through and seeing all the regular bullshit, friends getting shot, police constantly fuckin’ with us, and everything else you can think of that I’m not gon’ mention. When I was a teenager I was doing a lot of the shit my moms could have never imagined or wanted for me, the stuff that kept her up at night and got her paranoid when the phone rang late. See my mom is a smart woman, and she pushed education tough and always tried to expose me to different things, so I always did good in school because I would never feel right letting her down. But after school I was right back to being a little hoodlum. I’m a product of all that. You bring a lot of colour to the game and you’re always refreshingly animated, something that was certainly a characteristic of the late Mac Dre – do you try to keep your music as upbeat as possible? It ain’t on purpose, like I think my mind works differently or something, I don’t know, and I guess that comes out in the music. Like my last tattoo was the whole alphabet scattered on my forearm. And when I got it I was thinking, people always ask what my tattoos say, next time they ask me, I’m going to tell them, ‘whatever the fuck you want it to’. And that’s kind of my approach to music too. I can’t choose what song gets popular, it’s the streets and internet that take it how they want it and choose the song that’s going to blow up and everybody is going to start slappin’. I mean, I got other shit too, one of my favorite songs is also my mom’s all time favorite song of mine, it’s called ‘Freezin” with Lil 4, and that’s on a complete different hype. So I got that shit too, people just gotta go on Google and search for them or whatever they do, I don’t even got a copy of all my songs anymore. But the simplest and truest answer to your question is, I don’t try anything, what people hear is just what comes out of me at that particular moment, and I’m just happy people fuck wit it....full text |
| Somanyshrimp |
| The Roachy Balboa tape has been making the rounds and if by now you haven’t downloaded it you need to stop being lazy and check that shit. Dude comes with that freewheeling high pitched delivery that just kind drifts from peaks to cracks as he rides through beats. There are plenty of raps about girls/pussy which I usually get tired of but when he comes with joints like Let Me Breath I can fuck with it, that universal frustration of being smothered. Roachy Balboa is definitely the most consistent of the Roach Gigz mixtapes, not as hype as Bitch I Go, but it’s more focused and the themes are more cohesive. This shit is way more polished that Buckets and Booty Calls. One joint I didn’t upload but probably should have was Goomba Pimpin, that fucking beat is just this grinding slumper that just creeps along stretching out this dark bass that is barely holding on from becoming just static. I don’t know who produced this shit or who is even doing beats for Roach but he’s getting some heat. Right now most as far as young talent goes San Francisco has been a ghost town compared to the Eastbay, filled with terrible raps from dudes who think standing on York means you can drop a tape full of generic done to death mob shit. Roach gives me some hope that this city’s youth can still crank out some dope shit. Anyways peep the two songs below or just man the fuck up and download it straight from his site Roach Gigz – Let Me Breath Roach Gigz – Respect It...full text |
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