R.O.C. (rapper)

R.O.C. (Raps on Contact)^[1] is an American rapper from Detroit, Michigan.^[2] He is a founding member of the group House of Krazees, which was active from 1993 until 1997, when Hektic (Monoxide) and Mr. Bones (Jamie Madrox) left to form Twiztid, whom were subsequently signed to Psychopathic Records.

After performing as the hype man for Blaze Ya Dead Homie,^[3] R.O.C. signed to Hatchet House in 2008. After briefly retiring beginning in 2009, R.O.C. came out of retirement.^[4]

The R.O.C. also has a younger brother names Mr. Y.U.G. (Formerly known as RAGZ), who is a known Detroit artist, and has also been featured on many of his tracks, as well as Cousin Evol of Detroit. ROC has other younger brothers that made music, but were not as involved. Rann, Killjoy (who is in lockdown), and Chosen Blessed who was killed in a shooting. ROC is also cousin of Bamm & Esham (The Boogieman aka The Unholy) through marriage.

Career

R.O.C. first album was released with his cousin Big Father Hightop (Evol of Detroit) & produced by Esham under Strength Productions, titled "Rollin' With Strength" R.O.C., Paul Methric and Jamie Spaniolo formed House of Krazees in 1993.^[5] ROC was first originally the producer of the group and was asked to perform on a couple tracks and it was then decided by Jamie and Paul that he would be the third member, after asked he accepted. House of Krazees' catalog was only released on Compact Cassette until the group signed to Latnem Intertainment.^[6] Problems between House of Krazees and Latnem led the group to leave the label following its 1996 album, Head Trauma.^[6] House of Krazees officially disbanded in 1997, due to conflicts with their manager, Walter Stepanenko (Latnem Int. CEO).^[6][7]The R.O.C changed his rap name to SOL46. Madrox and Monoxide left to join Psychopathic Records in 1998 as Twiztid. Skrapz joined him and they finished HOK's last album 'The Night They Kame Home' and disbanded. After the last HOK album, The ROC formed a group with local Detroit acts known as "The Howse" and released one album, titled Esohpromatem which is Metamorphose backwards. It consisted of three official members and a fourth as a feature. They were The ROC (which he went by for the album), Armageddon, The Beast, and Black Widow (Miz Korona) as the feature. Mr. Vitology of Vitology Music Group produced the album and Beast later joined Detroits IT5 Tribe aka The Indigenous Tribe as Morpheus. The album was also released under HOK's label Latnem Int. After the Howse disbanded and ROC ended his relationship with Latnem Int., ROC aka SOL released another solo album and his only under his second stage name, titled Wormholes. After HOK and The Howse disbanded, SOL and Skrapz formed Halfbreed on their own record label, Virus Independent with label mates Mr. F.Reeze (later Dial81) and brother Mr. Y.U.G. and his group 2winn Gunnz with friend 1-I-Bandit, for five albums. They were Serial Killaz, Killaz of the World (unreleased, later formed half of "The End"), KontamiNATION, Rage of the Plague, and The End. Then later disbaned to pursue different genre's styles. Also signed to the group was supergroup of ROC, YUG, F.R.eeze, and Skrapz was Level Jumpers which also disbanded when Halfbreed ended. YUG left to form record label Welfare Int. & TLG Productions with manager Ed Smash.

R.O.C. later became the hype man for Psychopathic Records artist Blaze Ya Dead Homie.^[3] R.O.C. appears on Blaze's 2007 album Clockwork Gray, on the tracks "Ill Connect", "Inside Looking Out" and "E.O.D." R.O.C. signed to Hatchet House in 2008^[8] and released an EP, Welcome To The Darkside.^[9] In Blaze Ya Dead Homie's pamphlet in Clockwork Gray there was a promotion for a new group formed called Zodiac MPrint featuring R.O.C. and Blaze Ya Dead Homie and their new album titled Horrorscope to be released in 2008. Nothing came of the album, and The R.O.C. left in 2009. Also on Clockwork Gray there was a song by a group called Samhein Witch Killaz composed of Blaze Ya Dead Homie, Twiztid and The R.O.C. They were set to release their debut album titled Bloodletting but after The R.O.C. left Hatchet House the group disbanded. In 2011 on Twiztid's official Twitter account they were asked if Samhein Witch Killaz would ever reform and release another song or their debut album, and the response was "No". Now that Twiztid, Blaze Ya Dead Homie and The R.O.C. are no longer on Psychopathic Records, Samhein Witch Killaz could possibly reform and release their debut album on Twiztid's new record label.

In 2009, R.O.C. announced that he was retiring from music.^[10] In 2012, he came out of retirement and appeared on Prozak's EP Nocturnal, contributing a verse on "Knuckle Up".^[2][4] R.O.C. also appeared on Psychopathic's fourth "Psypher", released in October 2012.^[11] ROC and Skrapz in 2012 have announced that HalfBreed has reunited as well as Level Jumpers with Dial81, there are no details of their next release, only a few released tracks. R.O.C. has said that he will release a solo album titled, Digital Voodoo. R.O.C., Mr. Bones and Hektic revived House of Krazees in early 2013 and were featured on Twiztid's A New Nightmare EP. Also House of Krazees released a greatest hits compilation titled Casket Cutz on October 23, 2013. Since The R.O.C. has returned to music he has been tweeting about bumping rough cuts of new Zodiac MPrint songs on his official Twitter account. Shortly after Zodiac MPrint created their own official Twitter account. They have been dropping hints about their new album, but not saying very much. The name Skywalkers has been talked about a lot. Also Zodiac MPrint was featured on 2 songs (Beware of the Wolf) and (Gettin Wu Wit It) off of Twiztid's 4 Tha Fam Vol. 2 mixxtape which was released on March 27, 2014. The R.O.C. makes his first appearance on a Blaze Ya Dead Homie album for the first time in seven years, it is his first appearance on a Blaze album since Clockwork Gray. It was announced in mid October 2014 through his various social media accounts that The R.O.C. will release a new single titled "Don't Look Behind You" during Twiztid's Fright Fest Tour 2014, but only for October 30, October 31 and November 1 dates. It is speculation that it is his lead single off his upcoming album possibly titled Digital Voodoo, possibly to be released on Majik Ninja Entertainment.

Discography

Solo career

• Rollin' With Strength (1992)^[12]
• X-Posed (1996)^[13]
• Wormholes EP (2001) [As SoL46]
• Bits & Pieces (2004)^[14]
• I'm Here (2005)^[15]
• Oh Hell No! (2006)^[16]
• Welcome To The Darkside (2008)^[9]
• Digital Voodoo (TBA 2015)^[2]

House Of Krazees

• Home Sweet Home (1993)
• Home Bound (1994)
• Season Of The Pumpkin (1994)
• Outbreed (1995)
• Head Trauma (1996)
• Collectors Edition 97 (1997)
• The Night They Came Home (1999)
• Remix & Rewind
• Casket Cutz (2013)

Samhein Witch Killaz

• Bloodletting (Unreleased)

HalfBreed

• Serial Killaz
• Killaz Of The World (Unreleased)
• KontamiNATION
• Rage of The Plague
• The End

The Howse

• Esohpromatem

Level Jumpers

• Simply Complex
• Red Pyramids

Zodiac MPrint

• Skywalkers (2015)

References