For many of us in the music scene here in Detroit, we knew hip-hop artist Ro Spit before by a few other names - DJ Phrikshun, Octane, or even his real name Roland Coit. Starting off in hip-hop as the DJ for the Subterraneous crew, Ro Spit would eventually come out from behind the decks after years of honing his craft on the mic. Before the Ro Spit moniker would come to fruition, there were times when the Pontiac-born emcee felt like things were not moving fast enough.
Ro Spit's life as an emcee would eventually take a turn for the better once he invested in and reinvented the Burn Rubber Sneaker Boutique in 2007, along with his business partner Rick Williams, into what is now a global brand, and this would open up a whole new audience for Ro Spit the music artist.
Ro Spit just released his newest album titled I.V. Life, a play on the Indian Village neighborhood in Pontiac he grew up in. Recently, I met up with Ro Spit at Burn Rubber's new location on Main Street in Royal Oak and we talked about the new album along with his career in hip hop and fashion.
What's the overall theme of the album?
What I wanted to put into the album was me, where I come from, why I am the way I am. It's like that kid from the west side of Pontiac that didn't get caught up in the "non-sense", the kid that sees the light and is trying to make it out. That's all I wanted to represent with this album.
How much of a struggle was it to be that kid that didn't get caught up in the non-sense?
To be completely honest, it wasn't a struggle. When you're authentic and when you are who you are, people can't really hate on that, people can't discredit that unless they are just bullies. I was never a drug dealer. I was never a goon or a thug. I knew those people, but I veered away from those people because I could see the things that were going on. It's one of those things, where I'm from, where most neighborhoods like where I'm from, as long as you're authentic and real with what you are and you're not trying to be anything else other than that, you usually don't have such a hard time. Then, I had older cousins and family members in the area that were respected. I never really had many problems in that sense.
I've known you since you were DJing as Phrikshun with Subterraneous. What sticks out about those times?
Just how free it was and just making music and really having fun. The thing about those times, at that time, those were my favorite emcees period on the planet. You, as the listener, or whatever may never heard of Majestik Legend, you may have never heard of Illite, you may have never heard of Kodak. To me, it was like forgot Jay-Z, forget what Nas is talking about, these are the people. All that time, I've always wanted to be an emcee, but I this thing with stage fright and just being up in front of people in public speaking. When my cousin Lo got out of jail, I was thinking how I could be a part of this movement and this wave without standing up on stage talking. DJing; that's a way I can speak and having an outlet without actually saying words. My whole thing from the first time I got up there and started DJing was to get comfortable enough to where I could grab and start screaming like Kid Capri and DJ Clue, and then get comfortable enough to step out in front of it and let somebody else take that over. My main goal from day one was to be an emcee, but that was the process I took to get to it. Luckily, I became I good DJ in that so I developed a skill. I was able to see money off it. From the Slum Village tour when I went to Europe, I was able to go because I DJ'd for them.
How long did it take to get comfortable?
It was a few years, maybe a year and half. My first DJ gig, it was crazy. It was my first show. It was at First Ave in Minnesota, where they shot Purple Rain. My first show at First Ave and it was a Sub show. It was probably the first show I ever DJ'd for the Sub. It was sold out. It was like a thousand plus people there. I had to go on first of course. It was like real DJing with the records marked. I was bringing stuff in beats in before they started rapping. I got up there and my hand was shaking, it was unbelievable. I had to drop the needle and bump it to where it was supposed to go. So as I juggle-juggle all my jitters went away and I've never been nervous on stage after that point. The show went perfect. Probably a year after that, I was free styling with my college roommates. Lo walked in, my back was turned to the door, and I'm free styling going crazy, and he walked there and just sat there for 10-15 minutes while I'm rapping. He's like "Yo what you doing?!?" Nobody knew, except for my friends. He was like "I get that you might not feel that you are not ready to rap with us, but we have something going and you're in a dorm room rapping with these guys. Why not do that over here and help push what we're doing over here?" That's all I needed. When he told he thought I was dope and I should keep going, and Decompoze told me I was dope and I should keep going, that's all I needed. At that point, I started rapping.
Was Octane and Illite your first project?
That was the first one. I got with Illite because Illite was my favorite out of everybody. Lo always has that position as one of my favorite emcees of all time but at that time, Illite is the dopest rapper on the planet. We would talk and he was like we should start doing songs together. Man I'm not really ready. Then I was thinking like if he's my favorite and I feel he's the best, if I can like go back and forth with him, put me against anybody. That's how it was and we just had this crazy chemistry.
What did you learn from that experience?
Realistically, I never really wanted to be a solo artist. I had every intention on always in a group. I just learn that when your vibing with somebody and gelling with somebody, take pure advantage of that 100%. Milk it for what its worth because a lot of the times when its gone, its hard to get back. We were doing songs, like one song a night. What we would do is, we got a beat that we both enjoyed or both liked, if our part on that song wasn't done in 24 hours, we scrapped it. That's how all that music came.
After that, what was the next thing you did?
We rolled that project for some years. After that, we got Burn Rubber. What is was, with Burn Rubber, I saw that it was a whole different age group of people that normally wouldn't pay attention to an artist like me, that because of these sneakers, I got their attention. That's when Finally Famous, Jay John, Big Sean, Wright Trax, all those dudes were just chilling at the store, just around the store. I just started making music with the people I was cool with and hanging at the time. The first thing I did after that was the Burn Rubber Mixtape. Just being those two-three "genres" of Detroit hip-hop together in one place and it was dope. At that time, the buzz behind Burn Rubber was so crazy, like anything we did at that time people were paying attention to.
Going into the Burn Rubber situation, what were you guys trying to do?
Honestly, we were just trying to have a place where we didn't have to feel like we were going to work and are able to support our families. That was it. Of course, you think overall, we want to be as big as Foot Locker one day. We want to be worldwide known, but until you are in the mix of it and see certain things happening and realizing that it can happen and I didn't even try. The first real notoriety that we got was Big Sean was in the store like on a Tuesday and we just got in our Burn Rubber hats, the first one with the full chef. Marv came in and Sean came in and they had actually bought hats. He was like 'I'm going to MTV'. We weren't really paying attention to what he was saying. He was like on MTV Japan or Europe, he went out with Kanye, Pharrell, and he wore our hat. Like damn, dude is in Japan and people in Japan is going to see it, hopefully like it, and never know one day. That was the first thing we saw that it was like this is huge.
How does Burn Rubber fit into the fashion game?
As humble as I can say, a lot of people are relevant, doing things because of what we did. We were on the forefront and people saying, 'Damn if they can do it'. Then you start seeing other brands and other store opening up, and people doing things. A lot of those people would come over to here to Burn Rubber and sit and talk to us for hours on hours, whether I was from the music side of things to the fashion side of things.
Ro Spit's new album "I.V. Life" is available now. For more information, visit rospit.com.