2010 Bay Area Freshmen 10 Recap: Roach Gigz - the latest Bay Area rap and hip-hop music

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

2:01PM

« 2010 Bay Area Freshmen 10 Recap: Roach Gigz »

Last one y'all. Stay tuned for the announcement of 2011's Bay Area Freshmen 10. And if you missed any of the previous recap articles and still want to catch up on 2010's Freshman, click here or go to Thizzler.com/BayAreaFreshmen10. I put videos and links to each artist's projects in every article.

Roach Gigz:

When emerging artists are mentioned in the music industry, you often hear that the labels and other executives are looking for “the total package”. Meaning that making good music is important, but do they have the other intangibles? Can they please a diverse audience? What’s their live show like? How do they get along with the media? How do they get along with their fans? etc... Of all the artists in the Freshman 10, the one that comes closest to offering that total package would have to be Roach Gigz.

Lyrically Roach seems to be able to do it all. He’s technically skilled enough and consistent enough to win over hip-hop purists, his music is upbeat and fun enough to have a strong female following, and he has a willingness to get personal and even political at times, which is almost unheard of from most rappers known for making party music. This ability to please such different groups of listener has helped him build a dedicated fan base, and as a result he has enough pull to fill up local venues as a headliner. Additionally, his live performances stand out from those of his peers because of his energy and animation, as well as the crowd’s participation. Roach’s cocky yet good time personality shines through in whatever he does, and over the past year it has done a lot to win over new listeners and critics alike.

Although Roach has been somewhat of a party staple since 2006’s “I Get It” with Lil 4-Tay, 2010 was really the year that Roach solidified his name in the Bay, and started his expansion to the rest of the country. It began with the long awaited, free release of B.I.G.’s first project, From Another, which featured mostly older songs that had yet to see an official release. Shortly afterwards, a gang of solo videos started to drop for Roach’s upcoming Roachy Balboa mixtape/album. According to Gigz, Roachy Balboa was the first solo project that he approached as an album, rather than just a collection of songs, and the end result was major approval from the fans, and attention from some the most influential national music blogs, including Pitchfork and Fader. He followed that success with inclusion on the “Black and Orange” SF Giants anthem, hosting Quit Hatin On The Bay: Recession Proof Edition, and had show stealing features on a lot of people’s projects including Messy Marv’s Thizz City, Young Gully’s The Grant Station Project, and Jay Ant’s All About Being Cool: Fuck It Smile. Then starting right away in 2011, Roach hit fans a little by surprise by dropping Roachy Balboa 2 in January, which continued to build accolades and open new doors for the MC. He then initiated his own meetings with the MTV offices and landed himself on MTV’s Sucker Free TV show, where he repped the Bay stupid hard, got a favorable write up in SF Weekly, and continued to sell out shows locally, in addition to grabbing a spot at SXSW in Austin.

In 2010 Roach had said that he was working on his debut retail album entitled Therapy Sessions. Although there hasn’t been recent word to confirm that this is still his plan, Roach has said on numerous occasions that his goal is to get signed by a major, and bring The Bay Area back to national prominence. If he continues to work all ends of the industry as successfully as he has done up to this point, there is no reason why he shouldn’t be able to achieve that goal.

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