Romey-Rome

Big Dogg Records

Romey Rome knows a little something about what it means to hustle. He tightened up his game on the East Cleveland streets, a rough section of the sleepy Midwest steel-producing city where folks struggle to pull up out of the trenches that make up the neighborhood block, where the drugs... Read More

Romey Rome knows a little something about what it means to hustle.

He tightened up his game on the East Cleveland streets, a rough section of the sleepy Midwest steel-producing city where folks struggle to pull up out of the trenches that make up the neighborhood block, where the drugs and crime is a deterrent to living a clean life, and opportunities are slim. Folks are hard, but real, all frills aside and when it's time to party, it's time to "Get Your Bounce On", a theme that manifests on Romey's new album Rome Wasn't Built in a Day (Big Dogg Records).

"I represent struggle and striving to do better," says lyricist Romey Rome. His delivery is viciously raw, but edged with that hard-working Midwestern mentality, of do what you have to get on, defying the odds at all costs, but remembering what pushed you to get there in the first place. Balling for a better way of life, so to speak, where making it means paying dues. Romey's about doing things the hard way.

He's been around for more than a minute. His talent put him on the map with his first release The Slick, The Sly and The Wicked. "Bounce with Me" was an instant hit, a club banger that blew up on the Cleveland airwaves, a town with a formidable musical genes, spawning soul sensations the O'Jays and hip hop's unsung hero producer, Bone Thugs n' Harmony.

In 2000, he released his second album Come On In on his own Indo-pendent Records with executive producer Alan Steplight. MC Breed stepped in on "Life is What You Make It" and Bushwick Bill of Ghetto Boy's glory on "Hang 'em High."

Romey's new album, appropriately titled Rome Wasn't Built in a Day,ups the stakes, with Romey Rome's natural flow and propensity for telling it like it is -- rolling with the challenges and making life what you make of it.

"Gotta Get Mine" says it clearly. The break away single teams him up with the likes of Lil Flip, a match up that balances Romey's even-toned, rolling flow with Flip's southern speak and Dirty Redd bringing the drama on the beats, with strings to the boot.

"East Cleveland it's a little small city. Its drug infested with a lot of murders. I'm from the streets. I used to hustle. I grew up like everybody else," he says. "You gotta mature; you gotta to do somethin' positive."

Romey's matter of fact of ways bleed forth in his honest delivery. "It Takes Everything You Got" borrows from everyone's favorite television classic theme song, the simple Cheers melody but with a whole new twist from producer, as Romey plants lines to ponder: "I wasn't born, I collided with life/Head on collision like a drunk holdin' his bottle too tight."

It took more than a day indeed, but Romey Rome has worked it out and built up an armory for survival in the hip hop game -- hard, intense, and with that hones Cleveland soul that comes across in undeniable message that show's no sign of slowing. The struggle continues. Romey Rome done built it.