Rome Streetz Defines His Own Rap Success With ‘Noise Kandy 5’ – Rolling Stone

Robert Adam Mayer*

Brooklyn-based MC Rome Streetz is handling business on a brisk fall Friday before he heads off to Vienna, Austria to begin his international Noise Kandy 5 tour. Clad in a sleek Sergio Tachinni sweatsuit, the Griselda signee visits the Rolling Stone offices for an interview where he says that the European tour will include his first time visiting the actual Rome streets, an inception-type moment that he’s planning to document with video. 

Rome was born in London, but his family moved to New York City when he was an infant (he later spent time as a teenager in London). He started rapping at an early age, though he’s said that being in the streets and living the life reflected in his gritty raps led to the “ups and downs” of jail time that hindered his career. Eventually, he gave rap his full attention. His rap name is in part a reference to roaming through the New York streets looking for ciphers and battles to hone his skills. 

“A lot of the shit that I went through, it wasn’t presented to me. I had to take it,” he reflects. In 2019 he dropped Noise Kandy 3, which helped him gain the attention of Westside Gunn. Two more stellar releases (2019’s Joyeria and 2021’s Death & The Magician with DJ Muggs) led to the Griselda deal and Kiss The Ring, which made #23 on our Best Rap Albums of 2022 list. His diehard fans had already known him as a razor-sharp MC true to the essence of New York’s ‘90s golden era of street knowledge, but songs like “In Too Deep” and “Big Steppas” helped him reach a wider audience in America and beyond. 

Now he’s dropping Noise Kandy 5, a batch of songs mostly recorded in 2020. He says the Noise Kandy series is meant to showcase “lyrical architecture.” “When I was making Noise Kandy 3, the whole mentality behind it was ‘Nah, these niggas not paying attention,’” he says. “So this is me spitting the hardest shit I can. Noise Kandy doesn’t have a theme. [When I’m focused on] appealing to the masses, and [rounding] out my music to make it more [relatable] to everybody, I might change a couple of words. I might not be so cryptic with what I’m saying. With Noise Kandy, it’s like, “I don’t give a fuck.”

That vibe is apparent throughout the album. He’s getting his bars off over face-scrunching samples like “Chrome Magnum” and “Fire At Ya Idle Mind” (with Joey Bada$$). But he’s also re-exploring trap on songs like “Pocket Full Of Beans” and “Shake & Bake.” He says he included those songs in an attempt to broaden his audience and his live show experience. “Sometimes when you’re an artist who just makes songs and puts them out, you don’t understand the way music hits people live,” he says. “Trap music has a different effect on the crowd. You perform it differently. It comes with a different energy.”

Rome says the response to Kiss The Ring has made him slow down from his previously prolific release schedule. He’s been working on four projects over the past year or so (with producers Daringer, Conductor Williams, Futurewave, and DJ Muggs), but he plans to be discerning about how he rolls them out to maximize the cultural resonance of each one. Another upcoming project, Buck 50 with go-to producer Wavy da Ghawd, will be a 12-minute, one-track project that he plans to sell on razor-shaped vinyl. “People don’t do shaped vinyl,” he concludes. “All the vinyls are circled [and] colorful, but if I do a razor blade, people are going to lose their fucking mind [like], “’Whoa. I don’t even give a fuck what’s on it, I just want it.’”

Along with his rap success, he’s building up his Influence Enterprise label, where Chyna Streetz and Ox Omni are signees. He tells me his role as a “greaseball stick-up-kid drug dealer nigga” in Westside Gunn’s Adolf film made him want to take on more acting (with more challenging roles). He also wants to start his own vinyl distribution company. Indie rappers like Rome are already cutting out the middleman by selling vinyl directly to consumers, but owning the means of production is full-scale independence that Marx himself would stamp. 

“A lot of people who are [still] outside the underground Hip-Hop scene, and want to get into it, they’re mostly trying to figure out how they fit into this shit,” he says. “I’m at the point where I’m trying to stand out. I don’t want to fit into nothing. I want to do some shit that ain’t nobody ever did before.” 

We talked to Rome about his recent success, acting, and how, “I’ll be doing this [rap] shit until I can’t even fucking talk.”

You have a lot of different album series. What made Noise Kandy the one you wanted to re-explore?
I created Noise Kandy [as] a prelude to something bigger. Back in the day, the artist would drop a mixtape before the album came out. I came up off the mixtape era where a lot of the critically acclaimed shit is like Lil Wayne’s [Drought series]. It’s like, “You know what? Let me make my own series.” 

Whenever people [are] like, “Yo, what’s your favorite Rome Streetz album?” They always mention Noise Kandy 3. I’m like, “Noise Kandy got to be something that I continue to do.” So, I was like, “You know what? Fuck it. I’m going to do 5, but this going to be the last one [and] I’m going to take my time with it.” This shit was supposed to come out before Kiss the Ring. But I thought the Griselda album was going to come out earlier than it did.

I didn’t put nothing out [recently] because I know how the anticipation is. There was a time I was dropping a tape every three months. But then it’s like, okay, one year, I don’t put out nothing, but they know I’m working on something. I was working on [this] through the time. Once I did the Griselda album, I got bigger. So now, I have more connections to people: Different artists, different producers [who] I could throw in the mix.

Sometimes in an artist’s career, it’s like, “I made this song two years ago.” It may not be in your mind because it’s old. But it’s brand new to the fans. I realize that I make music that’s not stuck on a time. That’s why I like the type of shit we do. Mainstream music is trendy; the shit that was popping last year, nobody listening to that shit this year. Whereas this shit, it don’t get old. If it’s fire, it’s fire. 

A lot of the artists I’ve talked to, they’re like, “Yeah, this is from 2020.” It seems like that period of everybody being in the house shaped so much of music probably for the next decade. In a way that other decades didn’t experience.
The pandemic allowed me to supremely focus on doing music [with] no distraction. I started recording in the house. Once I got that part down it was over because I can wake up in the morning with a fresh thought, and record it right now. [During the] pandemic, it wasn’t nothing going on. I made so much fucking music that didn’t even come out yet. All the music that you heard me put out, I made that shit in my crib. The whole Kiss The Ring was made in my living room. It’s probably four or five songs that I did in the studio with West, but the majority of that shit, I recorded myself.

I’ve read where you said you feel like you could do even better shit than Kiss The Ring. At your caliber, what does getting better look like?
One thing that I admire artistically is some shit like Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d City, but it’s a whole album with a story about one thing. I make a lot of story songs. One thing people always say [about] artists in the underground, is they don’t make story songs. So I make it my point to try to put at least one song that has a story element on everything that I do. But one of my ultimate aims is to make a whole album full of stories that intertwine with each other. But that’s some real deep author shit. You got to brainstorm that before you even start rhyming.

That’s the next level of being nice. When I first started rapping, I used to write long ass verses. It’s like, “Damn, I need to get good at writing songs.” Then one of my other friends, that motherfucker can make ill-ass hooks. So I’m like, “Damn, I need to be able to make good hooks like this motherfucker.” [Now] it’s like, “I want to make good albums.” There’s no end to this shit. There’s no finish line.

Of the four projects you mentioned working on, do you feel like any of those are particularly outside the box?
Yeah, but not all the way there. All these albums have a version of my level up, but I want this one album to be a whole next level. Noise Kandy 5 got some different [songs] on there. I got more bouncy trap songs on there. Even though I always used to make them, once I started to catch traction, I wasn’t because that’s not what I got lit for. But it’s like, if I catch fire doing this, I can bring people into my world and give them what I want.

When we talk about getting bigger in terms of reaching more fans, that’s one thing. But then when it comes to the Grammys, topping the Billboard charts, how much do you care about those accolades?
I’m not going to say I don’t care about it because if I got this shit, hell yeah, I’d love it, but that’s not my aim. I want people to like my shit. I want it to hit who it’s for. And if it goes where it goes, then cool. But I don’t set out to make music for that because I know a hundred people that’s been trying to make this one [hit] song for 10 years and they ain’t nowhere. Make what you love and the people going to love it. Music that I made in my fucking living room got me here. This is the accolade for me right here.

Have you thought about how you’ll pace the release schedule for those albums?
Less is more. I seen how much Kiss The Ring resonated when I left it. So with these four projects, I might drop one in January, the other one in November to let them shits live. Before I was who I was, I couldn’t maximize the album the way I needed to as far as putting the album out, touring, and doing a bunch of videos. All that shit either cost money or nobody was trying to put me on a tour. 

How long do you see yourself rapping?
I’ll be doing this shit until I can’t even fucking talk. Rapping is about life experience. With me, I’m like a sponge. When the sponge is dry, I got to go absorb things. I got to go live. I got to go have some experiences to write about. But I also have in mind like, when you a rapper, the first chance you get to create something outside of rap that can work for you, you need to. So I got into acting and I really like that shit now. If I ain’t rapping, I’m going to do some movies. I’m going to act because I got a knack for it. If I could rap till I’m 70, yeah, I would. But I know I could act at 70. I could be a 70-year-old actor. I might be able to physically rap at 70, but I might not have the energy to tour. But I bet y’all [will] sit down and watch a movie. 

What kind of roles would you do ideally?
I like to challenge myself. Let me play fuckin’ Tito Jackson [in a] biopic [laughs]. Do some farfetched shit. It’s like, “Okay, you’re going to play a drug dealer.” Like, bro, that’s mad cliche. I don’t even have to act to do that. Let me be fuckin’ Stevie Wonder in a movie. Because at the end of the day, you can’t grow being stuck in your comfort zone. You’re never going to elevate. There’s no electricity to make you jump out of your body and do something you never did before. I want to be uncomfortable. Give me an uncomfortable role to act in, where I feel like, “Shit, I might need to take a class.”

How do you feel about the response to Kiss The Ring?
That shit is dope. I knew what was going to happen because Griselda is the biggest shit in this. I been putting out albums, but I feel like this was a historical event. I know mad people listen to Griselda. So it’s like, “Okay, now I got to make my mark.” I knew I had to be the best that I ever been, but I also knew how much things would change. I knew it would get more people on me. I embrace it because this is what I wanted to do. This all comes with it. 

How do you feel when people are just getting put onto you and they’re like, “Kiss The Ring is fire, Noise Kandy 3 is fire.” But you’re like, “I’ve been on this. This ain’t my first project?”
People are finding out about me every day. I got so much shit out that it’s like, you can never control what the first thing somebody heard from you [is]. I understand how Kiss the Ring could be the first project that somebody’s heard from me because this is the one that’s been on most platforms that get the most views. At first I used to be like, “I’ve been putting out shit,” but everybody moves at their own time. If people only heard Kiss The Ring, I ain’t mad. That’s a good first listen. 

How did “Fire At Your Idle Mind” come together with Joey Bada$$?
My manager [Coach Bombay 3000] knows Joey. I sent it to Ransom [originally], but he didn’t see it [in his email]. [Then I thought about] Conway, but at the time he broke his leg. So it was like, “Damn, can’t get Conway.” He was like, “Yo, what about Joey Bada$$?” And I’m like, I wouldn’t mind, honestly, because a lot of fans be like, yo, “y’all got to do something.” The same day [Coach] was like, “Yeah, he said he fucking with it.” Then three days later, he’s like, “Yo, [Joey] sent the verse back.” I’m like, “Oh, that’s fire.” And he’s like, “Yo, you want to do a video?” I’m like, “Hell yeah.” And that shit happened like that

Who are the artists and producers that you would love to do projects with that you haven’t already?
I would love to do an album with Alchemist. I want to do a rapping project with Roc Marciano. Madlib for sure. An artist that I want to work with that people probably wouldn’t even expect is Schoolboy Q. Kendrick. Drake. I want to do some shit with Future. I’d fuck around with Travis Scott. I’d do some shit with 2 Chainz. 

Can you tell me about your goals as a label head?
Bad Influence was my label, but I changed the name to Influence Enterprise because it sounds more broad. I got Chyna Streetz, I got Ox Omni. My producer, Wavy da Ghawd, he’s the one who been making all these beats I’ve been dropping. So I got the crew, but we putting it together. I don’t want to rush to put [a compilation] out because I want [the signees] to create a name for themselves before somebody associates them with being a part of my crew. Everybody knows Chyna Streetz [is] my girlfriend. But I don’t want people to [say] the only time they see Chyna is if she is on a Rome song. She got an album 183rd, but I want that to come out before we put out a compilation album. 

So you did the ring for Kiss The Ring. Are you going to have a Noise Kandy 5 piece?
Yeah, it’s coming. I’m about to do a razor blade [chain] when I come from tour. It’s like a razor blade. I want to [have a piece for every project]. Shits cost money, but if I’m making the money, it’s not a problem. I’m trying to be on my slick Rick shit.

Right, so 10 years from now you’ll have the chains from every album.
[Gestures to chains] This album, that album. Yeah.

Is there anything I didn’t ask that you want to have expressed in the piece about anything you have going on?
I’m going to start dropping my own vinyl. A lot of companies do deals with the artists for vinyl, but you can actually make more money doing it yourself. I know Kiss The Ring sold almost 6,000 copies.

[Fans] wasn’t buying it because of the label, they buying it because it’s Rome Streetz. Imagine if I sold them 6,000 copies my damn self for $50 instead of taking $10 off of them copies. If I could sell 6,000 records off of some shit I made in my living room, why not fucking sell them myself? Yeah, it’s work. But at the end of the day, [if] somebody tell you, I’m going to pay you $70,000 to bag up records and mail them off…do it for yourself and get rich. That’s another way to come up on this music shit without motherfuckers even knowing. [They’re] like, “Yo, how you made so much money, we never heard your song?” You don’t need to hear my song. The world is very big, 8 billion people in the world. If I could get a thousand of these motherfuckers to buy my shit every time I put it out, I don’t have to be famous, man. I am famous. There’s people buying my shit. Everybody’s version of success in this shit is different. I’m as successful as I ever dreamed I could be.