Our #MyHustle series highlights members our staff and some of the badass stuff they do outside of Angel City. This week? Garon Harden, who mans the front door as one of our greeters and mans the mic under the stage name Rocc.
Dan Shapiro: So tell me about your music!
Garon Harden: My music is pretty much a product of where I came from. I grew up all over LB, my family is from the East Side, but I lived all over: Downtown, North Side, Lakewood. It’s pretty much about the experiences I had – things I had to do, things I saw around my environment. I’m the type of person that really paid attention. Just kinda where I came from, it demanded that I be aware of my surroundings. Honestly it’s kind of what brought me into doing security.
DS: Long Beach is known for having some pretty famous rappers come out of it – were you particularly inspired by them?
G: Of course you’re gonna be inspired by what’s around you. My parents were into hip hop, so I was definitely influenced by that, but I think my influences come from all over. I listen to EDM, house music, some country. SOME country – a small amount. But yeah, as an artist I like to experience everything, it allows me to get inspired in my own way.
DS: Tell me about your producing process – do you do it all yourself?
G: I have a producer, his name is Daytone – he goes by Daytona 500. He pretty much came up with all the beats – he’ll have a bass beat and it will evolve into something else. A few of the tracks we actually did from scratch – one little tone starts everything. This time around was my first time actually going through that process, so it was a big eye opener for me. It made me fall in love with the process even more. You can see the growth from the projects I’ve done to now. I started by doing mix tapes. I’ve done three or four, but this is my first time co-producing a full work of art.
DS: Where can we find you?
G: I’m dropping my first single everywhere June 25th. It will be available anywhere you can stream. The name of the project is Community Service. It stemmed from the things I saw in my environment – it’s a culmination of what hip hop has become. The end result is what we have now – it’s kind of trash to me. The social media rappers, the Instagram rappers…it started from the Jerkin’ Era, and The Reject…after that, it totally went wild. [With this project,] I’m here to say I’m cleaning it up. Of course, I’m not the first rapper like that – I’m coming behind J Cole and Kendrick, but I don’t feel like we have that [in Long Beach] yet. It’s just me saying, we’re here too. Putting more meaning behind that. The single is called Only Reason, and the album’s coming out in October.
You can listen to Only Reason below, and make sure to check out more of Rocc’s work on his YouTube Channel.
Meet more of our talented staff in the My Hustle archives!
