Rodney Chrome

Photo by, Eric Hart Jr.

Meet Rodney Chrome

It’s nearing the weekend everybody! The perfect time to introduce you all to the very innovative and explosive Rodney Chrome. I can not think of anyone else to usher in the next few days of unrelenting leisure. Their 2020 release “QUEER PRESSURE” is a no holds bar emotional rollercoaster. Between percussive distortion, playful samples, and downtempo grooves there is no shortage of things to love. Check out the album, and read up as we have ourselves a chat with this wonderful musician.

“MASTERPIECE THEATER” A fill in the blank with Rodney Chrome

No story ever told seems to QUICKLY capture the hearts and SHOES of COLOSSAL readers as does the legend of King Arthur and the STRIPPERS of the UPTIGHT table. If we choose to believe the Arthur legend and go along with the story that this GENTLE king removed from a BEAUTIFUL stone the SENSITIVE sword called Excalibur, then we are giving ourselves permission to enjoy this evening's performance. So without further ado let us visit the kingdom of Camelot, where STICKY knights perform heroic WATER BOTTLES, rescue a BUTLERS in a PURSE of armor, and ride off on majestic OSTRICHES in search of adventure.

Would You Rather

all the glass in the world be made of stained glass, or every light in the world is replaced with a disco ball? Why?

I would rather have all of the glass in the world be made of stained glass. There is just something so beautiful and pure about seeing it within a building. I think the only time I visually saw stained glass was inside of my church and it was just something so regal about the idea behind it.

Some questions with Rodney Chrome

Your music is genre-defying and impressive in its innovation and breadth — what have been your sources of inspiration?

 When I was younger I was always kinda of an out of the box kid. I was in a lot of sports but it was one of those situations where I did them just to make my parents happy and feel as if they had a place amongst the other athlete parents. To mentally give myself a break from making the ones around me satisfied I would blast Frank Ocean, SZA, & Beyoncé. But the one person that really made me want to aim to be as creative as possible is still to this day Missy Elliot. From her music videos to lyrical content there’s was always this innovation that I admired from her. Gossip Folk, She’s a B**ch, The Rain, were all videos that inspired me to one day create something that defied all stereotypes. In “Get your Freak on” Missy literally spit into a guys mouth. When I first saw it  I thought it was the nastiest thing but at the same time I loved it cause I had never witnessed a creative risk like the ones she’s taken.

Where are you usually at a house party?

You will most likely always find Chrome dancing at a party. Especially if I paid to get in… Oh Im gonna make that 10 to 15 dollars worth it lol.

Now If it’s just a more chill party then I’ll just hang with my friends and try to meet new people but overall I like to make sure everyone is having a good time so I’m gonna make sure all of my friends are not really on their phones and taking time to soak in the moment together.

Having grown up in Arkansas, how has your southern background influenced your sound?

 Being raised in the south especially within the black community there’s a tradition where every Sunday night everyone would go skating. So at a very young age, around 6 or 7, my mom would always take me to the skating rink with her and I would just prance around the rink trying to attempt to skate like the adults while the DJ was bumping Too Short, Hurricane Chris, Marques Houston, 707, and so many other great artist. I feel like this specific tradition influenced a lot of my sound because it made me have an understanding of how music should make people feel. Being able to say “Aye! This my song!” and grabbing your friends to get up and get on the skating rink floor is a feeling that is so warming and unifying.

 Also being raised within such a small town it forced me to create scenarios and other worlds when my community did not give me the opportunity to do so. Don’t get me wrong, I love Arkansas, but there is just so little to do that one has to become creative with the few options that they have and for me that was music. One lyric by Frank Ocean that I will always hold close to me is in his song Crack Rock he states “You don’t know how little you matter until you all alone, in the middle of Arkansas with a Little Rock left in that glass d**ck.” For me personally, no major artist has publicly ever recognized the city of Little Rock, Arkansas so for the one person I truly admire to acknowledge it and its loneliness really resonated with me because I genuinely felt as if he was speaking not only for me but to me. Like out of all places he chose the same exact city and state I’m from that people don’t even know exist within the U.S. lol.

How has your experience releasing new music during the pandemic differed from past releases?

My last release was in 2018 and under whole different alias so this time around the emotions have been very different. To add in the fact of us being within a pandemic it has been interesting. I think it honestly worked out for the better though because I think more people were just looking for things to pay attention to around the time of my release and when everyone was forced to quarantine and businesses had to be closed down it seemed as though music was the one thing that was allowed to remain available.

What has been keeping you creatively inspired and fulfilled lately?

The feedback from the release of Queer Pressure has definitely put more gas in my tank to really keep going. I truly did not expect so much love and appreciation to pour in the way it has but everyday it seems like someone new messages me about how they love the project. I just cant wait to share even more and see how big the Chrome empire will become.

What advice do you have for other emerging artists in the current climate?

Stop letting fear consume you from reaching the success that’s already set out for you. 2020 has shown a lot of us that anything can happen at any given moment so what you have to understand is that being afraid to carry out your art is the biggest setback that you could do for yourself. Let the universe know that you are here and you are here for a reason. Allow grace to not only move to  you but through you so that you can not only heal for the sake of your own health but for others as well. Art is universal so always remember that there is someone watching even when it feels like no one is in your corner at all.

How has your background in dance and art fed your recent creative output?

I believe a lot of things happen for a specific purpose and me being able to receive not only a gift in music but also dance was one of the few signs where I knew being an artist was set out for me. Growing up and dancing in multiple dance companies it allowed me nurture the true value of rehearsal and preparation. When creating the treatment for Pulpit with director Zachary Dov Wiesel, I knew that I wanted to incorporate dance within the video. I had been teaching dance since the age of 16 at my hometown studio so creating the choreography wasn’t a difficulty. But what I did figure out through this process is that I know how my songs should make someone move which inspired me to want to create the choreography for (hopefully) all of my videos.

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

The life that we live is not promised. Every day that we wake up and are allowed to exist within this universe is a gift. For every artist especially my black creators please understand that now is the time for us to really understand the value of our art. I know somedays might be harder than others but we have to keep fighting for our dreams even when the world around us does not want us to make them a reality.

-Mashallah, Rodney Chrome