Romey – Rising Son

January 29th, 2010 | By 608

“If Wisconsin was a province,” boasts rapper Jerome “Romey” Hunt, “I would be the Rap Prime Minister of it.”

As Romey shows me around his Soundcheck Studios on the lower level of the Genesis Enterprise Center in Madison, the 6’7” rapper is relaxed, funny, focused, introspective and self-assured. But his prime minister boast begs for a follow-up question: Do you have to have a tremendous ego to be a good rapper?

“I don’t have a big ego, but I do have a lot of confidence,” Romey says. “When your head gets too big, it makes people not want to work for you and not want to root for you. But with that being said, you do have to have a certain swagger and a certain confidence to be a good rapper.”

Having had to face an enormous amount of adversity in his life to get to where he is today, it’s hard to say where Romey would be right now without that confidence. Romey has seen the worst of the worst — including being shot three times in a robbery attempt in Milwaukee in 2007 — but has turned the negative images around him into moving street narratives. Music has been his means of expression.

“Music is powerful. It’s a part of almost everything,” Romey says. “My circumstances and my hard-knock life are no different. It’s definitely played a major role in keeping me out of trouble.”

Romey feels like he’s the best at what he does. “But you have to prove that, and I just let my body of work speak for itself,” he says. “My style is that of the smooth hustler who is laid back and skates the thin line of gangsta music mixed with creativity and soul. You have to have a rhythm and a swagger. You have to bring a certain amount of creativity to the table. I’m very conceptual.”

And, yes, the person that calls himself “the Michael Jordan of the rap game,” is most certainly confident, and his knack for vividly recreating his own hard knock life on record makes him a rarity. His story on how he got to where he is today is compelling, if not uplifting.

Romey grew up in the dangerous Wild Hundreds area of the all-black Roseland neighborhood, a section of Chicago where it was, and is, virtually impossible for you to come up and not be in a gang or affiliated with one. A few months before his 11th birthday, they took his mom away for four and a half years on drug charges for selling crack cocaine. “When they raided our crib, they came in with the guns and it really hit home with me,” Romey remembers.

Romey used to think that he didn’t have a future and it was only a matter of time before he was dead or in jail like half the people he knew. “At that point in my life, it was a really dark time because my grandma had just died and my mom got hit with this case,” Romey recalls. “In the beginning, we had no idea how long she would be away. And for us, everything was up in the air. There was so much fear and doubt. There was a real dark cloud hanging over my head during that time in my life. I felt lost. I felt like I didn’t have anybody to turn to.”

Still just a little kid, Romey felt abandoned, lonely, hurt and betrayed. But instead of spiraling down the road of destruction like so many of his peers, Romey turned his energy and his focus to Hip- Hop. He began freestyling, writing lyrics and immersing himself in the work of 2-Pac, Biggie Smalls, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z and Nas. They helped him get through the worst of times.

One album, in particular, helped turn rapping from something he would goof around with to a serious and focused lifestyle and career. “I actually first wanted to take it seriously — thinking about it as a professional — when I heard Jay-Z’s first album Reasonable Doubt,” Romey recalls. “I heard that album and saw the way he put his lyrics and stories together — how vivid his images were about hustling and being from the streets — I could really relate to it because I came from that lifestyle and persevered through it.”

His mother, Jacqueline “Jackie” Hunt, who today is a clinical substance abuse counselor in the Allied Drive community here in Madison, always knew her son had an incredible talent as she would watch him at family get-togethers keeping everybody laughing and entertained with his humor and talent with words. “Romey has a gift. Part of the experiences he had growing up as my son are his stories, and he elaborates on those stories in his raps,” Jackie says.

“He started to use his music to deal with life,” she adds. “He’s always wanted to excel above and beyond. Rapping presented him an opportunity to propel himself into the life that he wanted.

“I understand what it must have been like for him growing up with an addicted mom. I understand how he was being harmed as well. And that’s probably the biggest reason I do the things I do today as a way of giving back, because I know and I understand what it was like.”

When Jackie was finally released from prison, she completely changed her life direction from where she was heading before. She went back to school and graduated with honors. Since then, she has been a pillar in the Madison community and has been honored for her outstanding and relentless community work by various groups.

Watching the incredible transformation of his mother was an inspiration to Romey. “She’s my hero, because I got to see somebody come from where we come from in Chicago and accomplish so much,” Romey says.

His family, he adds, are living proof that people can make it out of any circumstance, no matter how dire or hopeless. While Romey has been having a lot of success musically and his mom has been very successful in the Madison community, his sister Jacquesha “Shuga” Hunt is in college at UW-Madison studying business.

“We are all living proof that you can make it out,“ Romey says. “People can’t believe a kid from the south side of Chicago made it out. I started my [real estate] business on the south side, I have my own recording studio, my own record label, and how many times I’ve been in Slam, Source, XXL, and all these big, worldly magazines? And yet, I come from right here and people know what I went through to pursue and obtain my dreams.”

Like his platinum counterparts Kanye West, Twista and Common, Romey also considers himself a Chicago boy at heart. His highly received album from a few years ago was even called Chicago Takeover. His lyrics speak of the intricacies of The Windy City that only a native would know.

But he also considers himself to be a Madisonian and is happy to be a key part of that ever-developing Madison Hip-Hop scene. “I think there’s a lot of talent here, but I think we could have a more unified front,” Romey says. “There’s a lot of individual crews and a lot of individual artists who are doing their own thing and not so much doing things as a whole scene collectively. But I think it’s developing, and I think there are a few of us that can really break on the national scene and do some great things in the music world.”

So, does he rep Madison or Chicago? He wrote his new song, “M.A.D. to the C.H.I.,” he says, because there has been so much speculation about where he’s from and who he’s representing when he raps. “People say, ‘Oh, you put out the ‘Chicago Takeover,’ and you talk about Chicago a lot,’” Romey says. “I do, because that’s my origin. That’s my place of birth. But this new song is a perfect blend.”

Romey‘s latest project has been the Hard Rock White album. It’s three volumes of all original music based up on his life. All told, it’s an ambitious project, but a challenge that Romey relishes. “My work ethnic is crazy and I really want this project to be great,” he says of the triple album. “My music has to be inspirational. I have to make that influential-type music that speaks to the heart and soul of my people.”

In the meantime, he has been operating his Soundcheck Studios at the Genesis Enterprise Center since 2003. He’s also delved into real estate with GR Consulting and Management. “Basically, what I do is I have properties back in my hometown of Chicago where I get buildings and rehab them and fix them up,” Romey says. “I provided low-income and less fortunate families with housing.”

Romey has also been busy with his label Get Rich Records, something he started around the same time he formed his first rap group Duece V. Currently, he has five artists signed, including R&B artist Aleesha.

“When I first started the company, we were out on the streets and we were hustlin’ and for our crew it simply just meant ‘Let’s get money,’” Romey says of Get Rich Records. “But now that I’ve evolved as an artist and as a person — I’m a father now, a CEO, a mentor, a big brother, an uncle – ‘Get Rich’ means get rich in every aspect of your life. So Get Rich Records means get rich spiritually, get rich mentally, [and] get rich financially. That’s what I’ve been trying to pitch to young people. But it’s advice that’s not just for young people, it’s for everybody in life.”

For more information on Romey, his music and upcoming shows, check out his music video and MySpace sites at www.youtube.com/ user/RomeyTV and www.myspace.com/getrichrecords

By David Dahmer

Photography by Soulestial Studios