Immature no longer, 22-year-old Young Rome is about to cast his own riveting spell on the R&B and hip-hop world and beyond with his first album, Food For Thought. The effort vividly illustrates the growth of a promising talent who, for the first time, reveals his own roots through a multi-faceted perspective.
Rome, who is still just 22, is taking a temporary break from the trio Immature in which he launched his music career 11 years ago. He has just starred in the Hollywood hit movie "You Got Served" which did over 40 million at the box office. He is scheduled to return in "You Got Served 2".
This album is different than anything anyone has ever seen me do, he continues. It’s far from what Immature did. It’s more mature--more about my personal life and what I’ve been through. I sing about the ups and downs of being in the group, of what’s happening with my family and going through stuff. This album shows all of me-the adversity and everything else.
A wide-variety of cutting-edge producers worked on the material for the album, from big names such as Rufus Blaq and T Scott to hot street names like J. Brown and Maddphunk and PMG. I’m actually surprised to see how good it came out, because I haven’t really been in a studio for two years, he says. I tried to reinvent myself, even with my vocal style and rapping voice. When I used to rap in Immature, I did a lot more kiddie stuff, talking about things that just fit for the girls. Now I’m doing stuff for everybody. Anyone who has ever had certain problems like I’ve had, can probably relate to them in different songs.
The lead-off single, After Party, features Omarion from B2K. It was one of the first songs we recorded, Rome says. As soon as everyone in the studio heard it, we knew it had to drop first. It’s more of an eye-opener; people will be hearing me, by myself, for the first time. They’ll see what I can do. It’s almost like a warm-up to everything that’s on the album. Most albums just have a lot of party songs. Mine has party songs, too, but it also has different songs that describe the things I went through. The single is just the top layer to it all.
He’s also very proud of the track Best Days. It talks about Immature, Rome says. Especially the whole story of what we went through with B2K. But we’re going to surprise people with a lot of the new songs. When I was younger, I was hit in my eye with a book. People always wondered why I wore that patch. That’s why. I talk about a lot of situations like that-about my posse and my bro-some of the things that affected me really hard.
Expect to see Young Rome at a radio station near you, as he’ll embark on a nationwide promo tour with several other up-and-coming artists. Of performing with just a DJ onstage--and not his fellow Immature compatriots-Rome says, I’m going to come out with more creative things to get the crowd get high, Before you could react to each other and say, ‘Hey take off your shirt and make ‘em scream.’ Now I’m going to be entertaining with my music-and myself.
Being himself is the key to Young Rome’s creativity. I had to be honest with myself when I did these songs, he admits. Writing the songs and putting them out there is almost like therapy for me. It helped me work through my situations. I’m not a talkative person who tells everyone his problems, but when I did this, it was a release for me. I can finally move on in my life.
And best of all, everyone else can enjoy the ride.
