Interview: Emilio Rojas (12/0/09)

Emilio Rojas was a featured performer at last night’s Faces in the Crowd event at the Times Square Art Centre.

The event drew a large audience, forcing a number of people to watch the show via TV monitors throughout the building (late comers found themselves standing on the side of the room).

Emilio’s stage presence got the crowd involved last night, and his lyricism and confidence on the mic was impressive.

His set consisted of tracks off of his latest project , The Natural, which was hosted by DJ Green Lantern.  It was well received by critics, as it covered a lot of personal issues and experiences from Emilio’s life while featuring no guest emcee appearances.

I also got to see Emilio live last week at NYC’s Blender Theater, where I recorded him performing “Bold & Arrogant,” the main single off The Natural.

This track has been very successful and recently started receiving radio spins at Hot 97.  Emilio has stated that there will be a sick remix dropping soon, and has even begun building buzz with recent tweets.

HipHopAtLunch.com met up with Emilio Rojas before his performance at last night’s Faces In The Crowd event in Times Square.  We spoke about upcoming projects, how The Natural’s success exceeded his expectations, and his views on Twitter.

I hope to film more interviews in the streets of Times Square, as the environment makes for a great background!

I had heard stories about Emilio Rojas being a ladies man, but I got to witness it first hand last night as a girl ran up on him asking for a photo before our interview.  It was also amusing to see Emilio get sidetracked by a smiling girl walking by during our interview, ha!

The upcoming one-shot video for “Tic Toc,” directed by Science Projects, is going to be crazy!

Emilio Rojas – “Tic Toc.”

Emilio uses “Tic Toc” to paint a picture of an innocent man on death row, a woman being cheated on, and a soldier far away from home.  This track displays his storytelling skills, as he speaks on these unfortunate circumstances with each powerful verse.

Here’s an excerpt from his verse on the soldier’s post traumatic stress disorder:

“He couldn’t handle it, he buried too many friends,
And sent too many folded flags back to they fam and them,
And now he’s having nightmares of clappin kids,
And young boys that’s aiming snipper riffles at the back of heads,
Aint no packages from home, he’s so sick,
Of being home sick and it’s bullshit, but it’s hopeless,
Cause he can die before he finishes tour,
And he can hear that clock ticking for sure.”

Instead of shoving his political beliefs about the war down the listener’s throat, Emilio chose to tell a thought provoking story with his last verse, allowing them to form their own opinions.  Here’s footage of a live performance of “Tic Toc,” that I caught last week.

I can’t wait to see who jumps on the remix of  “Bold And Arrogant!”  Until that drops, check out our review of his latest project, The Natural.

Also, if you want to get a good laugh, here’s the video interview with Donnell Rawlings that Emilio spoke about earlier: