After taking a short hiatus after his debut project and taking the time to finish school, and perfect the craft, New York artist Rodney Chrome returns with his punchiest project to date-GO.
Chrome is an artist whose development is incredibly well-documented. From recording the live sessions of his first project at the turn of the decade for his YouTube to paying attention to his live performances then and now, Chrome has come a long way from the NYU dormitories.
Along this journey from college town performer to guest starring on Colors, Chrome has made a myriad of professional connections that would grow with his artform, one specifically coming in the form of San Francisco-based artist: underscores.
EARMILK caught the singer, producer, dancer to discuss GO, his working relationship and origin story with underscores, and how he's changing the game with his sound.
Who are you?
So first and foremost, my name is Rodney Chrome, and I'm an artist. I rap, sing, dance, write, everything you can kind of think of. And I just love to make music, love to make music.
What is something folks would never know about Rodney Chrome unless explicitly told
Okay. I'll say this, kind of keep this still and kind of creative a little bit, but I'm in Ballroom. I don't promote it like super heavy just because I've taken my time to really like form my community. So it's a little sacred to me, but I'm in Ballroom. And it's basically, if you don't know what ballroom is, it's basically like, if you ever see Poles, Legendary or anything like that, I'm in a house called,
I'm by the car together. Even like last year i was nominated for “everyday realness of the year,” which is where you basically just walk to the piano, you act like a man, try to out beat the competition next to you, and I don't know, something about that just always kind of like really made me my confidence boost up. Also, voguing which is also part of Ballroom, has really been something that i've really kind of been in my bag, just not really promoting it as much to the world so that's something people probably wouldn't know.
What’s a misconception people might have about you based on your music?
so that's one where I feel like a lot of people, they could probably get the misconception that I am just like my music, just like loud or just like I love to talk or like I'm this vibrant person
as far as just like an extrovert, which I am sometimes, but I feel like most times if you
see me out anywhere, like I will definitely just be my headphones and my phone doing my own thing. You know what I'm saying? Just really kind of reserved. But I feel like it still comes at like an approachable manner.
I noticed that with you, with your music videos, you go from having the range of large scale, big budget videos, like it's a movie. “Break the Internet.” That's a movie. And you also have a little bit more of the low key sized, something more reserved for like a vertical size video, like with “I Came to Party.” What's your approach for music videos?
I feel like it's honestly all of that. When it comes to what we're trying to do, and I feel like it depends on scale. I feel like a lot of times with ‘I Came to Party’ and like those ‘yeehaws’ that I have, like the ones that feel very like, OK, this is quick, just one off singles.I feel like those KT (his manager Kyle Tilden) and I really cater to like really just making sure that we can put effort into it, but let the song kind of like lead. We can have the videos and stuff like that, but if it's something that feels more just like putting out for just your own good and it doesn't need the big production, we still feel very confident in those. So it's like give and take, but also knowing what needs that extra oomph.
So ‘Break the Internet’ is so loud, It goes into like the second half of an R&B switch from that super rap heavy, trap club beat. So it's like, okay, you get one of those, the lyrics is kind of like in your face. I'm saying, ‘ask me why I'm gay, because my mama said, never put your hands on a female.’ With those type of things [lines I want to see what that looks like, you know? So I feel like it just also comes into what the song is kind of telling me as well, how big I need to go.
Regarding that line you referenced from ‘Break the Internet’ there are so many creative lines and witty allusions for either ass or shaking ass, my personal favorite being “throwing it back like a frisbee,” do you have a favorite?
*he laughed*
With the GO project, I feel like there are moments where I do that a lot, and I feel like most of the times it's natural, but also, purposeful. Wanting to make me not get so stuck and just listen to my music or just writing, just saying, okay, I can hear this from everybody, but what is that line that's always just like, ‘nah what?’ You know what i'm saying? I feel like I always want those. Off the top of my head, I'm going to say the Colors line. ‘Your bitch talking slick on my Oprah tone, her color purple.’ Yeah. I kind of like that one for today. I say that one for the fact of like, I love entendres. I love wordplay. So that one's kind of like, one this is I'm a sag, so it’s going to say, ‘so we cool, but don't do too much.’ You know what I'm saying? So I think it's kind of like one of those things, but like, don't talk slick, but If you do, there's a very good chance that you might turn the color purple. But I feel like that's a good one. That's a good one. That's a really good one.
What were some of the other influences that went into crafting this project?
I'm going to be selfish on this one and say myself was like a lot of it. I feel like there were many times where I've talked and just said, okay, dang, like this was influence. The Missy [Elliot] has just been heavy, like just conversation points for me. But GO was one of those ones where I literally had fun. I had a folder called fun around 2023 and I still keep using it, but it's just something that I started doing around this time to just like make beats and stuff that just felt like ‘Okay, like, what do you want to do?’ like,don't make nothing that's just a copycat. Like, do something that just feels like today. Like, ‘what does Ronnie feel like today?’ So I went into a demo mode of just really starting to produce for myself. I have my influences, but, like, what does that feel like on Rodney Chrome as a producer first? Then, underscores is a really great friend of mine who's done previous projects with
me, ‘Break The Internet’ specifically. We always just kind of like have this moment in time whether it's a year or two later where we connect and we're like ‘okay, what have you been up to? How are you feeling? What do you want to make?’ and it'll turn into like these type of
projects whereas first it was our QUEER PRESSURE in 2022 and then it was like some loose singles, ‘Break The Internet’ and then now it’s GO. So it's kind of this ongoing
thing of like we know when to come back to each other and not kind of drown out the well before we actually really need to. In terms of influences, I would say Black Eyed Peas were heavy with this one. just because I remember their sound was so specific, but it was never the same.
And like you say, having layers to it. One song could take you, you know, starting off this pop- rap, trap type of vibe, but then it's like, Will.i.am kind of breaks it down to lik really heavy R&B. And I really loved how the intricacy of like a group kind of made one song feel kind of like a journey. So with GO and any project that I do, I feel like I definitely do aim towards making something feel like an experience because I love to listen to music like that.
I was just talking about how they made an album in 2009 that had all these bangers like “Meet Me Halfway,” “Ima Bee” and-
Can I give you another one? “Ring-A-Ling,” people sleep on that one-but let’s go back.
"She was just like a fan first before I even really knew the maximum power that she had as an artist."
How’d the underscores collab start? I know you’ve been working for a while, but what was the initial meeting?
Yeah, so I'm a ‘don’t force it’ person. I feel like she is as well, don't force it, if it's not there, it's not there. Whether we're creating music or whether it's just hanging out, if it's not there, it's not there. So I feel like that's the trait about her that I really do appreciate, for myself as well.
Before school, I was in Arkansas releasing music under my alias at that time called Atlas. And I didn't know how to produce, I was barely getting into writing. I Knew I had somewhat of an ability to carry a note, but didn't know what that was. So I started to get on SoundCloud and just look at all these different producers who just had instruments and just uploaded their work. And it was a guy by the name of William Crooks. Now, this person I didn't know from ‘X, Y, and Z.’ so I'm just like, ‘OK, I love this beat.
I'm going to just kind of like see what I can do on it.’ If he likes it, I'm going to send it to him. I do this song. It's me and my first time talking about a guy, all this different stuff. But for my first one, it was cool. So I reached out to him.And I'm like, ‘hey, I want to put this out.’ He loves it. We put it out, shoot a video to it and he had a collective at the time who made music and underscores was a person in that collective of people who made distorted, crunchy, kind of like loud music, but like it was hyper pop before it was hyper pop, you know?
But when we started to communicate, we didn't communicate. We just went to college, randomly out of chance, out of God, playing in his favor. Went to college at NYU, Clive. like, our first little mixer with everybody, she came up to me super quiet, jet black hair, just like, ‘hi.’ And I'm like, ‘hey, girl, what's up?’ And she just immediately was just like, I love your song, “2k.” And I'm like, thank you. Like, I'm from Arkansas.I don't think nobody knows me. I only had, like, five hundred plays on that song at the time. I'm like, ‘who is this person just saying they know my song 2k?’ And lo and behold, she just goes into this tangent and story about how Willie is just like a really good creator and friend of hers. Willie and I continue to make music, but that was the time when we first encountered each other and she was just like a fan first before I even really knew the maximum power that she had as an artist.
We had meetings with our professor or the chair at the program and he had a meeting with me and was like, ‘you met underscores?’ and i'm like i don't know what you're talking about and [he] was like ‘I really think that y'all should do something. Make song, bring it back to me, I want to hear it, whatever it is.’
Right, so I'm like, okay, I still don't know what this person looks like. Eventually we get in a group chat with our chair and her and myself and we just eventually start talking, we meet up at my dorm room i'm like wait you're the person that ran up to me and we took all my speakers and equipment down to like the basement piano room and we make like this, not even weird, but just loud intro song that ended up being the first song off my project, QUEER PRESSURE.
And we sent it to our chair and he was like, ‘nah, keep this,keep this.’
Let's go back to GO. This is your first official EP in a hot minute. What did the crafting process look like and what sparked the idea of just keeping it as an EP versus expanding it into a larger project?
For one, I think I am trying to become aware of the space that I am in right now and then also acknowledging the space that i'm in right now and to expand on those, it's like ‘what does Rodney feel like?’ When I started making QUEER PRESSURE and “Break The Internet”
I wasn't performing in a sneaker. That was not something I was doing. I wanted to do a heel every single time because I felt like every boy can simply get on stage and do a sneaker.
But it's something about a person that can really dance and have a high platform on, but also have crazy sounding music. I felt like that was something so interesting to me. And even going into my wardrobe, it was very much fem leaning, kind of like androgynous, but still had the beard and the braid. So I think I was still trying to find myself in college and coming out of it and just testing waters.
So I started to just camp out. I don't think I released anything for like two years, almost two years, two and a half years, something like that. And it was like, okay, [I] have these crazy demos. I've kind of just been working my butt off producing, getting better at that, knowing how to translate in sessions of just like what I want. Okay, now I feel confident and strong to say like, I have a great batch of music.
KT and I just put a huge folder together called the Big Chrome Pack and just was like, okay, we'll choose what sounds great from here. So I’m like.. let's kind of maneuver this and make it hot, make these sound good, beef them up and yeah, kind of give like an experience with it. And I kind of had a conversation with underscores about just having theme.
So I think when it came to GO, It was just literally just exposing what space I'm in. Exposing like, I'm ready to be on ‘go’ time. I'm ready to kind of like just go for whatever it is that my music wants to be right now. Whatever it is that my body is telling me. And that goes back to being aware of just like where I am mentally, physically, and sonically.
Is that self-awareness and maintenance of your overall self the reason why “YEEHAW!” and "ICAMETOPARTY” didn't make the final track list?
So, no. GO had been done. Like, GO was ready to go. Like, even before I really finalized “YEEHAW!” and all this different stuff, and I came to the party, like, I knew what GO was. We had, like, a few extra tracks we were kind of, like, pitching, but…yeah, I knew what GO was. It was strong with just those six. It was in and out, but it also was an experience.What I will say with “YEEHAW!” and “ICAMETOPARTY,” it was kind of like warming my audience back up to like, ‘okay, Rodney is here.’ It's like giving us little breadcrumbs as to what could come or what kind of capacity another project could be, but still kind of lighthearted fun. I'm making the content on my own, kind of like just really in my bag. So yeah, very loosely.
“YEEHAW!” specifically was the first single I put out just full production myself as Rodney Chrome. And I feel like that was my first stamp of like saying, okay, GO is about 60% underscores & about 30/40% myself. So it really kind of gives you the allude to ‘okay how much is Rodney pitching into the process of it being this sound?’ That’s something that underscores and I really talked about, is her not overpowering my trajectory with where I want the songs to go, because with our previous projects, we've kind of had that cadence of like, ‘OK, well, I hear your production loud as hell and a little bit of me. We've got to kind of like we had a fifty fifty.’ And it took those little tough conversations to say, nah, OK, we have that balance.
What was a major lesson that you learned while improving yourself as a producer?
I would say my ear. Trust in it, like really trust in it because it's gotten me in some really great positions. And I feel like I can break it down to where I just trust what selection of a drum is, the selection of what synth is. I’m grateful I have underscores my corner, like really just helping me as far as an artist or producer or just a friend. I feel like that's where I start to really see my confidence come in.
You tweeted that there’s a song you were FIENDING for folks to hear; which song was it and which did you have the most fun making?
This is actually one I could talk about all day.It's because it really does hit my R&B heart
Can I take a guess?
Go ahead.
Is it “Beat Machine?”
No.
I'm assuming “BRUISE.”
Sir, no!
I'll give you one more guess.
My personal favorite is the “NO BREAKS”
Say it one more time before you go broke.
“NO BREAKS.”
There you go.
This one started out as a class assignment at NYU. Make a song about something that had a very specific topic and you stayed on that topic. I think it was birthday song, it was literally called
birthday song or a birthday boy, actually. And it was just me, like, presenting everything for the boy, like, your candles, making a wish, just very, like, the same lane as “NO BREAKS,” but just not the same topic. But during that time, I was still young, trying to figure out how to write still,
and [I’m] still learning how to write to this day.
I had come back to it maybe, like, last year, and it was, mind you, a beat that underscores had made during our first project, Queer Pressure. And I just kind of like disregarded it, put it in my files, but I was just going through my stuff and I heard it and I was like, nah, this knocks.
Just like off the instrumental alone, no tweaks, no updates, no nothing.
So I was like, ‘okay, let me just mute what I did before’ because I'm in a new bag. I feel differently, like I need to just try something else that feels more present or current to what I'm writing about and I felt like my pen was stronger.
So I'm like, okay, “no breaks.”
"I personally feel like a lot artists should stretch their hands, or even people who don't even do art, but are attempting to try, should stretch their hand as much as possible before taking that leap to say, okay, I'm gonna let electronics take the lead on where my creative voice is gonna go."
I love the embracing of technology and futuristic aesthetics in the sound and visuals, like with Cyborg. But currently we’re undergoing a period where tech is literally stealing art from already starving artists and common people and label execs are deepfaking everyone. How can we embrace technology in our art form and how do we move past such exploitative tech?
I love this question because it's also one that I'm still trying to personally find a balance with.
I feel like as a whole, a community that just cares,I truthfully care deeply about art.
I'm gonna take this to Ballroom for a second. In Ballroom, voguing or even dance in general there's a particular feeling when you're improving or just doing choreography or making or even
writing by yourself; there are specific feelings that cannot be explained. I cannot tell you why you did something, cannot tell you why you made that mistake. And I feel, like with my process specifically, I love when just a spirit moves over me to do something. I personally feel like a lot
artists should stretch their hands, or even people who don't even do art, but are attempting to try, should stretch their hand as much as possible before taking that leap to say, okay, I'm gonna let electronics take the lead on where my creative voice is gonna go.
I feel strongly about people, like myself who is like, ‘damn, we was put on this earth to really create some stuff,’ you know what I'm saying, from scratch.
So to say that things could not take over art, but more so, are taken in a direction that doesn't feel as genuine kind of scares me sometimes.
For me, I use voice generators, you know what I'm saying? Using people that talk in front of my videos or Siri, stuff and all that different things. But that's telling you how far that I only can go as a human. I just want a robot voice to say something for me real quick, you know? I don't want it to fully impose on what my creative idea could be, without me taking it there.
I just think there has to be some form of minuscule conversation, almost like when Jay Z had all those artists come to a table, like okay let's really figure out what's going on here and what is
acceptable. Is the ai artist able to be on Spotify? I don't know if that counts because I'm also fighting for my streams so like, why am I fighting against a robot? You know what I'm saying. Then also, if we get in a rap beef, how am I rapping with a robot?
So I feel like people are aware that AI is just not as creatively attractive and we're kind of on to something.
Was there any way you need people to listen to this project?
I feel like I just want people to literally put their headphones on or play it in their speaker, whatever it is, just listen to it in full. Whatever that is, the feeling is, you feel inspired, you don't feel inspired, you love writing a poem, you hate writing a poem, I just want you to run with it.
I feel like this is a time for me where I just don't want to sugarcoat my music or who I am. I've been in the most confident space of boasting about my music, playing my music in front of people, which is like.. my friends will tell you,I will be the first to cut it off when you play something of mine.
So it's really one of those things where I'm just really proud of myself on this one and I just really hope that everybody enjoys it and it gives them some form of momentum to go, literally.