We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rollo Papers a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Rollo, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
My biggest goal in life is to be someone other people use as a role model for someone who accomplished something society tells them is impossible. I love hearing stories about underdogs making it out on top. My favorite kinds of movies are biopics about musicians like Straight Outta Compton, Notorious, or anything based on a real story where someone went from being called crazy to changing the world. I love watching the growth of people going from underestimated kids to powerful adults. I really connect with those stories because I know what it feels like to be laughed at as a kid just for writing raps in my free time. I know what it feels like to start releasing music and seeing people say “wait, this is actually really good,” and I know what it feels like to finally make it on big time stages and see everybody finally embrace my talent, skills and determination. Whenever I feel like I’m back at the bottom of the roller coaster, I’ve learned to see my life like a movie. Nobody likes movies where the main character is on easy street the entire ride. People love stories that have ups and downs. So whenever I go through a hard time, whether its minor or significant, I always tell myself this is just the part of the movie where things start to get interesting. Once I make it through this its gonna feel so good.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
When I was still in school, I had a best friend who rapped and was unbelievably talented. To this day I still tell everyone he would’ve been better than me and I still wish he’d hop back on the mic. He had a true celebrity personality where as soon as he walked in the room everyone was in a better mood. I was genuinely inspired by his work ethic and ended up buying a beat making machine so I could be the producer while he was the rapper. In our junior year, he decided to focus more on baseball, we were college baseball teammates, and stopped rapping. I didn’t want to waste the money I just spent on this thing so I started making beats for myself. During our senior year I started releasing music under the name “Ghost Green” before I changed my name to Rollo Papers and I honestly got an immediate positive reaction as soon as I started actually putting stuff out. The field hockey team at our school used one of my songs as their pre-game pump up song in the locker room and soon enough a lot of people around campus actually knew the words. The first time I ever heard someone sing one of my songs and know the lyrics I was immediately addicted to the feeling. Fast forward to graduating, I moved to Pittsburgh to take an unpaid internship at a recording studio where some of the artists and producers from Taylor Gang would pull up to and I felt like I was living my dream. Wiz Khalifa is my biggest inspiration and while I still haven’t gotten a chance to meet him, I’ve worked with and met a lot of people from his camp which really meant the world to me. After a couple years in Pittsburgh I moved to San Diego where I met Carleton Overstreet through some coworkers at my day job. Carleton is the biggest show promoter and producer in the hip-hop scene for the San Diego area, having worked with everyone from Beyonce to Snoop Dogg, and he changed my life by believing in me even before I had earned it yet. He gave me the chance to get on massive stages in San Diego and has gotten me booked in places outside the city to travel and perform in other states like Arizona and Texas. I can now say I’ve opened for some of my favorite artists and biggest names in the world like Too $hort, Curren$y, OhGeesy, G Perico, Dj Quik, and many others. I still have a long way to go, but I am eternally grateful for everyone who’s gotten me this far. Now its on me to take it from dope opener to legendary headliner.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Every interview I’ve ever seen from a super successful person who gets to make money off their passion says the same thing. “I just didn’t quit.” If you keep going, if you truly never stop, if you push through the hard times and stay focused on the reason why you started this, which was so your younger self can live our their dreams, I promise you it will all be worth it. I’m still not where I want to be as an artist, but I am further in my journey than I ever thought I would go. I can’t tell you what it takes to turn yourself into a millionaire, not yet anyway, but I can tell you that every time someone says never give up they are telling you the truth. It’s cliche and corny, but its genuinely the piece of advice that will change your life. Just keep going. Secondly I would say manifesting is a real thing. When I was in school I would walk around campus saying some day I’m gonna make music with Taylor Gang, and 364 days after graduating I was in the studio with Kris Hollis, an R&B guy with Taylor Gang, living out my dreams as an intern for his studio sessions with Justin Cicco who owned the studio. I didn’t even know what manifesting was at the time, but once I got into that kind of stuff I realized it was exactly what I did. I truly in my mind believed that it was true, and then the universe made it true. So lastly I would say just combine the vision of always keep going and speaking things into existence. If you speak things into existence while staying consistent on the goal at all times, it is pretty much guaranteed at some point you will get what you want. Just be sure that you are truly working for it, as there’s a difference between patience and procrastinating. You gotta get up and get it for yourself, and then the universe will give it to you.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I definitely love collabing with people whether its on music, at events, or through business. Musically I’ve been blessed to release songs with some major big time stars, and gotten to perform with a lot of really cool people. Two names in particular are 88thagang and SieteGang Yabbie who both pulled up to my set when I opened for Curren$y at Music Box in San Diego. I 100% want to get in the studio and work on records with those guys as they have always been very welcoming towards me as an artist in San Diego and hopefully in 2026 I can make that happen. I also love discovering new artists and really enjoy the feeling of giving people experiences. Every opportunity I’ve had has come from someone ahead of me in the industry giving me the chance to take a step up, so when I can give people the chance to do that as well it feels just as good if not better than when I get to do it for myself. Business wise, I am looking to expand my brand, Rolled Souls, pretty heavily going into 2026. The vision behind Rolled Souls is creating a world where artists and athletes come together on the same team to promote artistic and athletic lifestyles. I am a part of a health and wellness non-profit group called SDHipHop5k and as a former college athlete I love being involved in the sports world. Combining my athlete days with my artist days to show that artsy kids and sports kids can hangout with one another is really important to me. Our merch right now is custom sports jerseys, baseball, basketball and football. You can get whatever custom name and number you want on the jersey which creates the atmosphere of joining the team. I’ve been able to sell jerseys and get a lot of people involved, and right now I’m trying to learn and teach myself to build upon the brand just as much if not more than the music.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/rollopapers
- Instagram: instagram.com/rollopapers
- Twitter: x.com/rollopapers
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iG1b-WG_hs&list=RD1iG1b-WG_hs&start_radio=1
- Other: [email protected]
Image Credits
Brooke Black, Raygotskillz, Quay Young, Jonathon Meza, Sophie Yoder, Sarah Tarin
