Rome Streetz Is A Brooklyn MC Keeping The Borough’s Rugged Rap Tradition Alive (Video)

Brooklyn, New York has a rich Rap tradition. No matter the era or section of the borough, MCs favor gritty imagery, descriptive accounts of street life, and a song of survival. This quality is true in the music of Biggie and JAY-Z, Big Daddy Kane and Stetsasonic, Smif-n-Wessun and Smoothe The Hustler, as well as Joey Bada$$ and Joell Ortiz.

Rome Streetz is an MC who carries on that tradition in the underground. A quick listen to any of his four projects from last year (Streetz Keep Calling Me, Noise Kandy, Street Farmacy, and Noise Kandy 2: The Re-Up) should impress even the most discerning hardcore Hip-Hop Heads. Guest spots by rugged-spitting New York City vets like Illa Ghee, Agallah (fka 8-Off), and M.O.P. affiliate Teflon help show fans the style he embodies.

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This Planet Brooklyn denizen dropped a new album with Toronto, Ontario producer Futurewave titled Headcrack this month. To support the record, Rome also unleashed a Mercenary Productions-directed video for “Fortune Favors The Bold,” a two-beat ode to the dice game commonly known as cee-lo. That, of course, fits the theme of the album, as “headcrack” refers to a winning roll of 4, 5, 6 in the dice game.

The first half of the “Fortune Favours The Bold” instrumental is a mix of strings, horns, and a female vocalist heard through a sample. Then, at the 2:00 mark it switches to a darker vibe with a deep bass line and sparse horn.

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Streetz spits flame for the whole song but this run is especially dope, “Nothing free, better have a budget / Hard to keep the money, easy to touch it / I’m increasing the numbers, when the drought hit / Starve if you ain’t about sh*t / Ni**as satisfied with a quarter and an outfit / Keep an ounce lit / Pocket full of blue faces / Came up off a nickel, when you losers drew aces / Everything you fools do basic / I assume greatness / Gucci to the shoelaces / Rolling haze in the Asics.”

For the initial beat the video is set during the day, in front of some creative graffiti that utilizes the dilapidation of the building it’s done on. And for the second half Rome and crew take it inside to shoot some cee-lo in a project hallway. Look out for cameos by T-Dot’s lyrical marksman Daniel Son and Rome’s lady, who also spits, Chyna Streetz.