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LRoc

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Written by Stu

LRoc A journey through Atlanta’s Hip Hop scene, these days, will find you rubbing shoulders with many future legends of Rap music, behind the closed studio doors lie the musicians, the beatsmiths, the songwriters, the people you don’t get to see up close and personal other than through their music and lyrics on tracks, their names appear on the credits but they tend to stay quiet in the commercial world.
If you don’t already know the name then let me introduce you to the world of LRoc a songwriter, instrumentalist and producer whose contributions to tracks has led to gold, platinum and multi platinum sales. Having won a Grammy Award for his songwriting contributions on the massive “Yeah” by Usher, LRoc was also nominated for a Grammy in 2005 for his work on Mariah Carey’s album alongside Jermain Dupri, also a winner of several ASCAP most performed song awards, it’s not hard to see what a major player in the Industry this guy is.

Born in Liberia, James Elbert Phillips was thrust in to music at an early age. At 5 years old a young LRoc was taking classical Piano lessons whilst taking interests in other instruments. He was self taught bass on his brothers guitar through listening to tunes the radio. Though playing music from an early age it was not until his teenage years that his family discovered his love of music. One Christmas LRoc participated in a program at school, performing in every segment and playing a different instrument each time this would be the trigger that took him to US shores “A few days later my mother brought me to the United States to buy a whole band set, drums, bass and guitar. My Father could not believe I played all those instruments”.

At 16 LRoc found himself in the Bay Area of California spending his time honing his skills in school, local bands and talent shows of which he won several.
Unable to decide what he wanted to do in life after school, after taking advice from a friend he joined the US Army. With his keyboard in hand LRoc made his way to Europe where he was stationed in Germany. During this time he wrote and produced artists gaining a sense of the business side of the music industry, “I was able to see the business-side of the industry while I was stationed there. Everything from publishing, product, sales, it was a real education, I knew that when I got out of the army I was going to start producing full time”

After leaving the army LRoc headed to Atlanta in pursuit of his dream. Through a mutual friend he was contacted by So So Defs Jermaine Dupri who was looking for a keyboardist to write with him. The pair clicked musically and there relationship led to four years of writing and co-producing hits with Nelly, Murphy Lee, Mariah Carey, Bow Wow, Janet Jackson and other artists.

This year LRoc was a panellist on the Songwriter and Musicians panel at REMIX Hotel 2007 in ATL and on the producers panel at Billboards R&B / Hip Hop conference. With upcoming projects with the likes of Usher it is plain to see that this producer / writer is at the top of his game, having personally being influenced by George Clinton, Parliament Funkadelic, Prince, Chaka Khan and others LRoc himself will be the influence for many future producers in the industry.

From his beginnings in Liberia to the Army in Germany and to this present day LRoc’s story is an influence in itself, never give up your dreams, work hard and who knows one day you may be producing or writing the next “Yeah”.

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