Months ago, I interviewed local rap group, The Designer Boyz at their studio, and before sitting down to talk they had me listen to rapper/producer Hero’s new single “Mama Rich” before it dropped. After listening to it , I told them “This song is going to be a hit”…. It had all the components of a hit record: a great beat, catchy lyrics, and a positive message.

I was right…. since the record dropped it got over 91,000 listens on soundcloud, and even Rick Ross himself was seen bumping to it on social media. Mama Rich is your new summer anthem.

I normally do not interview people twice, but after seeing the “Mama Rich” music video on youtube, and then downloading it on iTunes (yes I pay for music!). I wanted to get the background story from Hero himself before he becomes too famous to spend time little ol’ me.. I am very excited to see Hero Gawd, a local Jersey City rapper making an impact and paving the way for other local rappers and artists.

He invited me to his studio in the Bergen-Lafayette area. He normally never smiles in pictures, but I got one out of him.

What’s your name? Hero.

What do you do? Rap, produce

What have you been doing since my last Designer Boyz Interview? Just pushing that record, pushing that song.

Tell me a little bit more about “Mama Rich.” I produced the record, wrote the record, I actually freestyled the record. I made the beat in fifteen minutes, then went in the studio.

It’s a very positive message, is it something you went through?  It just happened. That’s what music is, it’s just an explanation of your environment, what you go through, what you do.

What I love about the video is it shows you working hard and rapping on the side and you’re not showing other sides of trying to make money in the streets—can you elaborate? Yeah, that was actually a thought of trying to put a scene in there of people trying to offer me [to] do it the street way and then I was going to deny it. We just never got around to shooting that part. It just showed that we left that part out to give people that sense that there’s nothing wrong with working and being that nine to five, and still pursing your dream.

How many hits has “Mama Rich” gotten? I think we [got] 77,000. YouTube right now we’re at 10,000.

I saw that Rick Ross was interested in your song, are you excited? He just happened to hear it. Yeah, it’s cool.

What’s the plan with it? It’s getting there. They picking up on it.

How is the rest of the group doing? Everything is good. Everybody’s working on their solo things, getting everything going.

How are you paying the bills now? I still got a job. I work a nine to five, you know what I mean? The music’s about to kick off…

How does your mom feel about all this? She’s just excited. She likes the whole message and that was my real moms and my real grandma got in the video… it was filmed at my mom’s house… my grandmother, was excited to do it.

Can you tell me who shot the video? Nimi Hendrix, he’s from Newark. He shot it.

When you do get rich was is the first thing you want to buy your mom? A house.

When did you start producing and rapping? When I was like twelve, when I started rapping and putting rhymes together. And then like high school, thirteen, fourteen, I downloaded Fruityloops.

What’s your favorite Jersey City hangout spot? Places to eat or hangout? Here, [the studio].

How do you feel about the Hip-Hop scene in Jersey City? We’re taking over.

Any rappers locally that you’re into other than Designer Boyz? [There’s] a couple people. So stuff that’s really reached to me that’s like something I play on the regular. There’s a lot of people I know that does music, you know what I mean? Shout-out to them.

Anything else you want people to know about you or your music? [Download “Mama Rich]. It’s going to keep coming.

I saw that when you were performing it people knew the song by heart—Yeah, people know that shit.

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