Logan Ramsey
Editor-in-Chief
The roar of the crowd. The thunder of the bass. The flow of the rap. Pocatello hip-hop fans gathered at a local hip-hop showcase, which the rappers involved say is the beginning of an underground rap culture in the city.
The showcase was held on Feb. 23 at the Elks Lodge, and the performance featured five different rappers: Royal, Gramm, Trippy and Grim$lugga of Jaded Legends, in addition to Brass and Uncle Ric.
The show was free for admission, and the rappers involved said they wanted it that way to show people how much they value their support and to pull in more attention to Pocatello’s rap scene.
“People who will support you are more valuable than charging 5 dollars per head on a show,” said Royal, known offstage as Jordan Ronk.
Royal, who also goes by JRoyal, said much of his inspiration for his music comes from the rap scene in Atlanta, and he said that’s what he’s trying to do in Pocatello.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he said.
Before Ronk was Royal, his music journey started out four years ago in his parents’ basement.
Royal watched other Pocatello rappers make music but never make a scene out of it, so he began learning how to make beats. He started practicing and working to try and get his foot in the door.
He wasn’t rapping yet. Royal felt that the work of being a producer wasn’t being done in Pocatello, and that was a gap he wanted to fill.
It wasn’t the ideal setup. He often had to bring his mother’s computer from downstairs when she was out of town to work on music.
Royal said what came after that was a time of great progression. He moved out of his parents’ house and began to invest in himself and his music.
He started to bring other rappers into his studio and do work with them, which is where he met Gramm, Trippy and Grim$lugga.
Gramm, who would only give his last name, Carter, had been rapping and making beats, but he said it got “so much better” once he started working with Royal.
They put in hours of work on the first weekend they ever wrote together and by the end of it, they’d put out an EP.
“Shoutout to JRoyal, ‘cause that man really be putting in good words for the city, for the town, and for what we do, what we support and what we’re about,” Gramm said.
“JRoyal is the man who influenced all of us to really start making rap music,” said Grim$lugga, or Zack Hopkins.
“Royal took the jump when everyone was afraid to,” said Brass, or Conner Moon.
Royal eventually began rapping in addition to his producing work and put in as much work as he could.
“I treated it like a job, even though I was putting my own money into it and not getting anything back,” Royal said.
Royal eventually went on tour with a big-name rapper, Mark Battles, and went to Salt Lake, Boise, Seattle, Oregon and Denver.
On that tour, Royal held a free show for all his fans who support him, and he knew it would be important to do that in Pocatello.
The wheels for the showcase started spinning once Gramm was coming back to Pocatello from his home in New Mexico and wanted to put on a show.
“It was my idea, but the homies are what really made it what it is now,” Gramm said.
The early discussion started as a concert at a house party, but Grim$lugga wanted to take it a step further and book a venue.
They then began finding rappers to play sets. Uncle Ric, or Eric Ryan, was recruited by Trippy when they were recording a track together.
Once Brass and Uncle Ric were playing, they’d found the rappers they needed to fill the show and then began work on rehearsing and promoting the show.
Uncle Ric played the set that he and Trippy recorded at the showcase and opened up the show with a set of his own music.
“I don’t like the whole like, women, money, chains, it doesn’t appeal to me,” Uncle Ric said. “I like when people talk about what’s really happening in life.”
The rappers worked to make the show have as high of production value as they could for the budget they had to work with. The sets went off without a hitch, and fog covered the “pit,” or the front of the stage.
The performers said this is the first of many rap concerts that Pocatello will see.
“We did this more for us and anyone else who wants to turn up and be themselves,” said Trippy, or Joe Walker.
“It’s our first show as our new movement, everything that we’ve been doing,” Grim$lugga said. “We really just wanted people to come out and party with us and see what we’re all about.”
Royal recognizes that the rap culture is still forming, but he and the rest of the performers said they’re ready to put the work in.
“The culture isn’t here yet,” Royal said. “It’s too early for the culture, but this is a great stepping stone because you open up a lot of doors.”
“We’ve been going harder than anyone else in our vicinity has gone,” Gramm said. “It don’t matter where you from or what you do, if you can do work and you can make music that people like, you can put your city on the map.”
