We recently had the chance to connect with Rollo Papers and have shared our conversation below.
Rollo, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
My most recent show was getting to open for Curren$y at Music Box in downtown San Diego in May this year. Opening for Curren$y was a legitimate dream come true because he was one of the artists me and my brother would listen to growing up as kids all the time. The venue was packed out shoulder to shoulder and it was surreal to see one of my childhood heroes perform with myself as a part of the actual show. I got the chance to bring out a couple artists with me as well. SieteGang Yabbie and 88thagang pulled up to perform their hit single Team Spirit during my set which was a special moment for me because they are a couple of the biggest names in the city right now and it truly meant a lot for them to be willing to pull up for me on stage. I was able to bring out Sophie Yoder as well who is a super talented singer I discovered through my friends in San Diego. It was two experiences in one getting to have a big artist in Yabbie join me on stage while also giving Sophie a chance to perform on a major show for the first time. That was how I got my start getting on big shows – I wasn’t on the official setlist but came out during other people’s sets to get that experience. And from there I started getting booked without having to be a part of other people’s time slots. So to have big time names show up with me, giving a new artist a major experience, all while opening for one of my favorites, it was truly a surreal night. Definitely gotta thank Carleton Overstreet and Droops from Outdahouse for pulling all that together for me.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
When I was in school one of my best friends and teammates on my college baseball team was a rapper who went by Palz. His energy and passion inspired me to want to be a part of what he was doing and so I bought a beat making machine to start trying to make beats for him to rap to. After I actually bought the beat maker, he ended up deciding he was done with rap and wanted to commit full time to making it as far as he can with baseball. I knew I didn’t want to waste the 300 dollars I just spent buying this thing, so I started making songs on my own. I got an immediate reaction right away from a lot of people who told me they really liked what I was making. The field hockey team at my school even started using one of my songs as their pregame warm up song in their locker room, and they would play it from the field speakers during their practices, so people would be walking around campus hearing my song played. When I noticed people starting to quote my lyrics I decided I wanted to see what would happen if I actually took music seriously. Fast forward to 2021, I got on my first official show opening for OhGeesy at a club appearance in San Diego. That night I met Bar1ne who is one of the if not the biggest hip hop DJ in San Diego. He brought me around the city and taught me a lot about the game, most importantly about how to carry myself as a professional artist. I started getting shows through Bar1ne which translated into getting on to a lot of major shows including being able to travel to perform at shows in places like Arizona and SXSW in Texas. Now in 2025, I’ve opened for over 10 major artists, got features from some of the biggest names in the world incuding Snoop Dogg, and am very comfortable and confident with where things are headed.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
There’s two people I always acknowledge when it comes to helping me get where I am today. Like I mentioned with Bar1ne, he really took a huge risk putting his name next to mine so quickly and made sure people knew that I was to be respected. I know how much I owe him and I’m pretty sure he knows how much I looked up to him, almost to the point that it might have been awkward, cause a lot of times I was trying to hide how nervous I was when he was introducing me to certain people or putting me on opportunities that to him felt normal, but to me felt surreal. He was a complete stranger the night of the OhGeesy performance, and by the next day he was texting me talking about how he saw how my brand and me as an artist could really work. He taught me a lot about what it means to be a rapper, what it means to be an artist, and how to handle myself within hip hop and the music business. To this day I don’t really know why he was so confident in me when I was still not that confident in myself, but whatever it was, it really motivated me to go as hard as I could.
Along with that is Carleton Overstreet, mostly known as CO. CO is one of the biggest show promoters, managers, and overall music executives in San Diego. He also took a risk by putting his name next to mine so quickly and publicly that it motivated me a lot to make sure I held up to the standard. CO has either met or worked with probably anyone you can name in music from Beyonce to Snoop Dogg. While Bar1ne showed me the game from the creative side, CO has taught me everything about the business world of music and entertainment. He gave me a chance early on because of how much time I spent volunteering through our non-profit organization SDHipHop5k, and once he saw what I am capable of on stage, told me he was willing to get me on to any shows that I could as long as the opportunity and timing was right. With his major league access at my disposal, I truly am just one undeniable song away from changing my life forever. So the motivation to make as much music as possible is always there. I just gotta find that one that will be ready for what he can make happen.
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
Relax. Breathe. Clear the mind. Focus. Take it one day at a time. Slow down. You have so much time. When you are in your 20’s every birthday after 21 starts to hurt a little more. You celebrate every birthday as a kid because each one feels like a milestone, then once the milestones based on age stop happening, each year feels like a little punch to the gut. But what I would tell my younger self, and anyone who is still super young, is to try your best to understand how much time you truly have. That doesn’t mean sit around and wait for things to happen. But it does mean that it is okay if the results you want are not happening right now. Aside from that, embracing the fact that everything truly does happen for a reason. There are so many parts of my life that felt like it wasn’t worth living anymore, but every one of those times has led to something great happening because of it. I was cut from my college baseball team as a returning player – I didn’t play all 4 years – which felt like my entire universe collapsing, But that opened up my time to realize that my true calling wasn’t sports, it was music. I initially got my first shot at the music indsutry in Pittsburgh and even though it still breaks my heart that that opportunity didn’t pan out the way I wanted, it led to me leaving Pittsburgh to move to San Diego. That’s two examples right away that felt like my world ending, but because of those things happening, they led me to where I am today.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
I don’t know if its a cultural value but the law of attraction is so real. I used to run around my school’s campus saying “one day I’m gonna make music with Taylor Gang!” I was obsessed with Wiz Khalifa and Taylor Gang when I was younger so much so that I truly believed he was basically a real life superhero. 364 days after graduating – to the day exactly – I ended up in the studio with Kris Hollis, an R&B singer from Taylor Gang, through my internship with Justin Cicco at Upstreet Studios. I verbalized what I wanted, and exactly 1 day shy of a full year later, I was literally living the dream I always talked about. That experience showed me the law of attraction is real without even realizing what I was doing, before I knew it existed. I now firmly believe that you can speak things into existence, that your thoughts create frequencies in the universe, and that the energy you give off will always be the energy you receive.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What are you doing today that won’t pay off for 7–10 years?
I really hope its faster than that, but building my brand Rolled Souls is truly something I want to take to a level of being on par with names like Nike, Disney and Chipotle. I came up with the concept for the Rolled Souls based on my experience as a college baseball player turned rapper. Its not a common backstory for a hip hop artist. I wanted to find a way to combine my passion for sports with my passion for music, so the idea behind Rolled Souls is creating a world where artists and athletes can come together on one team. A lot of times, athletes and artists are viewed as two different worlds, but we are all under the same umbrella of entertainment. Rolled Souls is a brand that makes those worlds collide. I want to support getting healthy while getting wealthy, keeping your physical body sound while making your creative juices grow. As far as merch goes, our apparel is strictly related to sports gear. I have custom baseball, basketball and football jerseys where you can get whatever name and number you want on the back and therefore join the team. A lot of people really like the idea of the jerseys as well as what the brand represents. What I am trying to do now is get the budget it takes to turn it from a cool small business to major brand.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/rollopapers
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rollopapers/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@rollopapers
Image Credits
Brooke Black
Sophie Yoder
Sarah Tarin
Quay Young
Jonathon Meza
SieteGang Yabbie
David Bruhanski
Grace Graham
