Today we’d like to introduce you to Ron Wilson.
Hi Ron, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was born in Minnesota and grew up through my adolescent years in San jose, CA (then moved back to MN). I grew up in a single parent home. San Jose was where I got my first taste of hip hop, that was introduced to my by my cousin. Hip hop forever changed me, something about the beats/poetry/and story telling, would stick with me for the rest of my life. Growing up in a single parent home can cause a kid to question a lot of things in life. I have felt pain and heartache that can make it hard to navigate life. The one solid truth in my life was that my mom’s steadfast love and support would give me hope. During hard times, Hip hop was an escape for me. I could get lost in music for hours. Once I would hit play on the tape deck, everything around me would fade away. When My mom and I moved back to Minnesota, the 2 things I brought back with my was my love of basketball and hip hop. Music would follow my through high school and into College. It would provide the same escape for me through those years. It wasn’t until college that I would write my first rhymes. It kind of just Happened. My roommate and I would live to hip hop all the time, but on this particular day I grabbed a pen and a notebook and for some reason I began to write. Lyrics began to bleed from my pencil, and I would go on to writing my first 4 songs in one sitting. As first I didn’t really know what it was or what I was doing. It just felt good to get all this stuff that was trapped inside of me out. Once I started to process what I just did, I understood that I was creating and this became a form of therapy for me. I truly fell in love with it, and the expression. Later that school year, our college was hosting a concert, so I asked if I could open up the show. I didn’t have much experience with performing, but I was given the opportunity. I still get chills today when I think about them introducing my name and I grabbed the mic, and the rest of history. I have always been know to be a pretty laid back, quiet person who always had headphones on and never got to loud. There was something about holding that mic (in the same way that I was listen to music to escape) everything would fade away and I would find peace. From this point, I started doing open mics, and trying to perform wherever I could. Back then we didn’t have social media or any of what we have today, most stuff was by word of mouth or recommendation. We were in the early stages of internet, So I remember trying to find some new hip hop, and I stumbled across this Artist named: Sev Statik. It had his info online, so I just reached out to him. This is the part that is amazing, he could of totally blown me off but chose to engage and talk with me. I asked if I could send him this lil mix tape I was working on. At that time all I had was a karaoke machine and a microphone. So everything had to be done in one take, or you had to start over from the beginning. So it wasn’t studio quality at all. I sent it to Sev, and he could of easily bashed my stuff and discouraged me from rapping.. Instead, he told me he heard a lot of potential in my stuff. This continued to light the fire within me. Also, he invited me to come out to New York and hangout with him and build. This was an amazing opportunity (he was an established artist in the underground) So I flew out to Ny to hang out with him and learn. He invited me to feature on a track, as well as helped me record my own stuff. Through this process I learned so much and would take it back home with me to elevate what I was already doing. Sev continued to stay in contact with me and become a mentor. For me this was huge and something I will never take for granted. From this point I continued to write and record on my karaoke machine and do more shows. As I continued to look for more hip hop that was out there, I found an artist who ran a record label in San Jose, CA. SO I reached out and we continued to connect and build. He offered for me to come out to San Jose to record in his studio and talk more music. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Once I got to California, all communication stopped and the artist Ghosted me. I was pretty discouraged, but my cousin who introduced me to hip hop was frustrated, but found out that his wife’s friends husband has a studio and does hip hop. So long story short, she got us connected. This was an even bigger blessing in disguise. Jendor (the artist) helped me record my first ep (he also mixed and mastered it). Jendor went above and beyond, we ended up making cassette tapes of the ep, and attended a pretty big Bboy/Breakdance event and handed them out. He also was connected to radio Dj’s out in San Jose and was able to get my music played on the radio while I was out there. I think the best part was he talk me about this compilation called: Night owls, and thought one of the songs I recorded would fit perfect. So he submitted it to the record label for a chance to get on Nigh Owls. IT ended up getting picked up. This helped me tremendously on getting my name out even further. When I left San Jose, Jendor continued to stay in contact with me and become another mentor. It was crazy to me, that I was just a young guy, who had a passion for rapping and all these pieces continued to fall into place. The third connection happened to be a producer/creative from Red Lake Nation named Garlic Brown. We connected through a music app, and started to build, he would drop off beat cds to me in Bemidji at night. I would start to meet up with him in Red lake and write/record/freestyle. This would birth my first full length album called: Innersection which kind of put things on the map for me. WE have stayed connected ever since. He is a hidden gem and a talent that could be massive if he wanted it to be. I can never forget my guy Garlic Brown. Long story short, I continued to do shows and connect with more people. I would run into a group called Sackcloth fashion out of San Diego, CA. They also ran a record label. We continued to connect and the rest was history. I ended up signing to their record label. From this point on I was going on tour with artists as well as doing tour runs as a solo act with 2 DJ’s that helped me out tremendously along the way. Dj Exodus and DJ Micah spent a lot of time on the road with me traveling all over the country. These 2 amazing guys, I can never thanks enough. They helped me craft and elevate my live show more then I could have imagined. I was able to tour full time all over the country and some over seas. This was something I could have never imagined. When I look back as a kid who would get lost into hip hop music to a young adult who just started to write and share my own story and fall in love with it. IT almost felt meant to be with how everything fell into place.. I was able to release an album called: excuse me which did really well. It was featured in a couple very popular magazines that I used to buy and read all the time, as well as be featured on the Nike website, and music still plaed in Nike outlets all over the US, as well as the front of Zune, and yahoo, etc…. the album and syntax records helped to open up so many doors and opportunities that I have never even dreamed of. I I believe i have performed in all but 4 states.. I have done shows in front of crowds of 20-15k people. I also was able to feature one of my favorite rappers (Royce da 5’9) on my single goin outta control, I also have another song from the same project that has well over 2 million streams to date. As well as many other songs and projects that have been streaming great. I eventually stepped away from touring and doing music fulltime. I stepped away to be home more with my wife and kids. Since stepping away, I continue to still write/record and release music. I still do some shows here and there as well as school assemblies, and art camps. Music is still my therapy and safe space. When I look back, I honestly have to all thanks and Glory to God. That’s the big reason behind my name: Kaboose. When you think about a caboose on the train tracks it is stuck unless it has the engine pulling it. That was like my life, I was once stuck on the tracks without God in my life as the engine. As I look back it makes more sense the way the pieces would fall into place. My whole goal with hip hop as to encourage other who were once stuck like me, and give them some hope and be an encouragement. It is super cool to be one of the first rap artists to break out from around here.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There is always ups and downs. For the most part the journey has been pretty smooth. My wife and I met in college, and we got maried early and started to have kids early. I have had to learn how to balance family time and music. When I was home I was stay at home dad, and when I was on the road it would be for a week to couple weeks at a time (longest tour being 2 months). I also had a couple people that I would talk to often and have accountability and pray with. It can get lonely on the road, and there is so many things that can try to sway or tempt you. Having mentors really helped me stay the course. My wife was one of my biggest supporters. There is no way this would of even been possible without her support, love and belief. One of the hardest things I had to adjust to was wanting every single person on earth to enjoy my music. This is not possible, but I was so passionate about doing music I just thought everyone would dig it. Theres always gonna be people that don’t like what you do, I had to learn how balance and to cater to the fans that loved what I did and focus on them instead of tryna win over people that will never like what I do. I had to lean into being awethentic and just being unashamedly me(knowing some people will not like me).I also at times would let the inner thoughts get to me, that I wasn’t good enough, or didnt deserve this, or constantly down playing myself. The way that things would fall into place would always remind me that I’m here for a reason. Getting out and rocking live shows really helped me fine tune being comfortable in my own skin, and having a fun time connecting with new people along the way.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I do hip hop Music. More speciafically: I’m an emcee/performer. I write poetry/raps and am a professional recording artist. I specialize in writing and speaking from the heart, remaining awethentic. I feel like I specialize in and am known for
rocking live shows and really connecting with people. I also do writing work shops for youth, helping them tap into their own awethentic selves, and really push them to tap into their own stories and embrace them. Doing these workshops is really about teaching people to use writing as a for of therapy. It doesn’t have to just be raps, it can be journaling, etc…
I would say one of the most things I am proud of is coming from a broken home and alot of doubt and questions as a kid, to finding a passion and wholeheartedly running with it (even when others didn’t see or understand the vision), and truly making it a fulltime job for a portion of my life, and still doing it today. Showing youth/people that no matter your circumstance, there is always hope and you have a choice to make change. I think also understanding that there is going to be people in your life that are support systems and to really lean into them. Also sharing Gods Love and light along the way. God is really that engine in my life that keeps me on track.
If I had to say one thing that sets me apart, is not being afraid to be myself and be awethentic in this world where social media seems to guide the standard or who or what we should be. trends come and go, but awethenticity always remains. I was created me for a purpose, why would i want to be anyone else? I am not perfect, or the best at what I do, but I can promise you that I am the best me I can be.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
One of the most important lessons that I have learned is that our story is never over. This is something I have learned from my Mom, I have seen her go through so much in life and have times where it may have seemed like it was over. Never once did she give up, or better yet give up on me. she continues to fight and contues to write her story. When I do school assemblies this is one of the biggest things I talk about, is that every morning we wake up (which is a huge blessing), we get a chance to continue to write our story. Yes we make misatkes and mess up, we are flawed human beings who are constantly learning. It is what we do with those lessons that count, how we fall and can get back up and write ourselves back on the right path with our choices and how we choose to use them and learn. I could of easily given up, having a learning disability, or having haert issues at 17 years old, But That story wasn’t done and isn’t done yet. Our feet are the pen/pencil that writes that story. For me personally My wife and kids are what keep me grounded and keep me pushing forward. Also by the grace of God that I’m still here and still thriving in the midst of my imperfections and flaws. I think understanding there are going to be bad days, but in those bad days who do we trully look to that will lift us up, and in the good times who do we look to and can count on to celebrate with. That is your support system. that is also my constant message to really lean into those people that truly love you and have your best interest in mind.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: kaboose.hiphop
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kaboosehiphop
- Twitter: kaboose.hiphop
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIWddYLDHGIGZJHQ_G46noQ
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/syntaxcreative
