L.E.P. - Ozone Magazine

Over the last few months Randy
“Rain” Watford has been seen
on every medium available for
an up-and-coming artist, so his
face may be familiar. Expect heavy Rain in
the foreseeable future, and we’re not talking
bad weather or a stack of ones in the air.
Coming out of Fayetteville, NC, has it been
harder for you to get heard
Yeah, it makes it harder because Fayetteville
is a military base city. The problem with
that is, people from the city are always coming
in and out. There’s always new people
moving in and people that have been here
for years moving out. So it’s kinda hard
to get your buzz up, ‘cause the people
that relate to you and know you, let’s say
you’re putting in a two year grind out here,
those same people might not even be here.
So, it’s harder to build your buzz out here
versus a place like New York or Atlanta.
That’s why it forces me to hit other markets
to promote my music.
At one point you moved to New York. Is that
the reason you moved there
I moved there because I wound up dropping
out of school. My mother basically told me,
“You can’t stay here with me if you’re not
gonna be in school.” I figured I’d go to New
York. My father was staying there at the
time; I didn’t really know him ‘cause he was
locked up for the majority of my young life.
I thought it’d be a good time to get to know
him and at the same time pursue my career.
How did New York work out for you
My mother wasn’t there and my father
wasn’t helping me. As far as the music
goes, I had to get out there and grind on my
own. I didn’t know anybody up there. It put
me in a situation where I was forced to grow
up a little bit quicker and be more mature at
an early age.
You have been able to establish a buzz. But
your buzz is more internet and DVD related.
The buzz I got now is from me keeping
up on what was going on. As soon as the
DVDs started poppin’, I made sure I jumped
into that. A lot of people catch on to things
late. I was always a person that keeps my
eyes open, and my ears open, to see what
the next thing was. Every opportunity that
opens, I make sure I attack it. What a lot of
artists do nowadays is, they come out and
release records but nobody knows their
story. That’s why you might see somebody
with a hit record on MTV and BET, but they
won’t sell no records when their album
comes out because nobody knows them.
People don’t really buy into your music;
they buy into your character. People like
Jeezy because of his persona, so the
people that were relating to him bought his
music. And that’s what I’m doing right now.
I’m giving people me, who I am. That’s
why you see me in different magazines, on
DVDs, I’m giving you a chance to see me
before I present all my music.
You were recently on Rap City’s “Spit
Yo Game.” How’d that opportunity come
about
BET reached out. That was crazy. I don’t
have a record deal. So for me to be doing
all this with no deal, this has nothing to do
with me; this is God pushing opportunities
to me and I tackle them. For me to be
on BET and come back to my hood, and
people see me like, “Yo, I just saw you on
BET,” it motivates me ‘cause I’m one of
theirs. They didn’t grow up with the rappers
in the game now; they grew up with me.
Seeing me on TV shows them that there’s
something else they can do.
Not too long ago, you dropped a mixtape
with Don Cannon. What kind of response
did you get from that
The mixtape with Don Cannon was like
the classic for the streets. The CD’s called
Highly Unanticipated and I did that to basically
clown and joke on my situation. Most
artists come out and be fronting like, “I’m
the hottest dude out, they’re anticipating
me,” and I felt the exact opposite. I feel like
I’m hot and putting good music out, but
nobody’s waiting to hear a Rain CD. So, I
feel like the theme we were going with, we
tackled it pretty good.
Are you going to be at Bike Week this year
Yeah, any situation like this, you gotta be
there, especially when it’s your town or your
state. I’ll have the whole team with me,
First in Flight Entertainment. Best believe
you’ll see me out there with like fifty people.
They’re gon’ have Rain t-shirts on, passing
out Highly Unanticipated CDs and we’re
gon’ try to make an impact out there.
OZONE | 17