Today we’d like to introduce you to Rico.
Hi Rico, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Well how I got started rapping is I used to watch my older brother do it when I was around 12 at the time I was into dancing. I listened to a lot of music though and as I got a little older I didn’t wanna dance anymore I wanted to rap too. So around the age of 14 I entered my first talent show with a group and we rapped and even though we didn’t win the feeling and reaction that I got from being on stage in front of people I knew it was something I really wanted to do I knew I wanted to entertain people on stage. Fast forward a few years now I’m fully invested in rapping but I had no identity or direction until a met a guy name Kemo who was going by the name Lo Pro at the time. He was a gospel rapper though. The first time I ever recorded a song was with him he had a 4 track set up . We formed a really good friendship through the music and he started giving me advice and direction on my songs and he inspired me so much until eventually I joined his group which became Afta-Life a gospel rap group made up of 5 members and we performed as Afta-Life in the gospel arena for a few years. After the group disbanded me and Kemo remained very good friends as I embarked on my journey as a solo artist. Now with the gospel rap on my resume I have an identity as well as direction which was a positive one. While gospel rapping I learned to tell the truth which was very easy for me and I wanted to stick to that format because it came natural to me to tell the truth in my songs. Fast forward about 5yrs now I’ve come into my own I’m going by the name Mynd Ryte and I tell myself I need a stage name that really represents me and what I stand for cause I’m just a regular everyday guy and JoH-ReGuLaH (pronounced Joe Regular) was born. Now today JoH-ReGuLaH is that everyday normal guy who does normal everyday things from waking up early going to a 9to5 to buying scratch offs in the store and when you listen to JoH ReGuLaH that’s exactly what you get normal everyday stories and adventures no guns, glorifying money and cars etc that’s not what your gonna get from a Joh Reg record. Joh Regulah represents the normal people from my song “Regular Joe” to “Who I Am” which covers adventures in a day in the life of a regular Joe. JoH Reg is your cousin, brother, friend, co-worker that you hang out with on a daily basis.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My road to getting to where I am now wasn’t the roughest but it also wasn’t the smoothest either. I will say the rough patches were wrestling with being myself verses doing what every other rapper was doing and saying and I quickly realized I definitely couldn’t say what they were saying because I wasn’t doing what they were doing long story short I couldn’t rap about the streets because I wasn’t a street guy. Just being myself was a struggle because it wasn’t a lane for us normal people. The only other obstacle to me was there wasn’t much of an opportunity given for rap or hiphop in the city and I say rap or hiphop because it’s really two different genres.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As a professional outside of music I work in healthcare. I work at Vanderbilt Hospital I really love working with people and brighten up someone’s day. I’m a people person I can talk to anyone and make anyone laugh I don’t meet a stranger. I’m most proud of being a great father to my daughter it’s been the greatest blessing it’s no better job than being a father. What sets me apart from others is no matter what I know who I am and what I stand for as a person and no matter how old I get I’ll never stop doing what I love or let someone tell me I’m too old to do what I love.
