Every day, Jason Rosen walks two blocks to his sister’s apartment and is met by uninterrupted silence, just what he needs.

In his makeshift studio, he is surrounded by a simple array of equipment, a microphone, its stand and a pop filter, used to enhance the quality of sound when recording.

The undeclared sophomore in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, whose artist name is Jay Rose, launched his public rap career Sept. 30 on SoundCloud. His premier track, “Dreams” is about how he’s been waiting for an opportunity to arrive, working hard and having a goal.

“One day, I just woke up and realized that this is what I wanted to do,” Rosen said. “I kept getting better and better after practicing a lot.”

Just three days into working an office job this summer, Rosen walked away to devote his time to his musical career.

“It was my only chance to really get to rap since I’ll probably need to get an internship next summer,” Rosen said.

As he continues to record more original material, Rosen plans to produce music videos for his songs. For now, he uses SoundCloud to get his music noticed and relies heavily on Syracuse Facebook pages.

The north New Jersey native’s first rap experience was in seventh grade when his teacher assigned a book report on the S.E. Hinton coming-of-age novel “The Outsiders.” The students were given the option to show their comprehension of the book in many ways. Rose and his friend decided to write a song.

“We worked on GarageBand as a simply platform when we made the song,” he said. “We played it for the teacher and she loved it; everyone then in the school started playing it.”

In his eighth grade talent show, Rosen performed for the first time. Since then, he has not rapped or sang live. He didn’t rap or sing during high school, but after the four-year hiatus, Rosen said he is back on the grid. His current roommate, who he met his freshman year, is a very passionate rapper and music lover. Since last year, they would freestyle nearly every day.

So far, Rosen has only recorded and publicized solo music. He has rough drafts of songs he’s written with his roommate, but has no plans of putting any of that material out for the next few weeks.

Virtually all of Rosen’s roommates are interested in music. They all frequently create music, rap together and turn one another onto new artists.

Rosen said he listens to Drake most often, but that J. Cole is his biggest inspiration.

“J. Cole is so deep in all of his songs,” Rosen said. “He does this thing where he sings his chorus in his own way; he sings and incorporates the rap. All of his songs are so meaningful and they come straight from his heart.”

The rapper views music as an art in that sometimes one can write a song just for fun and sometimes one can write something incredibly meaningful to them. His three songs fit this idea as they are about varying topics.

His song, “Coming With You” is an emotional relationship song. The beat is slow and his vocals are methodic.

His most recent song “Woke Up Like This,” which was released on Monday, plays off the idea that he has been preparing and working hard to get to where he is today. The sound has an electronic sound and a fast-paced beat.

Rose sees himself rapping, singing and writing music at least for the next 10 years.

“I know my life’s going to be revolved around music,” he said. “I’d rather do this than be rich any day.”

Published on October 20, 2015 at 10:43 pm

Contact: rcplaut@syr.edu