WOMEN’S WEDNESDAY: ROCKY RIVERA

The Bay Area needs to stand up and salute one of their dopest female emcees, Rocky Rivera. Not only is she an emcee, but she’s a hip-hop journalist who won the contributor editor position on MTV’s 2007 document series, “I’m From Rolling Stone.”

Rocky Rivera was born in Angeles City, Philippines, raised in San Francisco, but has now made her home in Los Angeles. Her love for hip-hop blossomed when she went to San Francisco State and majored in journalism. She then began rapping with the stage name EyeAsage, with the rap group she formed called Rhapsodistas in 2004. Members were, Irene Faye Duller aka Shorty Rocwell of the 8th Wonder crew, Valier Francisco (Sho Shock), Natasha Pineda (Sola) and Liezel Rivera (Zelstarrr).

After the Rhapsodistas, she had put out a mixtape called “Married to the Hustle” that was released in February 2008. Some tracks that you should look out for are “Marshmellow”, “Trick Habbit”, “Grimey”, “Girl Like Me” and “Heart” only because they show an eclectic range of her music.

Rocky Rivera has been writing since she could remember. Her career path has had its ups and downs, for the emcee who wrote for Mass Appeal, San Francisco Bay Guardian, XXL, Vapors Magazine, Source and Rolling Stone. In 2008, she made the decision to take a break from pitching story ideas because people were starting to have no concept of what hip-hop was about. That pushed her to take her A game and release it in the studio.

Rocky Rivera wants artists to use hip-hop as a medium to raise awareness about what’s going on in their communities. When and until she gets her point across, she won’t ever stop making music.

Last February, she released her debut album, “Rocky Rivera” which is now available on iTunes. Her most recent piece of work is her mixtape, “Pop Killer”, you can check it out here: