America’s Most Debaucherous
What do college students do when they are bored? Why, they roam the neigboring streets of their college of course! On one brisk night on March 30th, I attended the NSFW concert. I know y’all may be scratching your heads and thinking “Oh, that’s some freaky sh*t”, but it wasn’t. It was a space for people of all kinds to express their art and admire other people’s art.
The NSFW event was a show that combined the fine arts with contemporary rap and electronic music. One of the artists present at the show was Rob Apollo, a native Detroit rapper who started on Soundcloud. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Rob Apollo in Tropical Smoothie to talk with him about his music, his goals, and his passions. He had started creating music ten years ago when he was 14, a freshman in highschool. He and his friends had created a KiK groupchat and would create and send music to each other through there. According to Rob, he started officially dropping music when he was a sophomore in highschool, so he has been in the music game for a while now. Rob said, “It was a little cliche and f*c*ed up to be a soundcloud rapper in highschool.” Soundcloud rappers definitely weren’t taken seriously in highschool, but a majority of soundcloud rappers like Rob Apollo and Tekashi 69 (when he started out) have a unique sound to them.
Rob has always been creative and artistic since he was young. Music gave him a chance to do something with his friends while also creating at the same time. Rob Apollo has a pretty bold and unique style with his fiery red hair and his piercings. I asked him if he had any intentions with how he dressed and his lyrics. He said “I am not super into fashion but I like to dress in a way that represents me. I’m a pretty colorful guy.” Rob’s music is full of character and quirkiness. I had never heard of Rob Apollo until I went to his NSFW show. I appreciated that his music was different and had a sense of humor to it without limits. Rob described his music as “definitely out there and silly and debaucherous.” His music is a reflection of how he thinks and feels. He’s trying to push the fun and extreme line while being fun and progressive at the same time.
The song that really made Rob Apollo big was a Tik Tok song that he created called “Seppuku.” No one had recognized that this was Rob’s song. Even Ed Sheeran had commented on his lyrics saying “Unfortunately that’s a bar.” Seppuku is definitely an anime reference and I picked up on that right away being an anime nerd myself. Rob is an anime fan himself, (he is up to date on One Piece) and he was able to fill me in on the meaning of Seppuku. Seppuku is a Japanese suicide ritual performed by samari’s and it’s related to the samarai honor code. He named the song Seppuku because it’s a comical song about how you should “off yourself if you’re broke” and also because you’re disobeying your honor by not upholding what’s right by getting your stuff together. It’s a creative play in the music world between anime, nerdiness, and music. Just like Meghan Thee Stallion, Rob Apollo also has nerdy references in his song by incorporating anime.
With his music, Rob is trying to reach out to those “weird alt” people that might fit in in some spaces, but not in others. He described it as “every friend group has a more weird or out there friend and that friend is usually a Rob Apollo fan.” Rob gets to see all of these people come together in one room to enjoy his music. I definitely felt seen, heard, and accepted in his artistic space. It is a safe space for fun and creativity. The Detroit culture has definitely influenced Rob’s music. According to Rob, Detroit has a very “do it yourself” vibe. We can see this with all of the businesses that are popping up on Livernois. The hustle grind is very deeply ingrained in Detroit which makes it pretty easy for Rob to attain his goals.
Currently, Rob has ten albums out now, which may seem like a shocker to some of y’all out there because we don’t hear him on the radio. You can find seven of them on Soundcloud. Rob’s first album of the NSFW series is NSFW Notoriously Debacherous, the second part of that album is NSFW I Like Girls, which is what was mostly performed at the NSFW event. NSFW 3 will be coming out later this year or next year and will be called Red Head Jacka$$. Rob hopes to collaborate with some other artists and producers like My Favorite Color and Cardi B. You can find America’s Most Debaucherous, Rob Apollo, on Apple Music, Soundcloud, and Youtube Music. Y’all go give him a listen!