Dre Robinson aka Dre Rob-N-Son

"I did an on air interview for Iowa the other day with DJ Commando, 101 fm

KBOL and he was really feeling me and I have never met this dude. He's like,

‘I just can't wait to meet you. Whatever you want from us out here, we're

holding you down. They loving the record out here, I bang it in the club and

they are feeling it.’ ”, says 25 year old rapper Dre Rob N Son, in true

disbelief, “And I'm just at home, like I'm on the phone with this dude in my

crib like, “This sh!t is really amazing” dog. This motherf*****’s in Iowa,

in f*****g Iowa like, "I'm loving your record".

But with a single that seems headed to hit status and an ever-raising

national profile, the Jamaican born Boston based MC might want to get used

to that kind of love. The song that’s getting them crunk in Iowa and other

spots around the country is “Get Right” an infectious party anthem from the

thug perspective. Its grown from a Boston club and radio mixshow hit to

being added to the playlists of some of the most powerful mixtape DJ’s in

the country. That kind of love can be pressure. But its pressure that Dre

says is inspiring. “I'm definitely respecting the fact that people are

feeling my stuff, man. It makes me feel good to see people gravitating

towards my music and it makes me feel good that DJ's at these power radio

stations like my records and showing me a lot of support. That gives me more

drive to do what I do. I got all these cats showing me love; it just makes

me want to work twice as hard.”

And the list of who is in his corner is impressive. In a culture that is

founded on the work of the DJ, Dre has been getting some pretty heavyweight

support. Jamn 94.5’s Gee Spin, Hot 97 Boston’s Chubby Chubb, Moe D, Statik

Selektah and Reggie Beas all have it as a part of their mixes. Hot 97 New

York’s Cipha Sounds and DJ Enuff as well as Power 105’s Spinbad have giving

the song play. Gee Spin says “Felli Fel on LA's Power 106 played the

original Get Right every night for a month.”

And just what has everyone trying to join his team? Dre’s impassioned

delivery (often times seemingly on the verge of a scream) and thinking thug’

s lyrics are the hook that has some saying he is the one to watch from

Boston. Dre has an urgency in his flow that seems to call for attention.

That call was first answered for Dre at a young age. A dancer at first it

was the rhymes of greats like Nas and Notorious B.I.G. that opened him up to

the art of words. But only after seeing cats around his way did he decide

that he could break through his shyness on stage. “They were real popular

local groups and they were up there rapping and dancing and I'm like...they

are not really doing nothing I can't do. I always liked dancing and

entertaining and the attention but I'm like a fairly shy dude. So I tried to

write, started writing and I just stuck with it.

But with the accolades and love that he is getting for his music all is not

good. The road to success is rarely a straight one and for Dre, it has more

curves than video girl. After losing both his parents (his father at 10 and

his mother at 23) he became guardian to his younger brother while trying to

jump-start a music career and remove himself from the streets. Having lost

his father at an early age and dealing with the long time illness of his

mother as well as building on the close relationship with his brother the

right way has been tough. But even with the tough times Dre has taken the

bad and turned Hip Hop into an outlet for his stress and pain. That stress

and pain are resonating with the Hip Hop audience. Dre explains, “I got a

lot of anger in me for what I've been through growing up. And when I get in

the booth I can let that sh!t out. I change in the booth. Dramatically. It

all comes from right here (points to his heart). I can let it all go in the

booth. I can just let it loose and when I come out, I be pouring with sweat

I feel like I just finished working out. It’s like a workout. “

Like any workout with decent results there is pain involved. Dre’s rhymes

detail the painful lives of those caught in the struggle of the streets. It’

s a struggle that Dre knows all to well. After moving to Brooklyn as a child

he witnessed his parents’ trials in the drug game. “I was born in Jamaica in

the gutter, Woricker Hills. If you ask about that, you go out there, you'll

see people walking around barefoot in the gravel, you know. [They are] just

hustling for a dollar. Hustling to making a living, struggling to survive.

My pops, rest in peace, my moms, rest in peace, they tried to make ends meet

in Brooklyn. They both were from Jamaica in other way, in a street way,

hustling. My moms stayed in NY with us, my pops was hustling back and forth

from NY and Boston. So my whole life, I’ve seen the street life. We moved to

Boston from NY after my pops got killed and it’s the same life.” Yet even

with his front row seat view of the drug game Dre wasn’t deterred from

joining the grind. It was when Dre mixed the story of his life with the

poetics of Hip Hop that he started to find his creative direction. “I'm in

the streets with my boys and writing and everything just started coming

together for me with the rhymes. My boys were like ‘Yo, you're real good at

telling these stories.’ We'd be out on the street doing stuff and I would

see something and go and write.”

And the stories go beyond the super thug point of view that most are used

to. Dre tries to bring you into the mind of a hustler; “Look Homes it don’t

matter I’m out to get rich so I can feed the poor/Dre been to the bottom

some aint seen the floor/I experienced things y’all aint seen before/in my

young age I live a wild life/either you get clapped or you let your guns

blaze/Every other day somebody hit the front page/Either they getting locked

or they get they mug sprayed/We in a bugged age thinking backwards/its like

n***as hate love and they love hate/And these cops start scheming when you

pump weight/Then they try to lock you down and ship you up state/That’s why

every night I’m up late with blunts and crush grapes.

That continued writing and love of wordplay grew into a desire to get in the

music business. With a crew of his friends he formed the Mic Commandos. The

MC’s eventually caught the attention of the Head Of A&R for local label

Lifeline Records, Joey Fergus Jr. better known as Joey Politics. Fresh from

the break up of his own group Fergus saw in the young guns the hunger that

he had. “Jay Shorty invited me over there telling me "I want you to hear

these dudes" I'm sittin’ there thinkin I'ma hear some garbage. I heard Stab

spit and I was like "Oh sh!t!" Then I heard Dre spit and I was like "Oh

motherf****r!" and I got on the phone. I called Dre Council. Like "Yo Dre,

Come over here. You gotta hear these n****'s". Dre came out. Dre knows me

and I'm like, “These motherf*****s is hot”. Dre comes by, he's like, “Yo let

me hear this sh!t.” So he hears him and he's like "Oh sh!t.

After a while the crew faded down to Dre and Stab (who now goes by the name

Joe Familiar). Dre and Stab’s first single "Cock And Squeeze” garnered some

attention at College radio. Around this time Joey started tapping industry

contacts he gained as an artist and music video director. Producers Clark

Kent (producer of Jay Z and Biggie) and Megahertz (Nas and Puffy) were on

board. But when Lifeline label head Dre Council decided to focus on other

projects and Stab decided to fall back on music a second, Joey stepped up

and took the reins forming Pollymore Music. The Museum School Of Fine Arts

graduate, a legal hustler in his own right took the profits from his various

business ventures (barber shop, real estate) to fund the start up. The

saying goes “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” Dre and Joe started flooding

the streets with freestyles and mixtapes ala 50 Cent and G-Unit to keep it m

oving.

A chance meeting between Joe and Mass Appeal label head and Bluejay studio

co owner Marcus DL helped give them the gas they needed to stay moving. Joe

played Dre’s mixtapes and sparked Mark’s interest. Mark than brought him

Jamn 94.5’s DJ Gee Spin to get his opinion. Dre’s talent shone brilliant

enough to make Gee Spin, one of Boston Hip Hop’s key figures, cut through a

self-admitted cynical haze to jump on board. “I had been looking to get

involved with a local project for the past 2 years. I ended hooking up with

Marcus, and we started looking for "that" artist. It just so happened that

Joey was finishing up some of Dre's work. Marcus came to the station and met

me after work. We sat in his car, and he played the first freestyle. I knew

from the first verse, I wanted to f*** with Dre. We called Joey from the

car, and got some more info. I wanted to meet Dre, so I had them come to the

station, for my Sunday night show, The Launch Pad to see how he vibed and if

he could make it happen live on the radio. He killed it!!! The passion in

his flow and the fact that his did 50 bars straight (without a curse), made

me excited about Hip Hop again. He just has "it". Whatever "it" is, he has

it. He listens. He voices his opinion. He can work a room better than 90% of

the MC's today. He is versatile. And most of all, he is a good dude to be

around.

In a business where showing and proving is essential Dre has mastered the

connecting through his talent. “Everyone who has met Dre and seen him spit

has really taken to him. My man Kay Slay had Dre kick a sick freestyle that

he ran on The Drama Hour on [New York’s] Hot 97, that folks are buzzing

aboutSo the love is there...it just takes time.” And that love has

manifested itself again with Queens duo Mobb Deep deciding to jump on a

remix of “Get Right”. A major feature

What’s on the horizon for Dre? A life that was once consumed with the

streets is now filled with a full slate of recording sessions f