Daily Ooze
In recent times, I came across the puzzling realization that the vast majority of people in the DFW are unaware of the local underground rap scene. On the contrary, it makes perfect sense, hence “ the underground scene. I believe my confusion lies in the people who question its existence. I never expect the common man to list 5 of the hottest rappers in the scene, but to believe that an underground rap scene doesn’t exist in a city as large as Dallas is a bit ignorant. A little harsh? I don’t think so. Rap is the most popular genre of music in America right now, how could anyone think an underground rap scene doesn’t exist in this generation. As I cruise through the metroplex from time to time and share conversations with associates and strangers, I bring awareness about the culture. Almost every time I bring it up, I get the strangest looks. I would get questioned on whether or not I was apart I am actively apart of a secret youth society. Questions like “ Where do y’all meet?”, “Is there a secret code to these meetings?” and “ How did you become apart of that?” are common amongst conversations. It’s comical to see the constant changing facial expressions and body language as I explain the culture. One of my goals during the process of making this magazine was to shed light on the striving youth culture that holds an abundance of diversity, eccentric personalities, different styles and sub genres. This article you’re about to read is the grand introduction in the scene. It was only right that I introduce one of DFW’s notable platforms Daily Ooze and the founder Roman Rose
Let’s start from the beginning before Daily Ooze or Roman existed. Roman’s dad, Oliver Rose, was working behind the scene’s at k104 back in the day. Oliver ended up becoming a close associate with Dr. Rock, who was a disc jockey for the radio station at the time. Although his stay at k104 was brief, Dr. Rock did the Saturday Night Live mix. Shortly after, Oliver ended up working with Fila Fresh Crew, who consisted of Dr. Rock, Fresh K and Dallas legendary rapper D.O.C. Roman mentions that on some occasions, D.O.C. would sleep on his grandma’s floor. Dr. Rock and Dr Dre were close associates, he even taught Dr Dre how to dj. At one point, Dr Dre ended up flying to Dallas from Los Angeles to meet up with D.O.C. and Oliver. From there, Oliver got acquainted with Dr Dre, which lead Oliver to work with gangsta rap group NWA. It’s safe to say that Roman has followed in the dad’s footsteps when it comes to being behind the scene.
Fast forward to modern time. In middle school, Roman upgraded from a Walmart skateboard to a Plan B “ PJ Ladd” complete skate deck. He met up with a few friends who would come down to Oklahoma at Shawnee Trail in Frisco, TX to skate. He noticed another African American skater with impressive skills, rapper known as Lil Sega. They connected and became good friends ever since, along with Sega’s brother Kyle Cannon. Roman credits Sega as his ‘OG”. Not only did Sega teach him how to skate, he introduced him to the sounds of Raider Klan and Goth Money. Oblivious to the music culture but in love with the music, Roman was always skating with Raider Klan in his headphone. At the time he couldn’t smoke weed due to being apart of the wrestling team, but that didn’t stop him from being apart of attending smoke sessions with Sega and others as they would consistently listening to the Klan. From there, Roman was introduced to other artists such as Oddfuture, Lil B and Soulja Boy.
As time passes with high school under his belt, Roman found himself more involved in the underground culture in Dallas. He was always behind the scenes shooting videos, music videos and concert recaps at various shows he attended. This helped him become a little more established in the scene as he started to be come a familiar face. In previous times, he was already affiliated with artists such as Pat Ron, Slease Ease, Tay-K and Pirex Pirates, just to name a few. Roman reminisces about the “G house”, a friend’s house he stayed at for a period of time. The garage was considered his room, and he decorated in with a huge tent and hanging lights. The space also contained 4 TV screens and there was usually smoke sesh in rotation at all times of the day. “ The homies mom let us stay in the house but she didn’t live there, so it just ended up being a bunch of kids all in one house'“, he says. One of the first shows Roman attended and filmed was a show that was the day before Danksgiving, curated by Top Shelf, to this day he can’t remember the name of the event. The line up consisted of Pat Ron, Slease Ease, Pirex Pirates, Tay-K, Trap Mama, Sinclair with Pimpz in the cut. Roman ended up interviewing Pyrex Pirates, Trap Mama and Daytona Boyz (Tay-k and Pimpz). Afterwards, Roman attended the Danksgiving event. He was given opportunity to go backstage and shooting videos and interviews. The line up consisted of XavierWulf, Eddy Baker, Mellowhype, Gun, Spooky Lean, Speak and Cashy Kesh. He got a chance to interview Mike G, Oddfuture affiliate, and asked him what does he use to roll his weed up with. “I don’t roll blunts, I use Smoker’s Club papers”, Mike G replies. At the time, Pat Ron was affiliated the Smoker’s Club, and Roman’s footage ended up being on their page.
One day, Roman and Sega sat down to talk about making a modern platform/foundation for the unspoken DFW underground scene, similar to other underground scenes nationwide. He felt the metroplex needed something homegrown and organic to strive in the mainstream world as well. Roman’s motto is “ If you control the music and you control the youth, you control the world.” It was then that Daily Ooze was born. The origin on the name “Daily Ooze” derived for Roman’s old rap name Slime, that’s where “ Ooze” came from. Roman wanted the platform to be news oriented, like the old FOX News channel, that’s what inspired “Daily” from Daily Ooze. Altogether, Daily Ooze is a huge collective on Roman’s childhood friends including Sully as the host and DFW artists that show love and support each other, it represents Dallas to the fullest. Daily Ooze has helped Roman become more involved with culture. “In order to become someone or to gain respect, you have to come out as a platform or a business”, Roman says, “ but the irony of it is the concept of Daily Ooze isn’t business like. It grabs attention because it isn’t your regular blog.”
Since Daily Ooze was founded, Roman curated a handful of shows. One of his first shows under Daily Ooze was PLEASE MOSH: it derived from the previous PLEASE MOSH event Roman hosted before Daily Ooze in 2015. The line up consisted of Sega, Lil Texxan, Pat Ron, Slease Ease, Ace Savage, Six Co, and Emotional Xan formerly known as Xanny Manziel. The PLEASE MOSH event under the Daily Ooze name consisted of Pat Ron and Slease Ease as headliners, Dandi Sun, Waste, Pyrex Pirates, Buddha Stoops, Tay-K and others. Roman went on to host more events such as Summer’s Dead featuring Diego Money, Sega, Emotional Xan, Pat Ron, Tre Linno, and J. Stoner. Tay-K was supposed to perform but got into trouble with the law and D Savage was supposed to perform as well but didn’t show due to a misunderstanding that caused Roman to strongly dislike him. Most of Roman’s experience with out of state artists has been very unsatisfactory, excluding artist such as Chris Travis, Xavierwulf, Lil Peep and Smokepurrp, just to name a few.
Around the same time, or probably a little after, Roman became acquainted with the Dallas rap supergroup 500 Gwap Gang. Unbeknownst to him, he was already aware of Gwap Gang. Before Roman started making music, he tuned in to Blayne David’s BL-Dubb Youtube channel and found Phebe. At the time, Phebe was absent from the scene due to a few reasons, one reason being that was had a baby on the way. Roman ended up briefly tweeting about Phebe’s absence. Afterwards, Roman attended the second installment of East Memphis Boyz, with the help of Dj Paul Beraw, Lil Moshpit and others that put the event together. Prior to the show, Paul Beraw brought Gwap Gang to Roman’s attention many of times but he simply didn’t have the chance to listen to them. The openers for this event were Gwap Gang, Braindead and special guest Slease Ease. As Gwap Gang started their set, Roman stood there in awe as we watched the group perform. From their sound, to their stage presence and performance, Roman was more than eager to establish and connection with Gwap Gang.
To many of us in the area, including Roman, DFW already has a well established culture in the industry. Many mainstream and underground celebrities come through the metroplex and show love, on and offline. What Roman wants to see next year is DFW owning their strong influence on the culture. “2018-2019 is Dallas’ year, I want people to have that confidence.” Roman also stresses that local artists need to stop hating on each other, focus on their consumers and stop fishing for a co sign. “ The people who are going to support you at the white kids that work a 9-5 job and who are going to school, those are the kids you need to reach”. On December 1st, Daily Ooze and its affiliates, including Iiana the videographer, Gwap Gang, and Pat Ron, alongside with Aeronotiqz will be in Los Angeles to show the West Coast what Dallas is really made of. In the future, Roman inspires to have a full sit down interview with Xavierwulf, Chris Travis, Lil B, Yella Beezy, Splurge, S3nsi Molly, wrestlers John Cena and the Rock and actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
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