Students may remember the fliers promoting “Redlands very own Ronnie G” that appeared around campus at the beginning of last semester. Posted by the mailboxes and taped on residence hall doors, they promoted the artist’s new album. But who is Ronnie G? Reporter Madison Escoto interviewed him via call to find out.
Growing up in Redlands and driving down Lugonia Avenue, Ronnie G dreamt of performing at the Redlands Bowl. This led him to begin pursuing his dream of creating music as a sophomore in high school. At the time, he was afraid of criticism and he kept his music close, showing it to few people. Shortly after graduating from high school, he released his first album ‘2020 Graduate.’ While proud of this first album, Ronnie G shared that he knew he could do better and set out to begin to further his artistic development.
Ronnie G stated that he experimented with different genres, honed his lyrics, and collaborated with various artists to create and produce his second album ‘77’, all from his home studio. As an independent artist, Ronnie G’s music production and promotion relies on himself and the community of people he has around him, including his family, friends and fellow artists in the community.
Ronnie G describes his songwriting process as a personal way of expressing the thoughts and feelings he can’t say out loud. At home he writes the lyrics and records the songs, then the sound mixing is completed by a close friend. The artist behind the hand-drawn art featured on many singles, including ‘Spaced Out’, is another close friend of his. And the fliers that were posted on our campus and other areas throughout Redlands were created by one of his cousins. With support from his family to assist with his promotion, Ronnie G spoke about being committed not just to his career as an artist, but to the community of Redlands as well.
When beginning to work on his second album, ‘77’, he began bringing in his fellow family and friends to collaborate in various stages of the album process, including featuring them on the album.
“It’s a whole project with me and close friends and family, I wanted it to be something I can share with people I’m close with,” Ronnie G said.
All the artists featured on the album ‘77’ are close friends of Ronnie G who have all been very supportive of him. Some of the artists featured include Marcelo, Wicked and Hella Sketchy.
Though rapper Hella Sketchy passed away in 2019, he and Ronnie G had the opportunity to collaborate on a song together, and Ronnie G cited his friendship with Hella Sketchy as one of his main motivators to continue pursuing his music career. Ronnie G said Hella Sketchy “never wanted anyone to quit.” When in the process of creating ‘77,’ Ronnie G contacted the father of Hella Sketchy and was given permission to release the song they worked on together.
Going forward, Ronnie G wants to continue his collaboration not just with his friends and family, but with any other local Redlands artists. Stay on the lookout for Ronnie G’s upcoming projects (including a music video), live shows and new music. You can find his music on Spotify, Apple Music and SoundCloud.
Madison is a fourth year transfer student at University of Redlands but a first-year journalist. She's a double major in Sociology and MECM with a minor in WGS and has a passion for all things related to academia. In her free time, she reads, swims, and stares lovingly at her cat Gremlin.
