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Rome Fortune has never been one to settle. The green-bearded Atlanta rapper has made waves on every step of his journey thus far, from his Small VVorld album to his public breakdown of the industry.
Rome’s most recent move cements his status as an innovator: the Rome Fortune app is now live for iOs and Android devices. He joins a short list of musicians who have decided to take fan engagement into their own hands, and he took the time to speak with us about how the app will change the way he keeps the base strong.
Tell me a little bit about the Rome Fortune app. I know the idea came from when you were first getting started as a rapper, and you had a bunch of fan numbers in your phone. Is this an extension of that?
Yeah, for sure. Essentially it’s just building my community and making sure everybody can have a real connection with me. There are a lot of features within the app people can play with. For instance, you can take a selfie and put the green beard on. You can buy my merch, typical stuff like that. Stream the SoundCloud, watch videos. All of that’s embedded. And we have a bunch of features we’re going to be adding the next few months. It’s gonna be really crazy.
The focal point of it is to keep people connected, keep people abreast, because that’s really how I’ve been able to tour and do a lot of the things I’ve been doing. I might not have the largest fan base in the world, but the people who rock with me, they’re super vocal and really care about what’s going on each step of the way. So if I can just get people to shoot me a text and ask me what’s going on, or I can share exclusive tracks, private SoundCloud streams with them and ask, “What do you think about this?” That keeps everybody engaged and still feeling like they’re a part of the journey.
It’s a beautiful idea. I’m trying to visualize it—how would it differ from something like Twitter? Is it like a conversation with everybody at once or…
Say you download the app. It’ll start off with the initial stuff, running you around and showing you everything, and then it will look like an iMessage where you text me and I get it directly on my phone within the app. So I can text you, me and Graham just talking shit or whatever. And if I want to put a couple people into a thread, like, “Okay, these people are in Los Angeles right now or whatever,” I can say, “Yo, I’m gonna be in LA. I’ve got a meetup at Dope, y’all can come kick it with me.” Stuff like that. It’s really just talking, like people pretty much having my phone number.
Was this always something you wanted to do? I know there are other artists trying to do similar stuff, thought not on such a personal level. It sounds like this was always part of the plan.
The music is a big thing, the visuals, all that other stuff that’s important for an artist, but I really feel like the biggest deal is your fanbase. Having them actually feel like they’re a part of it. I wanted to do something that really just expanded upon that theory. As you get bigger, a lot of people kind of — and it’s not on purpose, but a disconnect with their fans starts to happen, because there’s so many fans and they’re getting so big. Your schedule gets crazy. So I was thinking of a way to really still rock with people. I’m doing my business on the phone anyway, so that’s an easy way to keep people going, keep people super happy and spreading the word.
It’s something different. I actually care. It’s not just like, “I just wanna get money from y’all. Screw y’all.”
On that note, have you ever gotten any really good feedback from a fan? Any musical advice or input you’ve taken with you?
For sure. It’s really like the premise of my album, actually. When I got locked up, a lot of people would send me letters and they would say, “Hey, I dig this song so much. It’s one of my personal songs.” Something that gets them through the day. And it’s not my stuff that’s super turnt up or anything like that. So I took that to mean, give the people what they want. That’s why my album is super personal. I’m literally just telling my story, super unfiltered. It’s just really good music and a lot of real stories. That’s something I took from people.
It’s easy for me to go in the studio with an artist and go, “Let’s make something that’s super crazy and turn up and get a million plays” or something. But it’s really about longevity. If people feel they have an attachment to you, a real connection, that’s gonna carry you longer. The numbers game can be really blinding because that drives a lot of people.
You mentioned merch. What kind of stuff can people get?
Aw man, it’s gonna be a whole bunch of stuff. Of course the tees and all of that, the typical stuff, but we’re expanding to have a lot of different things. Kids clothing, little green beards for them, stuff like that.
I’m just super happy to finally get it out, because we’ve been playing with the app for months now. Really figuring out how we’d do it, working out all of the bugs. Making sure there’s no crashes. I’ve been super anxious. Now, having it out, I’m stoked. I can’t wait to hear what people have to really say one-on-one. It’s different when people are tweeting you something versus when they feel like they’ve got a direct line to you.
Yeah, Twitter’s much more public. This feels like it’s gonna be a safe space.
Right, right. So people can say, “I didn’t really like this song because of this,” or, “I like that song because of this.” People can be themselves. It’s about the impact. And impact doesn’t mean numbers to me. Impact is if I made one person really feel good, or gave them some real insight, or inspired them in some way. They’re gonna tell somebody else, you know? As opposed to something quick and of the moment.
Are you going to release some music through the app?
I’m gonna give people sneak previews of certain stuff. I can set up a live stream through the app. I’ll give people exclusive looks while I’m in the studio, doing mixing or random stuff with the music blaring. It’s gonna be super tight. I’ll share private links to people and get their feedback on music I’m actually going to release.
