Published: Wednesday - June 25, 2008
Words by Allen Starbury
Romeo (Photo: Take A Stand Records)
Romeo, the son of No Limit Records founder Master P, has grown up before our eyes. At the young age of 11, he followed in his father's footsteps and became an entertainer ... introducing himself to the world with his first single, "My Baby." At that time, he was known as Lil Romeo.
Now, a little less than eight years later, he's dropped the "lil" from his name, reached the age of 18, and is about to graduate high school, with his entertainment career intact. Unlike other child prodigies, who were drawn into the dark side of the industry, Romeo stayed focused, not only in his career, but also in school. He did so well, he earned himself a college scholarship to USC, where he will play basketball in a Trojans uniform in the coming year.
With a bright future ahead of him, and strong positive values instilled in him under his father's tutelage, we caught up with the young rapper/actor/athlete to discuss his strong sense of setting a positive example to kids younger than him, growing up in the spotlight, and how watching Master P over the years has helped him be the smart, responsible man that he's grown into today.
Romeo: My little sister created ... she created this character. You know how little kids always draw these imaginary characters. My little sister, Itali Miller, came up with this idea [called Gee Gee the Magical Giraffe]. She told me and my dad since we have this ability and power to really bring this character to life. We have a really big family and kids ... and kids are the future. I just wanted to do something to show the kids that we do love them and we do this for them.
The whole thing we did [for Earth Day], we did with Gee Gee the Magical Giraffe. We just wanted to show the kids that we want to make a difference and make a change. It's starts with [the kids] and it started right there. We just showed the kids that it's ok to be yourself and be young and have fun.
BallerStatus.com: So what exactly is Gee Gee? A cartoon, a book...
Romeo: Gee Gee gonna be everything. Gee Gee gonna be rapping ABCs, she's gonna be singing 123s, just everything. We gonna have coloring books, a cartoon coming out soon, and clothes.
BallerStatus.com: Your sister's only 8. What does she think about all of this?
Romeo: Oh, she was loving it. Just being in the spotlight, doing something that she loves, seeing her character that she drew on a piece of paper come to life, she was really excited.
BallerStatus.com: How about yourself? You had an injury from basketball, so how's that?
Romeo: I'm good. I'm 110% right now. My high school year, I had to make a decision, but my dad ended up making it for me. I had to sit out my whole regular season. That was the whole deal with that. I sat out the whole season, so I could be ready for college. I just didn't wanna take no chances because this only comes once in a lifetime. I just wanted to make sure I'd be ready to go.
It really taught me something too. Kids always think that basketball and sports is the only thing you can do, but it definitely made me realize how much more important my education really is. That's what really made me wanna pursue this and show the kids that everything is possible. If you have an education, then life beyond your education can go that much farther.
BallerStatus.com: You're only 18, but the way you talk is unique. You talk about wanting to set an example for younger kids and be a role model. Being so young, where does that come from?
Romeo: I definitely have to say the reason I think like that is because of my family. Just how my dad been doing this. What he's seen, he's constantly feeding me information. He always tells me to think about the bigger picture. That's what life is about. It's not about making the same mistakes as your friends or your parents. They are there to tell you and help you through it, kinda like your coach. And then, just having a big family and being the oldest of seven kids, that kind of just rubs off on me naturally. I'm just always trying to be responsible, be a role model, and be an inspiration to the kids. I have six younger siblings that look up to me since I came into the acting world, music world and basketball world.
BallerStatus.com: You and your dad (Master P) seem really tight. You guys are always doing music and business together.
Romeo: Yea, that's really like my brother. People don't know. (laughs) But nah, I'm actually blessed. Being in the environment I've been in growing up, kids are easily pushed away from their parents. Just to have my dad there, and he's already been through the business -- he was there 24-7 -- it definitely helped me and kept me level headed at the same time.
BallerStatus.com: As far as basketball, you have a scholarship to USC. You grew up wealthy. You're dad was a star, you became a star at a young age, so for you to actually concentrate on school and sports, and get the scholarship is a huge accomplishment. Why were you so dedicated to reach that goal?
Romeo: I'm very dedicated. People don't know. People always see me being Master P's son, but when he started making it, I still seen both sides. My family, we don't come from the richest family. My dad was the only one to really make it, the first one out of this family, to go to college. So just having that family, seeing where we came from, and how it should of been, my dad just broke that whole cycle. It just made me think out of the box and makes me wanna show the kids that anything's possible.
Then, my two cousins that passed away, they were my age, we was tight and they both passed away. That was back-to-back when was like 13 and 12. That's why I do what I do. A lot of people don't know the story behind that, but one of them played basketball and the other played music. I just put both of those into me. That's why I go out and work as hard as I do because you only live once. People always say that, but they usually take it for granted. I seen that with my two cousins -- that I was very close with -- they not here. I'm just trying to show the kids that they should take advantage of they life and do something positive.
BallerStatus.com: You mentioned all the different things you're into -- music, sports, acting -- how do you balance that as a young kid?
Romeo: I definitely have to say I'm blessed. God has a plan for everybody. People look at my career and say "Aw, you're career is so easy. How did you do it? My son could do this." My career, I had a lot of preparation. When I was younger, I watched my dad. It was like being the son of Michael Jordan or a great coach. You have the opportunity to watch and meet other great basketball players or great musicians. I had that as a youngster. It was kind of like I was already built to do it. That's what my dad always talks about. He says it's generations of knowledge that's given to you as kids. It was kind of already installed in my mind, whatever I was gonna do. I was gonna be successful, me being the oldest son. My dad always made sure I was responsible and I was there at all the meetings making sure I was on top of everything. And that's with school too. If I didn't get good grades, I wouldn't be doing this right now.
BallerStatus.com: So is college your main focus right now?
Romeo: I got a new song with Akon called "Get Low Wit It", and the new album High School Romance. I've been trying to knockout everything before I go to college because when I get there, I'm gonna focus on being a student-athlete. I'm filming like two movies, and a book that will be coming for back to school, so I'm knocking out a lot of things right now.
BallerStatus.com: The single has gotten good feedback and play on the radio. Tell us your take on the song.
Romeo: It was leaked on its own. It kind of got leaked out and people started going crazy for it. It's kinda like my first single, "My Baby," that broke records. It's one of those songs everybody can relate to. It's not negative or putting anybody down, it's about having a good time to it and dance to it. It's good music without cursing.
BallerStatus.com: You mentioned the no cursing. You and Master P released that clean album, Hip-Hop History, a while back. Why is it important to you to be positive and do your music clean?
Romeo: Everybody's gonna do what they wanna do. Music is just something that puts you in mood for something. Whatever type of music you're listening to, it's gonna put you in that type of mood. I know when I listen to music ... when I'm sad, it brings me up, or when I'm crunk, I wanna listen to something crunk. We gotta responsible as artists. You got a lot of kids out there, they the main ones listening to the music and the ones influenced by the music. Like I said, being in a household with younger brothers and sisters, I don't wanna have to turn down my radio every time my song come on. Having that atmosphere around me, evolved into my career.
When you curse, you're taking the short way out. There's a million words out there, so you can use other words. I just wanna show the kids. Everybody's quick to be negative, but you could do something positive and be cool with it.
BallerStatus.com: So when you start playing for USC, you gonna be ready right?
Romeo: Oh yea, definitely. You gotta go to my MySpace (MySpace.com/Romeo). I played in this Top 20 players in Cali tournament, and I was the leading scorer on there. Everybody can go check that there. It's MySpace.com/Romeo, so you can see me balling.
BallerStatus.com: You and your boy Demar Derozan are supposedly like some of the top high school players in the nation. Right now, most basketball players are going straight to the NBA these days. Why did you opt to go to college instead of trying to go into the Draft?
Romeo: I just feel like college comes once. You see all these people walking around -- alumni's of USC, alumni's of UCLA, and DUKE, and all these good colleges. I was just like "Hey, I wanna be a part of that one day." I'm young, so when I get out of college, I'll probably be 21 years old. So, I'll have the rest of my life from there. I just saw this as a once in a lifetime opportunity.
BallerStatus.com: As far as on the court, what should people expect to see out of you?
Romeo: I play with a lot of energy, and I'm a leader. I'm a point guard, so I gotta be the leader. A lot of people compare me to a Derek Fisher/Chris Paul, so I'm kinda ... I'm a leader on the floor. When I'm out there, I'm just gonna do what I gotta do and do my job -- from defense, score, or get my teammates involved.
BallerStatus.com: Ok, and the album...
Romeo: It's called High School Romance. This is my last year of high school, so I wanted to do something for all the high schoolers out there, and make it special. We dropping that at the end of summer.
BallerStatus.com: What was it like being a celebrity in high school?
Romeo: Being a celebrity in high school, I have to say the first day is the craziest. Like nobody can concentrate. But, it was definitely something I'll remember for the rest of my life. It was cool though. It kind of reminded me of the real world, just in a little ball. It's preparing you for everything that you gonna get in the future. I feel school is important because you're gonna have your ups and downs, you gonna have people who don't like you, you're gonna have haters, you're gonna have girls that really like you... You just have to learn how to move around all the obstacles. I feel that helped prepare me for the other parts of my life. It was like a big awards show every day.
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