Today we’d like to introduce you to Micah Gerome
Hi Micah, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve always had a love for music, but I started out writing stories. Kind of like short stories and I would post them but not too often. Looking back on it, it was one of those things that was my safe space because each story would have truth to it, just in entertainment form. Eventually, my brother told me that I should maybe take it seriously and tap more into it. I was maybe in a freshman in college at the time. I doubt he even remembers telling me that.
Fast forward, my love for music was growing deeper and deeper and I couldn’t escape it. So, I started taking these stories and making them shorter… Putting them in rhythmic form. I’m from the East Side of Houston, born and raised, but I was living in Harlem, New York by this time. I met a producer by the name of Balli Boi who probably believed in me more than I believed in myself and the lessons I learned from him is what helped propel me musically.
You know, my craft has never been one of those things that I just jumped out of the gate with. It took time to nurture and mold it into what it is today. I take my time with it, and I never force it, and I think that’s how I’m able to be authentically me throughout this whole journey. I think that’s what got me here.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
[Chuckles] Smooth? Absolutely not.
As cliche as it sounds, any dream that you’re fighting for or any goal that you’re chasing is never easy. If it were easy, everybody would do it, right? The biggest struggle for me early on was how would people accept it, or would people accept, will they like it, will the like me… And I knew I was good at music. I knew I was good at what I was doing but that held me back. I didn’t see it at the time, but I was the one holding myself back. Fortunately, I had the insight, wisdom and enough knowledge of self to change my way of thinking. Not everyone has that within them. I think a lot of artists struggle with acceptance at times. But being true to self and knowing who you are will take you far.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a music artist and I specialize in expression [laughs]. I think that’s the best way to put it.
In terms of what I’m proud of, I’m most proud of Houston. I’m most proud of home and I’m proud to say Houston is where I come from.
I think what sets me apart from others is my determination to be great. I’m on a pursuit of greatness. I just want to be great, it’s as simple as that for me. You know, coming up in this whole scene, I’ve always tried to elevate my thinking and how I look at things. I say that because when I look around at my peers, who may be pursuing the same lane or who have similar interests, oddly enough, I don’t view them as my competition because they’re not who I’m competing with. I’m competing with people such as J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Westside Boogie, LaRussell, Jay Z to name a few… I’m competing with the ultimate greats.
That’s where my head is at right now.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I was active. I’m the youngest of three boys so my older brothers had to toughen me up. We were outside babies. What I mean by that is, we played outside all the time. You really don’t see that too much with kids these days. We had the video games and all that. We had every game system, but going outside was a different type of childhood.
My mom was always aware of her surroundings. She’s an old school mom. You know, “Don’t let folk know what you got”, “Use your head for more than just a hat-rack”, she’s that mom. Organically, our house became the neighborhood spot. The central hub for all my friends and I think that was the most comforting for my mother versus my brothers and me running the streets somewhere else.
I was really into basketball growing up. I was pretty good too. We kept our basketball goal in the backyard. You know the ones that has the wheels on the front that you can drag? We’d pull it to the front yard in the street and put some bricks on it so it would stay. This guy by the name John Jackson stayed down the street from me. He had a basketball goal too. So, he would put the rim in the trunk of his car and drag his goal down the street to my house. His whole basketball goal. Ha, he a real one.
Me and my homies would run full court basketball games in the middle of our neighborhood street. No, it wasn’t a cul-de-sac. It wasn’t a dead-end either. It was a full-blown open street with cars that would pass by. It became so popular that cars would stop just to watch. It went from us moving out of the way of the cars to cars moving out the way of us. However, I don’t know if I’d recommend that today [laughs]. Times are different.
That’s just a glimpse of what growing up was like for me. My mom worked hard for us. I’m grateful.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @micahgerome
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@micahgerome
Image Credits
Emmanuel Ramses
