Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Rucker.
Aaron, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My name is Areal and I’m from San Antonio Texas. I’ve been in San Antonio my whole life but I recently moved to Dallas in the Desoto area about a year and a half ago when I first started my business. Growing up as a kid, I always had music in my upbringing. My dad was a producer, and I remember him being a serious hip-hop head growing up. He had every record I could think of from nas all the way from dr. Dre… I remember writing raps growing up in our home studio and I can even recall bits of memory, remembering him making beats and sampling on an mpc.
As time when on, my mom and dad separated. All I had was my brother and my sister, but they were 15 and 8 years older than me. I remember rapping with my brother growing up in my dad’s household, my brother was always musically talented. My mom kept us in the church growing up, so Fred Hammond to Kirk Franklin could have been a heavy influence set aside from my brother, but my brother was deeply into music as well. As I grew up, I started to follow deeply in his footsteps. My mom worked hard to keep a roof over our head’s, being a single mother and all and did the best she could to make sure we had the most she could offer.
I remember the times growing up where my brother started to learn how to produce his own music, and it would be nights my mom would scream for him to go to bed.
Subconsciously I was learning how to create music, shadowing him from rapping. All the way from him winning talent shows. As time grew, my brother and my sister became grown, I had to learn how to do things on my own. I later started to dibble and dabble in trouble without a constant male guidance, then as a high schooler, it really got bad.
Through high school I always found myself beating on the desk or freestyling raps in class. Until life as a teen got really bad and I was pretty much on the ropes of ruining my chances of graduation. I’d rap here and there in a home studio that my brother created but it wouldn’t be enough to keep me out of trouble.
Soon enough my brother gave me an old computer he used to make beats on and I was familiar with the software from growing up, “fruity loops” I then started to focus more on my beats and took music seriously. As I aimed towards graduation, I focused more on my production, mixing, and beat making as an art form than the rapping itself. I ended up dropping a little project before graduating, producing my own beats but still rapping. I even recall a couple songs we made for a friend who passed away. As I graduated entering college, I focused more on singing and harmonizing. I could always write and do the melodies but I’d give it to my brother to sing on my songs. I got to a point to where I wanted to sing my own songs.
So I began to make RnB songs and began to sing them. It took some time but I really started to perfect my singing and my production, having g experienced some shows. I had big artists take my beats and I started to become more business savvy, which made me and my brother go into more in-depth about owning our own business. Now, we do everything independently. I now make my own beats, mix my own songs, write, and sing my own music. It took me a long time but as of right now I’m focused more on being a businessman and owner more than a musician.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I faced so many problems on this road to success and it is still a long journey ahead. The biggest problems I had to face and overcome was learning the business side of the music industry. That was one of the biggest obstacles I had to face. Getting songs stolen by industry artist without the ability to sue, was just one of the many obstacles that happened to me.
The second biggest if there were an order would probably be the people closest to me, holding me back. Not everyone is meant to stay in your life forever or will be apart of your journey as you grow. If you don’t grow as a person every day you won’t make it in this industry.
Please tell us about A RealBeats.
So I started the company/label last year, there were a couple of loop wholes I went through but I manage to accomplish. So I’m a producer, an engineer, an artist and my own marketer. I pretty much am my own label, I manage myself. People mainly know me for my production, since my name is A-RealBeats but I do pretty much everything. I think I specialize in production more than anything else, it’s a strong suit but you couldn’t tell if you were a fan. You’d honestly just enjoy the music if you were a fan.
I’m proud of all of the ownership I’ve achieved in my company, a lot of people don’t get to that point in this industry. I think there isn’t much C.E.O’s that have ownership of their company and produce, mix, and do everything themselves. That really separates me from most musicians.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite memory would have to be playing Super Mario with my grandma on Super Nintendo. My grandma was teaching me how to play Mario and we had so much fun.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.arealbeats.com
- Phone: 815-687-0414
- Email: therealarealbeats@gmail.com
- Instagram: arealbeatsmusicpage
- Facebook: arealbeatsmusicpage; Aaron Moses
- Twitter: a_realbeats
Image Credit:
A-RealBeats, Gary Kiostik
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