A date with destiny

Really, no one should have heard of Robert Ritchie.  He was born in a small town of 3500 people at the top of the U.S. on the thumb part of the "mit" of Michigan, not too far north of Detroit.  He wasn't monitored too well as a child although he wasn't the youngest of his family.  At age 15 he decided to run away from his boring little town to Mt. Clemens, Michigan, a bigger town (about 20,000) to him with more opportunity (and less supervision).  He found a job at a car wash, but it wasn't long before the local gang had him selling drugs from his car wash job.  He was a nobody, washed up before life even started for him.

In high school things changed for him slightly.  One can never tell where humble beginnings take a turn for the better.  A neighborhood adult decided to do something about the rotten and dangerous living conditions and organized a rap group for interested kids.  Robert had a great interest in that, so he joined.  A little later he was DJing for basement parties.  That's not the big times exactly, but it was Robert's start.  He continued performing his rap music and befriending locals also interested in rap.  It so happened that D-Nice, producer of Boogie Down Productions, was one of his local friends.  He was invited to open for this group and meet a representative of  Jive Records.  This led to a record deal at his tender age of 17.  But, this part is not where you know "the rest of the story."  This part is still the humble beginnings part.

Jive decided to give Robert the boot because his lyrics were laced with such offensive words and images.  A radio station in New York received the largest fine to date (1989) for playing his song Yo Da-Lin. A "7 years of famine" followed. He went through two other record labels who dropped him for lack of interest in his work.  He made one of his romantic interests pregnant, so a son was born to him.  He worked janitor jobs in order to pay for studio fees because he could not let his interest go. He learned how to play 5 different instruments so that he wouldn't have to hire others to play for him.  Instead, he could mix the music himself.  Days, weeks, months, and years were dark and turned darker with each one that passed.

But Robert had a date with destiny in Miami, Florida, in December 1998.  He was invited by MTV to perform with many other artists on the show MTV Fashionably Loud.  Jay-Z was also at the event and was upstaged by Robert.  That was his magic moment.  His music took off, his singles began selling, he began making the TV circuit.

The details of every phase of Robert's career show dogged determination on his part.  He was always aware of the constant odds against him on the path he faced in order to get his music heard.  He started early, never gave up, and was friendly to everyone he met.  Eventually his network came through for him.  Like nearly all the great musicians, his story is filled with failure and dark times.  It wasn't a stroke of luck that made him famous, it was his incessant, unwavering belief that he would be successful or die trying.

Never heard of Robert Ritchie, five-time Grammy winner?  Of course not.  His nickname since age 17 has come from others noticing how he rocked the crowd he played to.  At the time he was just a kid, so they called him Kid Rock.  Now it makes sense.