Who is Rob Zoe?
Early on, Rob Zoe knew that he was going to have to do things himself. Raised in North Miami, his father wasn’t in the picture and his mother worked non-stop to support Rob and his two sisters. The future rap star – whose new project Hiding In Plain Sight is one of 2020’s most explosive – started running errands for the big homies, securing their trust and earning some money in the process.
“I never tried to be that dude that was trying to prove anything to them,” Rob Zoe says today. “I was just trying to get some game from them.”
As he became immersed in the streets, Rob Zoe’s love for poetry deepened. It had always been at the core of his being, a grounding force in his life. As he grew up, he blended his love for poetry with a passion for music. But to his friends in the streets, a potential musical career was met with skepticism.
“It wasn’t respected,” Rob Zoe says. “All the guys that I grew up with, they all made more money than rappers.”
Within a few years, though, Rob Zoe was making musical moves in Southern Florida and his friends started taking notice. They encouraged him to remain focused on music. In 2011, Rob Zoe broke through with the hit “Money Fight,” a braggadocio cut that instantly established him as a witty wordsmith with a rock-solid rep in the streets.
“We made believers out of nonbelievers at that time,” Rob Zoe recalls. “People were blown away because they didn’t know what to expect. They didn’t know where we came from. They were like, ‘Who are these Haitians?’ They just knew we had a lot of money and we were making noise.”
That noise grew louder in 2012 thanks to high profile collaborations. Rob Zoe got Future to appear on his song “I Got That Paper” and Jim Jones to guest on “Tell Me Who Want It.” Almost instantly, Rob Zoe was rubbing shoulders and collaborating with some of the genre’s elite, a list that also included Meek Mill.
“It gave me an insight that this shit is real,” he says. “It’s a select society, but they select you. You thinking that you’re nominating yourself when you basically go on a campaign, right? It’s like the same thing as Hillary Clinton and Trump.”
Major label deals soon arrived, but Rob Zoe turned them down. He and his team were looking for a landmark deal, something that came with an enormous check and artistic freedom. When that didn’t come, Rob Zoe and his team wouldn’t negotiate and he remained independent.
Then the bottom fell out. He and members of his crew were indicted and the offers disappeared. It left a bad taste in Rob Zoe’s mouth. When he resurfaced, Rob was vulnerable and tried to get back in the music game. But he realized the people around him weren’t the right fit.
Around the same time, Rob Zoe reconnected with his friend Young Mogul. They soon discovered that they both had an issue with one of Rob’s former collaborators. During these conversations, the two realized they had synergy. They soon became a team.
“I consider like how Eminem saved 50 Cent’s life and the way 50 Cent looks at Eminem, it’s the same way I look at Young Mogul,” Rob Zoe says. “At the end of the day, you realize nobody has to help you. Nobody has to invest in your dreams. Nobody has to believe in what you’re saying. He believes.”
Now with his Young Mogul partnership, Rob Zoe is prepping for the release of his new project Hiding In Plain Sight. “I feel like I’d been doing that so many years and being overlooked,” Rob Zoe says. “I’m right there in front of everybody. At one point you got the eyes on you and then at a certain point you don’t. I’ve seen who my true family is.”
The lead single is “Purge,” an autobiographical ode to the street life. Then there’s the mesmerizing “When I’m Ready,” a boast-heavy look into Rob Zoe’s baller lifestyle. It all adds up to a pulsating project brimming with energy and excitement from a distinctively North Miami perspective.
“My music is my testimony,” Rob Zoe says. “Everything I talk about, I’ve lived it. We’re not listening to an artist to hear the next JAY-Z, the next version of someone who already did it great. You want to find out who’s the next artist and that’s what I want to bring to the forefront.”
So pay attention to Rob Zoe. He’s Hiding In Plain Sight.
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