Meet Monday: Ricky Laubenstein
Courtesy of Ricky Laubenstein
Ricky Laubenstein sits in a dorm room with his laptop and his keyboard. Laubenstein’s inspirations for hip-hop include rap artists such as Outkast, Gang Starr and 50 Cent. His next mixtape will be released this spring.
Music was always going to be a part of Ricky Laubenstein’s future.
Laubenstein grew up listening to his dad play old records and tolerated his two older sisters constantly blaring the classic pop hits of the 1990s.
“Music was always around me,” he said.
Laubenstein has taken this passion and turned it into a career as a rap artist known as Rip City Rick.
The Massachusetts native began producing for other local rappers in high school, but it wasn’t until his senior year of high school that his rapping persona took form.
“Whether that is producing, mixing or being an artist, I want to be in the industry,” he said.
As a student in the Bandier program, Laubenstein is still developing his own sound while also expanding his knowledge and skills within the music industry.
He has interned with music production company Duck Down Music, where he worked with artists such as Joey Bada$$, who performed on campus last spring for University Union’s Bandersnatch series.
“I take a lot from the classes here,” Laubenstein said. “I want to be there.”
The Bandier program has also given him access to recording studios in both the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Belfer Audio Archive, where he can produce and record his own music.
He writes all of his own music and produces beats for himself and other artists. Recently, he even mixed a song for rapper Jim Jones.
Laubenstien lists rap artists such as Outkast, Gang Starr and 50 Cent as his favorite artists.
“This is a very interesting time for hip-hop,” he said. “There are so many new subgenres now, like Macklemore who is more pop-rap or Drake who incorporates singing into his rap songs.”
As for Laubenstein, he prefers to mix up his style with a healthy balance of his singing ability and ear for catchy beats.
Laubenstein has released four mixtapes under his stage name Rip City Rick: “Rip-Off City,” “Head In The Clouds,” “Food For The Soul” and “The Snooze.”
His latest mixtape “The Snooze” includes 10 songs that act as preview for his newest material on an upcoming mixtape called “Rise and Shine,” which is expected to drop in the spring.
Said Laubenstein: “I am really trying to wake the campus up with more upbeat beats.”
Published on February 3, 2014 at 3:16 am
Contact Jen: jbundy@syr.edu
