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Emilio Rojas – “Crown of Thorns” (prod. !llmind)

blame it on Shake September 24, 2018

It’s been a minute since we’ve gotten a project from Emlio Rojas, but that’s all changing on October 26th when the Rochester, NY rapper teams up with !llmind to release his new album, Life Got In The Way.

“I haven’t put out a project in a long time… too long,” Rojas said on Instagram. “A lot of things were going on in my personal and professional life that made me feel like I should wait. I wanted to set everything up right. I wanted to remove the toxic energy from my circle and surround myself with positive people… BUT I was working the whole time. I was working on myself… working on improving my relationships with everyone close to me, building new relationships with like minded and motivated people… and repairing the relationships that might have been strained by the way I dealt with things. That’s why this project is called ‘Life Got in the Way.'”

“It’s about identifying issues within yourself that you are dealing with – whether you caused them yourself or they were a result of unexpected circumstance, or toxicity beyond your control,” he continued. “It’s about recognizing these things and learning how to process them – and most importantly – it’s about GROWTH. This is my father on the back. My father was a deadbeat. He was abusive… He left my mother and my sisters and me when I was young… but that doesn’t mean he didn’t impact our lives. He was a role model – he taught us about the world by showing us darkness… he set an example for what someone should NEVER aspire to be. This project is about telling that story (in part) and about growing up in environments where we are expected to fail – but somehow managed to find a way and survive.”

To help kick off the campaign, Emilio has shared a video for the project’s lead single, “Crown of Thorns.” An ode to his childhood and finding ground in where he stands today, the self-directed clip follows a young kid dealing with his parents fighting and father spending more time with alcohol than him. Times change and his pops finally comes to his senses and proceeds to help the youngin’ pursue his joy of boxing.

Check out the moving visual below.

 

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