Thug Life Army

San Diego native hip-hop rap artist Lil Rob is releasing "Twelve Eighteen" July 26th on Upstairs Records. "Summer Nights," the album's first single, is exploding at radio and has succeeded in making Upstairs Records the second only independent label in over a decade to enter Rhythmic Top 40's Top 10.

Splitting time between producers Fingaz (from Corona, California) and Moox (from Austin, Texas), Rob cut 26 tracks, then selected the12 best for "Twelve Eighteen." A few of the unique new beats brought the freak out in Lil Rob. "I''ve got some nasty songs on this album," he says grinning slyly, referring to "Playground" and "Bring Out The Freak in You" -- "some music for the strip clubs!" Another standout of the new songs is "Rough Neighborhood," a sequel to his earlier hit "Brought Up in a Small Neighborhood." For this one, Rob samples "Mannish Boy," the Muddy Waters classic as covered by The Newcomers. "I rapped over some blues," he says with pride! "Some rappers stay in one style. I rap over any music that I like, which usually makes for a different type of song. On ''Rough Neighborhood,'' I talk about seeing the druggies on the way to school and my gang bang days... but with a message at the end. It's about doing stupid things as a kid, being older now and reminiscing."

Lil Rob was born and raised in the La Colonia, a section of Eden Gardens in the North County of San Diego. He dropped his first street single, "Mexican Gangster," in 1992 and has since released 5 albums independently, managing to sell over 400,000 units combined. Although he faced much adversity in the beginning of his career because he is Mexican he made a conscious decision to not let negativity break him but make him stronger. He has since written about some of those early experiences in songs and has put a positive spin on it by not letting them break his backbone or spirit. Rob states, "I''m proud to be Mexican -- a Chicano -- and of where I''m from. Some styles of my music may be new, but that doesn''t change who I am."

Get ready to have Lil Rob's summer classic "Summer Nights" imbedded in your brain. It has just begun to invade your airwaves and if Rob has it his way he will make sure the album rides you into his world of easy-flowing rhymes about cruisin'', lovin'', partyin'' and survivin''.