On a sunny afternoon in March, a billboard next to highway I-10 read, “NEW ORLEANS IS BACK. WELCOME TO VULTURE ISLAND.” Drive a few miles south of it, seeing the Superdome to your left and the Mississippi River to your right, and eventually you’d stumble into the Iberville Projects, where a crowd of an estimated 11,000 gathered for the most meaningful New Orleans rap video in over a decade.

In the horde stood Baton Rouge legend Kevin Gates, Florida-born phenom Hotboii, and the hottest rapper in the world, Lil Baby. But this video shoot wasn’t about them. It was about Rob49, the 23-year-old wunderkind from New Orleans’ 4th and 9th wards who is bringing his city back into the limelight.

The video was for Rob49’s song “Vulture Island V2,” a budding New Orleans classic that was co-signed by Atlanta’s Lil Baby, who slapped a verse at the end of it. The first two minutes, though? All Rob49. He pounces onto the menacing beat and unleashes a lion’s roar, belching a gumbo of bayou-incarnated ghosts and visions, traumas and dreams, that have been boiling inside him since childhood.

Rob49 raps with a pitbull snarl infused with an owl’s wisdom. In the same song, he can question his spiritual mission, witness a friend plot revenge, ponder over an uncle’s jail sentence, then end with a quartet of pure poetry: “Sometimes I don’t wanna be livin’ this fuckin’ life / I’m so far from my old self, I don’t even know what’s right / All them memories we shared, still tryna keep them tight / There ain’t no point in livin’ lavish when my brother died.”

He is a New Orleans man through and through. A breakdown in “Vulture Island,” which starts at 1:53, calls back to his city’s invention of Bounce music. When a radio host in New York City asked Rob why he was special enough to bring out his whole city for that video shoot, Rob responded with candor: “It’s ‘cause I’m really from New Orleans. I don’t just walk through there. It’s not like somebody’s sayin, ‘Oh yeah, I heard he’s from New Orleans too.’ Like, no. They know me.”

Growing up, Rob was a good student and a talented athlete. He describes himself as having been a bit of a class clown, but a one hundred-percent hustler. After graduating high school, he gave college a shot, studying to be a nurse at Southern University, an HBCU in Louisiana. After a semester, he realized that college wasn’t for him, so he left and joined the National Guard instead. Once he completed a tumultuous training camp, he went back home to New Orleans for a while.

One day, a friend of Rob’s was in the studio rapping, and he pushed Rob to get on the back half of his song. After that, it was said and done: Rob had it. He says it only took him three to four weeks to build a buzz, and not much longer to sign a record deal with Interscope, one that came in right as he and his mother were facing eviction.

Rob49 is a born trench baby: a product of public housing whose impoverished environment tethered him to a bleak, oftentimes fatal future. But he beat the odds, growing instead into an expansive oak tree whose thick roots are planted right in the soil of New Orleans, and whose branches are just starting to spread. Right now, he’s Rob49 the rapper. But in a few years? Rob49 the new Birdman, the new Master P. In a decade or two? Shit, Rob49 the mayor.

How has your mental been lately, given the whirlwind of success you’ve experienced?

My mental’s been good. I don’t even see the success like that, ‘cause I’m nowhere near where I wanna be. I really feel like I’m nowhere right now.

Where do you want to be?

I wanna be at like, superstar status.

Did you really record “Pent House” in a penthouse you rented with an unemployment check?

Yeah, but man, I didn’t get the unemployment money. My partna did [laughs]. We was in there thuggin’ though, like, 20 deep.

When people think of New Orleans, a lot of times they just picture the Bourbon Street, party aspect. How would you describe the real New Orleans to them?

The real New Orleans is like anywhere else, for real. I used to think it's like this treacherous spot, but now that I’ve been traveling, I’m realizing it’s like that everywhere. It’s a soulful city. And we got good food.

What effect do you think Katrina had on the New Orleans rap scene?

Katrina had a crazy effect, ‘cause every rapper who was big at the time left. They were like, “What’re we staying here for? We got all this money and the city’s torn down.” So everybody left, and we had to build a whole new rap scene, for real.

Yeah. I feel like, because of that, you all are in a similar place that Detroit was a few years ago. You have a lot of regional stars, like Neno Calvin and Young Roddy, but there’s no support system to pull you all past that level. Do you feel like you could be the person to change that?

Most definitely. I been saying that a lot. I feel like I’m the only person that can change that right now. It’s just about finding a way to change it. All the rooms I be in, all the opportunities that I can’t take, they [fellow NOLA artists] probably could take.

What would you change about New Orleans, to make it a better place for your kids to grow up in?

I would get more safe activities going. Make sure the football and basketball teams are up and running. Make sure they got good schools. Make the schools so like, people actually want to go to them. Make it to where it’s not a cool thing to skip school anymore.

“Never Change,” “Real,” and “I Still Love You” are three of my favorite songs by you. A lot of rappers can make a hot song that can last, but what you do on those three tracks is what not a lot of rappers can do. Are you ever hesitant to be so emotional and share such deep memories?

Oh, so that’s how you comin’! Nooo. It’s like, it is what it is. This is my life. Like I said, I ain’t tryna hide anything.

How much more do you have to rap about?

I got a lot to rap about. A lot. But when I’m in the booth, all I’m thinkin’ about is right now. I’m not thinkin’ about, “Ahh, I remember when…” So it’s tricky, ‘cause it just comes when it comes.

How did the feature and link up with Lil Baby happen?

I already knew P [Quality Control’s CEO], and I saw Baby freestylin’ to my instrumentals on Instagram. Not gonna lie, when I saw that, I was like, What the fuck? That fucked me up, I’m not gonna cap. So I called P to hook it up, he hooked it up, and we just did it.

How was the video shoot?

When I went out there, I was thinkin’ that sooo much bullshit was gonna go on. I was just prepared for beaucoup bullshit. But nothin’ happened. It was packed, and there was just a lot of love out there. Nobody trippin’ out. Even when I was leavin’, I was like, Alright, now it’s time for the bullshit to go on. But then they still ain’t doin’ it, so I’m like, Damn! That’s craaazy!

Photos by Photo Tea.

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