Bay Area native R.O.D, is changing the face of R&B music today with his single “Can’t Stand You,” that’s been dominating airwaves and clubs today.   Not since TLC’s “No Scrubs,” has a song become a certified anthem like this song—as it speaks to the trials and tribulations of relations that everyone’s felt at one time or another.

With that being said, R.O.D has more dope music under his belt with his mixtape, Here I Come, and an album—The Many Contradictions of Love Volume 1, slated to be released this May.  R.O.D sat down with Rawe, to give us an exclusive interview.

Bella: First and foremost, for people who don’t know why your name’s R.O.D, can you explain that, as well as your influences and just about yourself in general?

R.O.D: Well, my name’s R.O.D, it stands for Reality Over Dreams. Basically, the reason why I picked that name is because I tend to speak on my personal experiences and it just so happened to grab a lot of people’s attention–so I kind of figured since I touch on real situations, that’s why I picked that name.  My influences, go as far back as The Temptations, Lenny Williams, James Brown, Michael Jackson, of course, and the Bay Area rap scene also, like from the Bad Influences to Too Short, Big Rich, and some of the new artist too—there’s a lot of them, to name, but its basically between rap and soul music.

Bella: So you write your own songs right?

R.O.D: Definitely

Bella: So, this is about your music and that, for your project Here I Come there’s a lot of relationship songs as well as songs about women. What is it about those dynamics that inspire you to write those kinds of songs?

R.O.D: Well like I said, its something that I been through, you know.  Things that I continue to go through just in life in general so, the best way for me to get over those situations at that particular moment is to just jot them down and it just so happened I put them in song form. I write about everything but at this particular moment it was just the relationship aspect of them.

Bella:  So with “Can’t Stand You,” when you did that song, did you know it was going to be an anthem for everyone?

R.O.D:  No, I did not know that was going to be an anthem. Again that was just one of those situations when me and one of my homeboys was going through the same situation at the same time and I just jotted it down and wrote it.  And before I even got to that particular song it was three different songs that I wrote to that beat that were totally opposite and I was just like let me put it on the line and let me just see where it goes. I didn’t think in no way, shape or form, it was going to become what it’s becoming and by the grace of God it’s doing real well but I didn’t think it was going to be an anthem.

Bella:  Also, what are the things that you “can’t stand” for people who haven’t heard the song yet?

R.O.D:  The things I can’t stand are people who don’t appreciate the things that you do. In the song its basically just talking about how I’m in a relationship and the female that I’m dealing with– her whole argument is that I don’t give her enough attention and that I don’t give her enough time and she nags about every little thing I do or that I don’t do but, she doesn’t understand that all the things I do and all the time I’m being away from her is because of us.  I’m trying to provide for us as a family so that’s the whole purpose of the song.

Bella: Kind of with the Bay movement I guess, how there’s so many artist coming out right now, like, I know people in LA and stuff too are talking about how the bay has dope artist now, how does it make you feel to be apart of that and how does the kinship with you and the other artist feel?

R.O.D:  Thank you, first off for considering me a dope artist, I just be recording.  It feels good coming up right now—we have Erk Tha Jerk, we have a lot of talented artist out here, so to be a part of that it feels real good and hopefully I can just keep the movement going where ever it goes, just stay apart of it, stay relevant, put up for my city, my region, and my movement.

Bella: Where are you from?

R.O.D: I’m originally from San Francisco, but I was raised in Oakland.

Bella: Also, with your music, it’s been played on the radio a lot, and I know you’ve been doing a lot of shows, how does it make you feel to be getting so much love?

R.O.D: It feels good, we got to understand that I’ve been doing this for ten years plus, so to finally get to that status to where I can actually perform and where I can point out to the crowd and they sing a certain part of the song, that’s a big accomplishment for me. It feels real good; now, I feel like those ten years plus is all worth it.

Bella: So this is just a general question about R&B music right now, one of the other writers on the site was saying how R&B music in the 90’s was really big then it died out, and now it’s coming back now, what do you think about the state of R&B right now?

R.O.D:  The state of r&b is I believe its bigger now then it was before.  R&B in the 90’s was kind of like how rap is now, as far as, you have only certain songs that are going to get heard through all regions but, R&B now is way bigger then you can imagine.  It’s going into a whole new direction that it needed to go years ago, but timing is everything.

Bella:  Musically, what’s next for you, like what’s your new single going to be?

R.O.D:  Not quite sure what my next single’s going to be, I have a couple of songs in mind but I don’t know exactly, me and my manager are trying to figure it out, as we speak.  But, the album The Many Contradictions of Love Volume 1, is slated to be out mid-May, not a particular date as of yet, but we got everything going it’s just a matter of now picking the second and third single.

Bella: The last question is, in five years, where do you want to see yourself musically?

R.O.D:  In five years where do I want to see myself?   In five years I want to see myself in a nice plush office, handling business. I love the music, I love the creative part of it, and so it has to be if I’m not running my own label, just beyond songwriting.  Whatever it is that I’m going to do in five years—I can’t not do music, so that’s where I see myself.

Bella:  Any last words?

R.O.D:  Look out for the Big Rich and Ya Boy album that I’m featured on a song called, “Keep it Pushin.”  The Nio The Gift album, Hip-Hop that I’m featured on, just check out for future projects.  The Remix of “Can’t Stand You.” The remix–that’s going to be big, I really can’t speak on it but it’s going to be a big remix.

Bella: When’s that going to come out?

R.O.D: Probably about a month.

Download Here I Come…