Horse hooves stomp the pavement through the blaring wail of police sirens. Randy Savvy rolls in like a cool breeze with storytelling prowess evocative of golden-era West Coast rap and a guitar-centric soundscape perfect for a John Wayne classic.
The Los Angeles-born Rapper, Cowboy, and Activist unites seemingly distant worlds on his debut EP, Late Night Ride. Savvy rides into the culture with bars smoking hot and buck-wild rhythms, ready to present an all new soundtrack equally at home whether at a honky-tonk or in the trap.
Growing up listening to an eclectic range of iconic recording artists - spinning everyone from Maxwell, Lauryn Hill, Ice Cube, and Too $hort with his Dad, to Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, Garth Brooks, and Reba McEntire with his Aunt - Randy picked up influences from them all. “Randy is the cowboy side of me, Savvy is the city kid...both are who I am today as Randy Savvy.”
Growing up in the Richland Farms town of Compton, he simultaneously experienced city life and country life and moves naturally in both. On his family ranch there - one of the few remaining black family-owned ranches in the U.S. - Randy grew up as an Equestrian with a thing for cowboy hats and a love for horses and community. Still, the hood gave him his attitude. The ranch and the streets are both his story and what he proudly represents to the maximum degree.
Upon completing graduate school at California State University Northridge for music business, he launched Compton Cowboys to continue his family’s mission of offering horseback riding to local at-risk youth and flipping stereotypes upside down. “I put music on the back burner so I could build Compton Cowboys up right,” he goes on. “After a couple of years of that, all of this cowboy energy was radiating out of me. I felt like bringing it into my art, my music. Now my music is the soundtrack to my mission. I felt like I got back to my roots and who I was as a kid, and that helped me find myself as an Artist. This is my authentic story and the journey I’m on. That’s where Randy Savvy was born.”
Working out of the studio on the ranch, this Compton Cowboy crafted a music style of his own and his tracks turned heads throughout the industry. Not only did he catch the attention of UnitedMasters and other high-level industry executives and companies, but he also inspired a fellow Compton hero to link up, the one and only legendary Dr. Dre. After teaming up with Compton Cowboys, the Doc personally produced Randy’s 2020 debut single “COLORBLIND”.
“The song speaks to the hood mentality,” he sighs. “We see murder scenes way too often. Our loved ones die in these streets and it’s kinda weird how we react. It almost feels like we celebrate by throwing a party, smoking, drinking, celebrating before it’s on to the next one. It’s a strange tradition, it’s toxic really. I’m sick of the red and blue lights, yellow tape, white chalk - these tragic and painful colors hit deep. On this record I’m asking, when will we wake up and see what we doing and change this sh*t? Big ups to Dre, he really elevated that spiritual essence of it...his touch is divine.”
Savvy has more music on the horizon that promises to put the “West” back into the West Coast like never before.
“When you hear [my music], I want you to know I’m about my family, my community, and my people,” he leaves off. “I’m going to protect and serve them by any means. I’m out here handling my business in these streets, but I’m still a cowboy for real. I drive my truck, drink my beer, load my gun, and love my horses. I’m a homegrown American. I’m not your ordinary rapper... I’m a Black man and an Artist on a mission.”
