Rapper Conquers Law School at USC. Up Next? The Bar Exam.
Roosh Williams said the hustle it took to make it in the music industry helped him compete in law school.
June 26, 2019 at 03:16 PM
6 minute read
Roosh Williams can add a new credential to his resume alongside popular figure on the Houston rap scene: Juris Doctor.
Williams, who cracked the Top 40 on iTunes' rap chart back in 2015, graduated in May from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and is now hunkered down studying for the July bar exam.
Law.com first interviewed Williams in 2016, just as he began law school. We caught up with him again this week to find out about his experience getting a J.D., whether his hip-hop chops came in handy in the classroom, and whether he has left rap behind for good.
Williams said he has a job lined up with a firm in Los Angeles. He declined to identify it, but he said he'll start practicing entertainment law once he passes the bar. His answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Did you enjoy law school? I did. I didn't realize going in how heavily focused it is on litigation. Assuming I pass the bar, I will be doing transactional work. It's kind of funny to me that the training is so focused on litigation. USC was great. I have no regrets about my decision. I'm happy to be in LA and hopefully will be staying in LA. I met some cool people.
How are you feeling about the bar exam? I oscillate. There are points where I feel confident and I feel like, “I got this. It's not that big of a deal.” Then there are points where I'm thinking, “How am I going to remember all this information and apply it correctly?”
Did you ever feel like your classmates and professors treated you differently because of your background in rap? I don't think so—at least not to my face. My plan going in to law school was to not mention that at all. I was a little older—I'm 30 at this point. I wanted to go completely under the radar, and that plan was kind of ruined on orientation day when they announced to the whole class that there was a rapper.
Do you think your experience on the rap scene helped you in law school? Yes. When I was doing stuff in the rap world, it was eat what you kill. I learned how to hustle, and I learned to go out and get something for myself. It was very difficult. Any revenue I generated was a direct result of me doing it and me figuring it out. Sometimes you fall flat on your face when you're learning how to do something, and sometimes you have success. I went through those processes. There were a lot of my classmates who were younger—I don't want to say law school chewed them up and spit them out—but I saw some people have a change of heart or realize, “I don't want to be in law school after all.” But for me, it confirmed that that life progression I had made was correct. It's kind of a maturity thing.
What was the hardest part of law school? 1L was obviously hard. I think it's constructed to put you through the grinder. But I went through [on-campus interviews], and I didn't initially get a job—I got one later—and that was a really big letdown for me personally. I had multiple callbacks, and I thought, “I'll definitely get one of these jobs.” But one by one they fell through the cracks. The last one I got a phone call, and they usually reject you by email, but this was a phone call so I thought it was going to be an acceptance. But it was a rejection call. It was this huge emotional roller coaster. And this all coincided with Hurricane Harvey, and I'm from Houston, so my parents were going through what they were going through and I couldn't be there to do anything. And the career path I thought I was taking came to a halt. It all just hit me.
Have you stayed involved in the rap scene? I'm involved only from a distance at this point. During 1L, at one point, I stopped in a studio. I still have a lot of connections and friends who are actively doing things—and pretty good things at that. Every now and then I'll do something for fun, but I don't intend to try to make a career out of it in that respect.
Do you miss life on stage? Sometime I do and sometimes I don't. Rap is a young man's game. Like I said, I'm 30. It has changed so much. I grew up listening to Tupac, Biggie, Eminem, DMX, that whole era. That was a very lyrically dense era. It was all about your verses and having this bravado on the track. It has changed so drastically. Now it all kind of singing and whiny melodies. That was just never my style.
What's next for you? What I'm doing now is corporate music. My brain is good at looking at a contract, for example, and seeing what doesn't match up. With legal work, you kind of have to learn what you're dealing with, and then you have to do the legal work. For me, I didn't have to take that extra step because I'm working in a [music] context I already know about.
When we first talked, you mentioned political aspirations. Is that something you are still interested in? No. I still think I would be good at it. I thought going to law school in the Trump era would be very interesting, and it was. But it has just gotten so beyond anything of substance. It's all for show. It's like football: Your team versus my team and win at any cost. The drive for me was to do good. But then you realize that's a more loaded process that you expected.
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