Roqy Tyraid

Jacob Raiford (born May 19, 1986), better known by his stage name Roqy Tyraid (often stylized RoQy TyRaiD), is an American rapper from San Diego, California.

On July 28, 2006, Paul McAdams and close friend and collaborator Brendan, p.k.a. Sank, were ambushed and shot while heading to their show, McAdams did not survive.

In the wake of the tra the gedy and incarceration of other key members, the group disbanded shorfter that.

Raiford decided to continue his pursuits in his new home in Phoenix, Arizona.

Within the year, Raiford had partnered up with Grammy-Nominated producer Dion Brigham p.k.a. Checkin Trapps, and set about making a name for themselves through numerous local and regional shows.

Raiford embarked on a marketing campaign that consisted of hand-to-hand selling his first two mixtapes Prequel 2 Bootlegs and Hiatus RoQ, which he claims sold around twenty thousand copies between winter 2006 and mid-2008.

At local shows, Raiford would occasionally rap battle the crowd if he felt it consisted of too many rappers.

He would preemptively advertise this on Myspace as “Going On A Tirade”.

In a late 2008 conversation with Chino XL, whom Raiford had known since he was 16 due to being the friend and groupmate of his son-in-law, Raiford lamented the difficulty in finding a name uniquely his.

Out of respect for the legendary J Rocc, Raiford decided to retire the use of the moniker and find something more appropriate to his artistic image.

Chino XL suggested using “Tirade”, having heard the story.

Raifo,rd agreed although he wanted to keep a semblance of his former name when Roqy Tyraid was conceptualized as both “Roq and Tirade”.

While deciding how to utilize this new creative growth best, he came across and befriended Rampage of Flipmode Squad Fame, the cousin of Busta Rhymes, who recruited Raiford onto his label Deep Freeze.

Raiford refined his craft and learned much from the veteran emcee before eventually disengaging to manage his career better.

Raiford immediately sought dominance over and recognition from his immediate scene in Phoenix, AZ, by releasing singles to local DJs, engaging in notable record battles resulting in dethroning of respected emcees from the community, and finding his way onto terrestrial radio.

By late 2010, he would put together his first release as Roqy Tyraid with The New Millennium Man, a mixtape consisting of original songs and mixtape records containing obscure instrumentals from producers he hoped to work within one capacity or another eventually.

His first single, "Woosah" which featured a sample of Pointer Sisters' "Pinball Number Count", was the repurposing of a popular Sesame Street song, which Raiford used to formally introduce himself as the comical, sporadically abrasive character Roqy Tyraid tended to take on.

The visual was shot in stop-motion, a tongue-in-cheek ode to Sesame Street.

The video was mildly successful receiving support from online publications such as AllHipHop and social media support from Grammy Award winner 9th Wonder.

The New Millennium Man would do mildly successful in the Hip Hop blogosphere of the era, landing on various blogs and introducing online browsers to an artist quickly described as "quintessentially hip-hop".

Following the conclusion of self-promoting his project, The New Millennium Man, Raiford sought to double down on his momentum with a weekly series detailing current events specific to that week in time.

He was initially approached by Phoenix DJ and on-air personality Ramses Ja, brother of Dilated People's Rakaa Iriscience, to do a weekly segment for his show with Bootleg Kev called Ready Set Radio, which was aired out of both Phoenix, AZ, and Las Vegas, NV.

For the next three quarters, Raiford would chronologically detail events such as the Egyptian revolution, the crises in Libya, Japan's earthquake and subsequent tsunami and irradiation, and other vital events shaping the globe.

This became a cult favorite.

Raiford wants to create another installment of the series in the on-coming future.

DJ John Blaze from Phoenix, AZ, is credited for facilitating the recording and editing and is often mentioned throughout the series.

Following this venture, Raiford returned to releasing stand-out singles and visuals, including the socially-aggressive "Break Shit" and the viral-lexicon-responsible "Bye Felicia", a facetious song describing romantic disasters.

Around this time, he began heavily touring and engaging in spot dates across the country.

Notably, Raiford joined an online radio station titled Skyyhook Radio, which featured acts such as Headkrack & The Bodega Brovas, A Tribe Called Quest's Jarobi White, and the occasional feature from legendary personality Combat Jack.

Raiford continued to excel as an online radio personality while using opportunities to advance his career in emceeing.

Notably, in the winter of 2013, having already been in rotation on Shade 45 and The Wake Up Show for the duration of that year was offered the opportunity to participate in a one-off live cipher called The Wake Up Show: Unplugged.

The show was an impromptu jam session, which would be hosted by both Sway & King Tech, and include live mixing from D.J. Revolution.

In 2015, Raiford signed was to Soulspazm Records for the release of his 2016 album The Dichotomy of RoQy TyRaiD, which would secure three single placements on the indie college charts.

Roqy Tyraid was born Jacob Raiford in San Diego, California, growing up in the South Bay region until his high school years ,when he relocated to Los Angeles County.

He adopted the name “J RoQ” as he was the youngest in his group of peers.

Following high school, Raiford relocated to Arizona to attend college.

Raiford, still going by J RoQ, spent the time he was not attending school in Arizona, back and forth between Pomona, California, where his camp relocated and formed Tak Ovr Ent, with DJ Metric at the helm, and included hip-hop act 60 East.

With flagship artist, Space Ghost.

Since McAdams was already the more established artist, having built momentum and a reputation in the Inland Empire’s music scene as a performer and battle rapper, it was decided he would be the first artist pushed collectively, with Raiford coming shortly after that.

They collaborated on McAdams,’ project, House on Haunted hill.