J. Ross Parrelli raps to the beat of her own path
J. Ross Parrelli first began rapping when she saw a sign — literally. The Auburn native was a recent college graduate of Long Beach State in 2005 when she came across an ad announcing an emcee battle that would award the winner $250. Strapped for cash, as many recent graduates are, Ross Parrelli hit the writing board and, eventually, took home the prize money.
“It was so awesome,” she recalls. “It opened up this whole thing inside of me.”
In college, Ross Parrelli was on an award-winning slam poetry team and says she has always had an affinity for words, but it wasn’t until she paired those words with a beat that she found her “thing.” After her victory, her music career quickly took off bringing together the band Adaca Soul and opening for rapper Raekwon, then moving to the East Coast to work with Wyclef Jean and eventually signing with Universal Records in 2015.
Despite working with John Legend, touring with members of Wu Tang Clan and performing alongside Jurassic 5, showbusiness wasn’t everything Ross Parrelli thought it would be and two years later, she quit the mainstream industry to focus on her nonprofit Beats Lyrics Leaders.
“I could only be authentic to myself,” she says, adding that the incongruous image of herself in the industry’s eye was ultimately the deciding factor. “People want to put you in a box.”
Founded in 2012, Beats Lyrics Leaders is a group of teaching artists and mentors that provide workshops, conferences, trainings, and other education opportunities to bring music and beat making, lyric writing, and leadership development to youth and educators through hip-hop and performance art. Utilizing her own network of artists and creatives, Ross Parrelli has brought Beat Lyrics Leaders to schools in the Twin Rivers, Sacramento City and Elk Grove unified school districts, to name a few.
“I think my true craft, in my true art, is connection,” she says, “connecting people, connecting things, helping people connect to their purpose.”
Building on her bachelor’s degree in human development from Long Beach State, Ross Parrelli earned her master’s in leadership education from Mills College in 2022. She also sits on several local boards including Arts Council Placer County Board and Auburn Economic Development Commission. Economic development is key to Ross Parrelli’s work with Beats Lyrics Leaders.
“Music and art is what captures us as humans,” she says. “The other side of it is that it’s also economic, and arts and music, they drive our economy. The seventh largest economy in California is the creative economy. … We can really use music and art as workforce development.”
Ross Parrelli is currently developing an entrepreneurship camp with Roseville Venture Lab to expand opportunities for youth in creative sectors.
“My inspiration are these students,” she says. “When you see that aha moment, like when you see a student, or a student of any age, really get something that you’re saying … that life changing moment that they remember, that’s what inspires me.”
In college, Ross Parrelli was on an award-winning slam poetry team and says she has always had an affinity for words, but it wasn’t until she paired those words with a beat that she found her “thing.” After her victory, her music career quickly took off bringing together the band Adaca Soul and opening for rapper Raekwon, then moving to the East Coast to work with Wyclef Jean and eventually signing with Universal Records in 2015.
Despite working with John Legend, touring with members of Wu Tang Clan and performing alongside Jurassic 5, showbusiness wasn’t everything Ross Parrelli thought it would be and two years later, she quit the mainstream industry to focus on her nonprofit Beats Lyrics Leaders.
“I could only be authentic to myself,” she says, adding that the incongruous image of herself in the industry’s eye was ultimately the deciding factor. “People want to put you in a box.”
Founded in 2012, Beats Lyrics Leaders is a group of teaching artists and mentors that provide workshops, conferences, trainings, and other education opportunities to bring music and beat making, lyric writing, and leadership development to youth and educators through hip-hop and performance art. Utilizing her own network of artists and creatives, Ross Parrelli has brought Beat Lyrics Leaders to schools in the Twin Rivers, Sacramento City and Elk Grove unified school districts, to name a few.
“I think my true craft, in my true art, is connection,” she says, “connecting people, connecting things, helping people connect to their purpose.”
Building on her bachelor’s degree in human development from Long Beach State, Ross Parrelli earned her master’s in leadership education from Mills College in 2022. She also sits on several local boards including Arts Council Placer County Board and Auburn Economic Development Commission. Economic development is key to Ross Parrelli’s work with Beats Lyrics Leaders.
“Music and art is what captures us as humans,” she says. “The other side of it is that it’s also economic, and arts and music, they drive our economy. The seventh largest economy in California is the creative economy. … We can really use music and art as workforce development.”
Ross Parrelli is currently developing an entrepreneurship camp with Roseville Venture Lab to expand opportunities for youth in creative sectors.
“My inspiration are these students,” she says. “When you see that aha moment, like when you see a student, or a student of any age, really get something that you’re saying … that life changing moment that they remember, that’s what inspires me.”