Rochester, NY, is where it all began! It’s the robust and picturesque city where Roger Hill was born. The city is almost 6 hours away from the hustle and bustle of New York City, it has the reputation for being “The Flower City,” because of its abundance of floral and tree nurseries since the I800’s. It is oddly also known as “The Flour City,” because it was the long-time largest producer of flour in the world. Why are these 2 facts important to the life and music of this now Atlanta-based R&B/Soul singer? Because clearly something in the soil was meant to produce something that would one day blossom, bloom or rise to the occasion when it was ready.
Now, Roger Hill who goes by the artist’s name, ROGERHILL MUSIC is ready, but it wasn’t an easy road. But it is a road that he had to travel earnestly to earn his first Top 30 R&B hit in early 2023 with “Come Back to Me,” and to prepare his soul and his life for the journey on which he is about to embark in recording and releasing his debut album.
Hill began singing at the young age of 5, where he and his sister, under the management of his mother, used to sing at various churches throughout Rochester. Roger played several instruments and was an obedient son but confesses that “I never really wanted to sing. I just wanted to go out and be a kid. I left it behind.”
Hill was always around music in some form or fashion. As a working man, whose life led him through college football, construction, and other entrepreneurship ventures, he ultimately owned a nightclub in Rochester, where he brought in national artists like Angela Winbush, Rick James’ Stone City Band and R&B young gun Calvin Richardson. It was at a show where Hill, who worried that he was not going to make any money, took to the stage and, with the help of a bottle of Dom Perignon, sang Heatwave’s classic R&B smash hit “Always and Forever”. That might have been when the bug struck again, but Hill didn’t respond immediately.
In 2011, Hill moved to Atlanta to start over and start over, he did indeed.
Thursday nights in Atlanta, took Hill to Kat’s Cafe, for Open Mic Nights where renowned singers gathered to raise the roof. Hill started performing hits by famous artists like Jodeci, Donny Hathaway and The Isley Brothers. While driving one day, the song “Footsteps in the Dark” by the famed Isley Brothers caught Hill’s attention on the radio. It was then that he became determined to sing that song at Kat’s Cafe in front of the critical crowd of singers and spectators! Soon after, Hill was approached by a music producer who loved his voice and wondered if he wrote songs as well. That’s when “Come Back to Me” was born! The opportunity presented itself for Hill to step into his gift. Hill remembered how he felt after returning from a Black Ski Week trip where he contracted COVID-19 in February 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic. He realized that God presented him with a gift, and it was time to use his talents.
“Come Back to Me,” was produced by the accomplished guitarist Rick Marcel, who played with the legendary Ron Isley and the Isley Brothers and continues to work with Kool and The Gang. ROGERHILL MUSIC was bitten, and the lion was ready to roar.
Hill is busy writing music for his debut album, which will be released later this year, and the next single “Nobody Knows” shows us what a soulful storyteller he is. “Come Back to Me” is about someone that Hill admired. “I found myself writing about people I’d dealt with in my life,” says Hill. Hill compares himself to a male version of Mary J. Blige, living out the stories and struggles of his heart through his songs.
“Nobody Knows” is one of those songs that goes deep and then digs deeper.” On the surface, the sultry soul ballad is about a man confessing his love to a woman in the ways that women say that men don’t express, and because he isn’t always expressive, he vulnerably offers that nobody knows how much I love you, sometimes even the woman who is the object of his affection. But at another level, the song is about a man explaining why nobody knows, because he takes the brunt of the fact that she’s not ready for the love he has to give, and nobody knows that he’s ready and she isn’t! The amazing song was produced by the Grammy Award Winning Producer Steven Russell of the iconic R&B super group Troop!
Another single, “I Will Love You” is a perfect summer song with sweet background vocals and a cool bop that feels like the top down on a convertible while you drive down the coast or through the mountains, just to get away from it all. Hill paints pictures with his music, a mature love that isn’t afraid to expose his heart because he’s been through too much and doesn’t have time for games. His emotional intelligence is poured into his lyrics and peers through his songs, telling the truth of a wise man who took his time to get to this career and now he’s prepared for the studio and the stage, the concerts, and the questions about what took so long for him to record. “Your Heart My Heart” is a grown ass break-up song that says that even though we’re done, your heart and my heart will always be connected. It’s a smooth groove that is a soul-filled “no- hard-feelings” jam that leaves the lovers able to move on and have peace of mind.
ROGERHILL MUSIC is about good music! Whether he’s performing his own music, his favorite Isley Brother’s hit, performing for the National Black Radio Hall of Fame, getting words of encouragement from the renowned Dr. Bobby Jones, The Ambassador of Gospel Music, or when he was given the opportunity to meet and sing for Mr. Biggs himself, Ron Isley, he delivers. Hill’s passion for music has put him in front of legends like Ron Isley, his musical mentor. Hill has opened for Babyface, along with Jon B. and Lyfe Jennings. ROGERHILL MUSIC has also opened for Leela James. Hill put together a lineup that included Loose Ends, Cherelle, and Lakeside, where he performed his own songs, along with classic covers. The show was a success. He hopes that this is the fulfillment of that 5-year-old boy’s dream that he didn’t even know he was dreaming.
Maybe his destiny is that he got to be a young gospel singer who had to live long enough to become an old soul man!
“Now that I’m in it, I like the idea that people like the music that I’m putting out. A lot of people ask me “Why now?” I guess when God says it’s time to do something, you just do it. Then again, I might not have been ready back then, but when it’s time, it’s time.