Don’t Sleep: Ashoka Is Rockland County’s Diamond In The Ruff
Ashoka is a Hip Hop/R&B artist from Rockland County, New York. A singer, songwriter, and rapper, Ashoka is a triple threat when it comes to music. His last single “No Stress” was featured as Ebro’s Song of the Week on his Apple Music Beats1 Radio show. “No Stress” also garnered the attention of multi-platinum producer DJ Mustard who once signed Ashoka to his 10 Summers record label in the summer of 2017.
They parted ways in 2019 and Ashoka went back to releasing music independently with his Aug 2020 EP “Through The Fire”
Ashoka recently performed “Through The Fire” at MajorStage.
Along with performing “Through The Fire”, Ashoka also performed his latest single “Triggers”.
I got to speak to the Rockland County native about his new single, his love for music, creating the best music he could, and his motto for success.
Dream For Rockland County, Early Love For Music + Early Influences
Born in Queens, NY but raised in Rockland County, Ashoka is driven to make sure Rockland County (which is only 6 miles from The Bronx) gets just as much respect as the five boroughs and the rest of the “major” cities.
I think there’s a lot of talent in Rockland County. People may be looking to Atlanta for the new sound or to Houston to pick up an artist. Right now, all the focus is on Brooklyn. The dream is to shed the light on Rockland County to the point there’s labels and publications paying attention to what’s going on out here.
Growing up, Ashoka was heavily influenced by Micheal Jackson from his families love of his music. However, Ashoka credits 50 Cent for wanting to be an artist.
“That’s where I feel in love with Hip-Hop. He’s the first artist to make me write his lyrics in a book like it was my own”.
Ashoka carried that love for music throughout High school where he called himself a “music connoisseur”.
That love for music pushed Ashoka to continue to chase his dream as an artist while obtaining his degree from Temple U.
Hence why Ashoka credits J. Cole as the artist who he resonates most with.
“We both graduated college and chased our dreams and decided music was our real passion”.
New Single “Triggers”, Expands on “Kingdom Is Yours”, + Gems.
“Triggers” is Ashoka’s first release since 2020. His first project is still gaining buzz so the wait to release new music turned out to be fruitful. Ashoka knew he wanted to take a different route with this single. With the ultimate goal of making music the people could enjoy.
It’s really important for me to give people great music. I feel Triggers was a great introduction
Triggers is more uptempo than the other music Ashoka has released in the past.
Ashoka is well on his way to a big year however the artist remained humble and didn’t want to “jinx” what he has coming next. However he dropped some Gems off for our readers.
The motto me and all my people live by, Kingdom is yours. If you really want to do something in life you gotta really envision yourself as a King or Queen in that realm. You can’t only envision it you have to embody it. That mindset is what’s going to catapult you to that space.
Ashoka’s Gem For Readers
As stated earlier, triggers is just the introduction of what Ashoka has to come next with his music and it’s a good one.