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Music

An Interview with Roble Regal, the Canadian Rapper Who Claims to Have Hidden $5,000 in His Music Video

We spoke to the young Canadian rapper who has promised $5,000 to anyone who can crack the code in his music video that allows them to log into a PayPal account.

How to get people to talk about your “thing” is one of the greatest mysteries of life. There are literal classes taught about how to make something “go viral,” not to mention the hundreds of services that promise to help a “brand” grow its “reach” through the aid of marketing campaigns. With the multitude of ideas trying to break out, it can sometimes be disheartening or threatening for potential competitors to attempt to break into a new realm. Take music for instance, where dozens of new brands enter the fray daily in an attempt to dissuade fans of one thing to pay attention to their newer—hopefully better—thing. In an attempt to get people to pay attention to his music, previously unknown Toronto rapper Roble Regal recently embedded his music video with a quasi-treasure hunt, hiding the clues to $5,000 in the visuals for “Decebuary.” The video and hunt were promptly written about by several publications, including this one, after being spotted on Reddit (where Regal himself uploaded it), and the prize remains unclaimed as of publishing. But it also prompted questions from the general public centering around two main ideas: Who is Roble Regal, and could he be lying?

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Roble Regal is a 21-year old Somalian artist who was born in Kitchener, Ontario and hails from the Toronto neighborhood of Rexdale. According to Regal, he’s not lying about having the money, which he says to have earned through trading options, which he learned to do over the course of several months. After spending seven months of his life putting his newfound skills into practice, he emerged with a hefty bank account. In my initial email to him, I alluded to the possibility that Regal might be lying. He apparently took this as a personal affront, showing up to our interview with a printout of his financial statements totaling $24,570.94. There’s always a chance that these documents could have been doctored or that the entire campaign is make believe, but there’s not much I can do other than take him at his word, given the level of privacy shrouding a PayPal account. But the amount of confidence that Regal has in this plan makes it difficult to believe he’s telling anything other than the truth—plus, if you were going to lie, why not make the numbers something comical, like that kid who claimed to make $72 million from day trading while at school.

Regal is aggressively confident to a point that borders on abrasive, talking about his own accomplishments as if reading them from a historical tome about his life. He brings up his own genius often, using the same tone when speaking about his rap video as when he’s mentioning his plans to reform education or transform medicine. There’s so much information being spouted by Regal that the line between fact and fiction blurs. But numbers don’t lie, and after only one week, Roble Regal has amassed over 13,000 views on his cryptic video—an impressive feat considering it’s the first thing he’s released as an artist. Despite its quick success, Regal is defensive of his idea, and grows offended when it’s referred to as a gimmick—despite the fact that it totally is.

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In person, Regal seem hell-bent on making sure you know he’s the smartest person in the room. He speaks largely in platitudes that are employed for the purpose of keeping the listener from discovering a potential clue, which often results in him saying nothing at all. He’s almost neurotically obsessed with not giving away any information accidentally. His record “Decebuary” is a song that rotates around numerous themes and touches on many subjects, but Regal is hesitant on expanding about which exact themes of subjects those may be. He guards any potential clues inside of a mental safe, and there are a few instances during our conversation where he seems to run an upcoming sentence through a mental filter before answering my questions, causing him to sometimes stop mid-sentence in fear of revealing too much. Those looking for clues in this interview may be disappointed to find that our conversation centers mainly around the idea that a campaign like this may not be good for an artist’s longevity. However, after the interview concluded, Regal sent me an email with an honest-to-goodness hint: “Roble says he likes math, he sees in patterns.”

Noisey: When did you learn day trade and became proficient at it?
Roble Regal: I started trading when I was 19 years old. While I was trading I was working at a cell phone store, and it was full of rich business guys. A few guys there—like one in particular who would end up being a financial assistant for the NHL—took a liking to me and gave me a business opportunity. I was selling him something and he liked me, and he said “you're a really bright kid; you should work for me.” And I said “If I’m so bright why wouldn't I work for myself?” and then he gave me his business card.

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So if trading is what made you money, why not focus on that? Why even rap?
I did that for seven months. I have my accomplishments in that. I’ve already won that aspect. That’s the weird thing with me, I’m very conscious of the way my story sounds. I don't want to be 26 and all of a sudden making music. When I was making money I was a ghost. Nobody could find me, and I didn't want anybody to know what was going on. This is going to sound reckless, but I was just living off Airbnb locations in numerous places in the city. Sometimes it was a nice penthouse and sometimes it was more like a loft, but it was always a nice place. I had beautiful women where I was living too. It was great.

It sounds like you were living a rapper lifestyle already.
The thing is, and I don't even want to sound arrogant, but you are in the presence of a legend. I’m a myth to some. To others, I’m a genius.

Have you always been this humble?
I’m a very humble man.

I assume you weren’t this cocky when you were in Rexdale with no money.
I mean kind of. I kind of was, the number one thing that anybody can tell you is that I’ve always been about my money. That’s been the case from when I was a teenager in Rexdale. I’m actually from the same neighborhood that K’naan grew up in.

Why not spend the $5,000 on a feature? Why not do something with that money that can get you exposure in a better way? Because when you put out the next song, do you think there’s going to be any buzz without the song having a treasure map attached to it?
The reason I’m doing this interview is because it’s literally the most important thing that I will ever do in a long time. Even in the video there are allusions to things I’m working on. I’m working on other things outside of music that are huge in their own right.

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What kinds of things?
I’m talking revolutionary things. For example I promise you in the next two years universities in Canada will be free. Not because of “Decebuary” but because there are things that we are working on.

What is your legacy?
Roble Regal is not a wisher. He is a pragmatic dreamer. I don’t wish, I plan and I make things happen. I take precedence. I don't know how the universe works, but for some reason things work out for me. It’s always been like that.

That’s great, but do you want people to know you as a rapper?
I want them to know me as an artist.

Well artists aren’t looked at very highly on the social ladder, especially against doctors and day traders. Why would you want that to be your persona?
The thing is, art is not portrayed highly on the social ladder, but in Ancient Greece and Rome they used to hold poets in high regards because that was something of the mind. It was up there with like doctors, so that’s a cultural change. So, to me, art is up there I think.

If you care so much about your legacy, being an artist is not as favorable to your legacy as the fields of education or medicine that you say you’re good at.
I guess that would make more sense, but when you’re embedded with a dream from childhood it’s different. Because when you look at it pragmatically, I get where you’re coming from, but to me it’s like like, look at a Jay Z. He’s respected as much as a businessman as he is as an artist.

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But some would say he wouldn't have to resort to a gimmick.
Oh so I’m a gimmick?

You don’t think this specific treasure map thing isn’t a gimmick? Aren't you worried it’s going to shadow what you do?
I think artistically speaking I believe I can follow up. If I'm ever put in a position where I have to prove myself as an MC as an artist I can.

But do you think people are interested in listening if there’s no potential in getting money?
The thing is this whole campaign is going to be taking place over a longer time than you think. It’s not going to take three years, but I’m looking at bringing everything that I’m doing and put it under one umbrella. For example, if I go and make a presentation about education, I could mention towards the end that I’m an artist and you can check me out on these articles and I could show the people I’m presenting to that there’s a benefit in actually following up and looking into what I saw.

I don't mean no disrespect, but I’m going to go back to something you said in the beginning. People will hit me up, and they won't see this as a gimmick. They will say “I like what you did. I like your song, I might try something like this myself. Props to you.”

Would it be good for the culture if everybody did what you are doing?
It’s headed that way anyway. What are you going to do with a budget of $5,000 or $10,000 for a video? We were thinking of getting a feature initially. I was going to get a feature from French Montana because he would do it for $4,000 at the time because he knew a guy from Rexdale. I was considering that, but then I’m just a rapper who got some feature. There’s nothing novel in that. I see a lot of guys from Rexdale get features and go nowhere. I mean no disrespect, but I’m not interested in clichés.

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Are you worried that people are going to associate the rest of your career with this gimmick?
If it gets to that point, there’s a story behind it. This is a guy who built that money up, and he came up with that idea. Once again I don't think a lot of people would see this as a gimmick, at least not the people I’m talking to. No matter where you go in life there’s people who are going to be like “Jay Z never wouldn’t have been Jay Z if Biggie didn’t die.” There’s always going to be people who doubt.

But that’s different from “he offered people $5,000 to watch his video,” right?
If people do gravitate towards it and I get mad bills one day and I delivered on all aspects of everything I am trying to do, then I think that I’m more likely to be praised than to be criticized. It’s just the way it works. If I get involved in that news it’s going to be like “remember that guy who tried to do that?” History is told by the victor. When you win you can make it look like you did whatever.

So, what’s next what is the plan? When is the next instalment?
That I don’t want covered because I’m doing something with Rap Genius. We’re speaking right now, and we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to do that. Here’s the thing: You're the journalist looking for juicy gossip, but there are people who can actually help build this up and they’re coming, they like the idea and they like where this can go. I’m looking at this from the potential for businesses, and the amount of power I have right now to dictate things and make sure it stretches—because if nobody can figure it out then it’s going to start getting competitive, because there’s a mathematical component.

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What if somebody cracks it in this video, and then nobody watches anything else you do because there’s no incentive? Do you abandon rapping?
I said a long time ago when I was in high school that even if I’m 55 years old and a judge for the supreme court, on the weekends I’ll still be in the booth. I enjoy doing this. I’m an artist, but I get off on seeing somebody put together a really good plan. That’s always going to continue happen.

So, whats “Decebuary” about? What situation inspired that?
“Decebuary” was written a while ago. It’s about reactions to actions that you have no control over. A lot of it is internal dialogue. I’m 21 years old. I grew up in poverty, and I kind of got over that, to an extent. I've done bad things I’ve seen bad things. I’ve lived in Rexdale for like 75 percent of my life.

Do you have a name for the eventual album you’re putting out?
It’s called Hour 21.

Why the name?
One day at 3 AM I just randomly got a whole bunch of words in my head and literally spoke like ten songs on the 21st hour of my 21st year. It’s actually true.

Slava Pastuk actually cracked the code while transcribing this at half-speed and listening to the hints in Regal's heartbeat. Follow him on Twitter.