Meet John Rose, one of Hampton University’s notable alumni who graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in 2014. He is now a 2018 Juris Doctor Candidate at Emory University School of Law, Managing Partner at The Chosen Circle, LLC, Legal Assistant with Morgan & Morgan, PA., and Legal Assistant with Interscope Records. In August of 2016, John Rose and Malik Dean, recent Hampton University graduates and current Law Students, established THE DEAN ROSE SCHOLARSHIP to encourage students from Hampton University to attend law school, diverse the legal profession and affect positive change in society via law. John is the epitome of what Hampton University success looks like.
BM: How was the transition from graduating Hampton to getting into your career?
JR: It’s so speculative, you really don’t know what you want to do but you have a general idea of where you want to go. I’ve tried a lot of new things, something’s worked and some didn’t. I was blessed going into my transition because I had a network out of Atlanta that I was able to depend on and that really came in handy, so utilizing my resources was a big factor during my transition.
BM: How did you score your job at Interscope Records?
JR: It’s kind of funny, two of my friends that I grew up with in Jamaica, Queens attended Morehouse and they started working with Interscope Records, Mike Will Made-It and started managing artist such as the rap group TWO-9 and eventually Rae Sremmurd. Soon enough they took off after that. So when I graduated, I had the choice to live in Los Angeles or Atlanta and my two friends told me “Hey, if you come to Atlanta our network is your network and we have your back,” and that’s exactly what they did. That’s how I ended up at Interscope.
BM: What made you get into the field of Law?
JR: Haha, as I get older the story changes. Back when I was younger I wasn’t good at math and I just liked talking and wearing suits, but now that I’m older I understand things much more. I understand the value of law and how much I can use it to help others. Especially with everything going on today having the knowledge of law is imperative so you can arm yourself in certain situations.
BM: How did you successfully build your brand after Hampton?
JR: With every brand its very creative and it’s very important to have a creative name behind it. I will say that I was blessed with a pretty short name that people can remember so all my life it’s kind of been just ‘John Rose’, ‘John’ or just ‘Rose’ that people would call me, and that was useful. A lot of it also came from technology and social media. Our generation can use it to benefit because we’re able to engage with the masses and when you show your movements, your passions and document your life on social media there’s going to be someone out there who’s interested in it. There will be someone who says, “Hey, I want to do that too,” and before you know it you start getting a little bit of a following and that’s kind of how it went for me.
BM: What is ‘The Chosen Circle, LLC’ about?
JR: The Chosen Circle is a management company that I co-founded and I love it because I’m learning how to run a business and how to manage artist. Long story short, I wanted to be more of an asset and while shadowing attorneys and working with them, I wanted to figure out a way how I could utilize all of my relationships and be an asset to theses artist, photographers, actors, whomever really. With The Chosen Circle we do two things, facilitating or creating. In any capacity of representation you will either be facilitating or creating and if you have bigger artist such as Metroboomin, Rae Sremmurd or Young Thug, obviously you’re facilitating more than creating opportunities because opportunities come to them. But when having a new artist, you find yourself more so creating, trying to book them shows, work on their brand, get their name out there, etc., so that’s basically what we do for our clients; facilitate or create.
BM: Who are some of the people that you have managed or worked with?
JR: Cam Kirk, Sonny Digital, Mike Will Made-It, Rae Sremmurd, Young Thug, 21 Savage, Lil Uzi Vert, Ear Drummer Records, Interscope Records, Red Bull, Def Jam and Marbek.
BM: Who is your biggest role model?
JR: My mother. I don’t even have to think twice about that. My mom is Jamaican, she’s an immigrant here and she put a lot on the line and worked three jobs her entire life just to see my siblings and I go to school and get the opportunity that she never had. So everyday when I work, no matter how much fun I’m having, no matter how hard it gets, I always remind myself how much work my mother put in day in and day out and out. My mom loves what she does, she loves helping other people and her family and she puts everyone before herself. I just think having that unconditional love for others is amazing and I want to have that for my family, friends and clients as well.
BM: Would you consider yourself famous?
JR: Definitely not. I honestly never thought I’d be in the position that I’m in to where everyday I have someone who’s interested in being a lawyer approach me, ranging from high school, college and even other law students. It’s such a blessing to be able to shift the cultural paradigm and impact the generation that I am in and the generations coming up, that’s all I ever wanted to do. So no, I would not consider myself famous, but I am blessed to be such an inspiration figure to a lot of people.
BM: Because you’re always around celebrities, do you get some groupie love as well?
JR: Yes, but it’s weird because I’m not the celebrity. When you’re in that atmosphere people just go crazy. I’ve been on stage before when people are just yelling at me and I’m just like “I’m not the rapper,” *laughs*. The groupie love or fan love is always tremendous especially the bigger the artist, you can definitely expect that if you’re walking with that artist you’re going to get some love too.
BM: What inspired you (and Malik Dean) to create the DEAN ROSE SCHOLARSHIP?
JR: It all transpired one weekend when we were in Charlotte. We were having a good time and it just hit us that we should do something to help other people, especially from the school that we came from. We’ve always wanted to do things for our neighborhood, build schools, stuff like that and it kind of just hit us when we were in Charlotte. It was nothing that we planned for a really long time it’s just something that came to us spontaneously. We wanted to think of a way to help other people go to Law School; we knew that we didn’t have to wait to become lawyers to start impacting people’s lives. This scholarship is only open to Hampton University law students until we expand to other HBCU’s in the future.
BM: What’s your favorite suit company?
JR: Suit Supply, it’s a little on the pricy side. For more reasonable prices H&M, ASOS, Zara, Burlington Coat Factory and Men’s Warehouse have some pretty nice suits as well.
Social Media: @LordJRose
