Ross Rock Goes Solo

Santa Cruz rapper Ross Rock prepares his first record

Everyone expects a certain degree of bravado in hip-hop, but what if a rapper has too much? That was the question local rapper and Slop Opera crew-member Ross Rock, whose real name is Michael Ross, considered when working on his recent song “Lurk,” which has generated over 6,000 views on YouTube since getting uploaded last Halloween.

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Shooting Tragedy Ignites Cultural Battle

The memorial erected to Sgt. Loran 'Butch' Baker and Det. Elizabeth Butler outside the SCPD. (Chip Scheuer)

Erik Larsen was living in the Lower Ocean area and working in Beach Flats as a community organizer in the ’90s when he got to know Loran “Butch” Baker—a smiling, jovial police officer who took a neighborhood-based approach to keeping people safe.

“He was a really good cop,” Larsen says. “Butch embodies everything anyone would want to know about a community officer. He was a really good guy, and Santa Cruz lost a really good police officer.”

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