Biography

There are few artists that truly deserve the recognition for being a singer/songwriter and Rome (John Monteiro) is one of them. Born on the Island of Fogo Cape Verde, Rome immigrated to the U.S as a child and began his music career traveling with local bands.

During his early childhood, artists such as Nrberto Tavares and Michael Jackson influenced Rome. Rome’s Cape Verde writing style and his interest in R&B helped shape the artist he is today. “It would have been easy to focus solely on writing Cape Verde music because I love the music of my country, however, I have those same feeling for R&B and Hip Hop” said Rome.

In July of 2001, Rome left Rhode Island and moved to California. There he Co-Produced the Album "Latina Morena" with Grammy Award winner Sean (Barney) Thomas, one of the original producers for Death Row Records. Thomas’s resume includes working with the likes of Dr. Dre, Snoop Dog, Little Romeo and the late Tupac Shakur.

Since then, Rome has returned to Rhode Island and has teamed up with the sensational producer K.R, a.k.a. Rlaudio Ramos. “I never imagined that I would return to Rhode Island to team up with such an outstanding local producer like K.R. His music ability allows him to play any with any style of music,” said Rome.

This dynamic due got together and produced one of the hottest albums of the year, “Reflection”. This album is considered by many DJ’s and radio stations around the globe as a great surprise to the music industry. The album “Reflection” is a combination of Zuc Love and R&B. It not only caught the attention of the Cape Verde community but major film and music video director Gerlad Barclay a.k.a. Gee Bee. Gee Bee has worked with artists such as Method Man and Snoop Dog. Recently, Gee Bee produced Rome’s hot music video “Take a Chance” .

“When we did “Take a Chance”, we knew we could compete with the other songs in the Hip Hop market because Kriolo music and others were being found on other Pop albums. In my eyes, Rome is more versatile than most artists and can perform in front of any size crowd. That’s why I did this video, I believe in him” said Gee Bee.

“Take a Chance” was a song for the Hip-Hop world but DeVagar was an enormous hit in U.S, Europe, Cape Verde and parts of West Africa.