There was once a time when the Geto Boys, (and later on Scarface) ruled Houston’s Hip-Hop airwaves.
Classics like ‘Mind Playing Tricks On Me,’ and ‘Crooked Officer’ assisted in spawning a new generation of H-Town’s finest, which would carry on what the legendary trio first started.
Frazier “Trae Tha Truth” Thompson III happens to be one of those Southern boys carrying the weight, but not without a little bit of controversy behind it.
Some might know the laidback and soft-spoken Texan from the 2008 Ozone Awards, where he punched fellow Houston native Mike Jones in a dispute. Not trying to make that the focal point of his career, the Screwed Up Click affiliate is releasing his newest project, Tha Truth, (due out February 16th, 2010).
On a breezy night in Manhattan, on the 30th floor of the Universal Music Group offices is where you would find the 28-year-old, meeting and greeting a handful of media people who were invited to an over-sized conference room in the building for food, drinks, and to get their take on his new album. And that’s exactly where you would find StreetLogik.com.
Obviously everyone in attendance here just finished listening to your upcoming album, Tha Truth… But for the people that are going to read this, explain just what they’re going to hear…
Trae Tha Truth: Hopefully they’ll hear something that will make them proud from a musical standpoint, because there hasn’t been a lot of good music out there lately man… So right now, I’m just trying to bring that back to the table…
With the South being so competitive, do you think it will be hard to introduce yourself on a wider scale?
Trae Tha Truth: Not really man, because I’ve been doing this sh*t for too long… As you can see from just listening to the album, I have a real respect factor that’s out there…
That’s not a problem, so I think I’ll stay afloat… The time that you don’t stay afloat is when you get lazy, or you start doing sh*t you ain’t got no business doing… But with me, I stay working…
Speaking of the album, feature-wise, you’re dealing with a full house… You have people on the album like Ludacris, Jadakiss, Young Buck, Rick Ross, Bun B, Game, Gorilla Zoe, Slim Thug, Plies, Lil Wayne, Jodeci, DJ Khaled, Lloyd, and plenty more… So was it difficult getting all the people you wanted for the project? Any scheduling issues?
Trae Tha Truth: Nah, it’s all family, man… I deal with these n*ggas outside of music… It’s never just about music with us, so it’s never a problem; it’s always love man…
With you having all those features, did thoughts of you being overshadowed by some of the other artists ever come into your mind?
Trae Tha Truth: At the end of the day, there’s still another nine [songs] that you haven’t heard, that’s just me… I can hold my weight with whoever, and that’s the reason why I did bring a lot of features, so I can show that…
A lot of them are coming from different dimensions, and so that goes to show people that I can hold my own weight in different categories… So it doesn’t bother me about the features, because I still have a lot of songs, and a lot more features that y’all haven’t heard…
Out of all the songs you made for Tha Truth, which one(s) are your favorites?
Trae Tha Truth: I got two of them: ‘Life’ and ‘The Rain.’
What is so significant about those two songs for you?
Trae Tha Truth: With ‘Life’ that’s exactly what it is; it’s my life… With ‘The Rain,’ there are a lot of females out there that are going through the struggle, and I had two sisters murdered, and I understand their struggle… So both of those songs are something serious to me…
Previous Work:
“I Am Houston”
