StreetCred.com Trick Trick Interview

15 October 2008 No Comment

The StreetCred.com Interview: Trick Trick Part 1

Posted: 10/15/2008 :: Author: Derek Phifer

Trick Trick on pushing his album release date back due to the Yung Berg altercation:

“If the only thing you got is some negativity or the misfortune of somebody else for you to come up, that ain’t how you gain in life. That ain’t what I was taught. You earn that sh*t and get it on your own. My original date was September 30th. I was like I don’t want it to come out on September 30th, because all this bullsh*t is going on… I ain’t trying to blow up off no other n*gga’s misfortune. That negative press don’t move me.”

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Derek Phifer: What’s good man?

Trick Trick: I can’t call it. Same old sh*t.

D: So I understand you’ve got an album coming out.

T: The Villain.

D: So when is that joint supposed to drop?

T: I think we come out November 11th now. The original date was September 30th, but I pushed it back cause it was some bullsh*t going on.

D: Oh, you’re talking about the Yung Berg situation?

T: Yeah.

D: So what’s going on with him?

T: Sh*t, I have no idea homie.

D: You just deaded that all off? You’re not even going deal with it?

T: Yeah, I don’t give a f*ck about that sh*t. The n*gga hangin around with the wrong motherf*ckers. I saved his f*cking life. Everybody blaming it on me, so I’m like sh*t, f*ck it. Fall back, you know what I’m sayin’? Everybody saying Trick Trick did it. Trick Trick ain’t touch that motherf*cker. Trick Trick said get off of him and everybody go outside.

D: Damn, I didn’t even know it was that serious to where you actually saved his life.

T: Yeah, that was the whole thing. I was on the side talking to the nigga’s bodyguard. The dude that was doing security for him is from Detroit and I know him. He never mentioned Berg’s name. I didn’t have a reason to mention it, because I didn’t know he was there. Yung Berg was coming to the club on Saturday. This was Friday. I didn’t expect him in the club on Friday night,” Trick Trick tells StreetCred.com. “The security *igga came in and he stopped right at the bar where I was at and we start choppin’ it up talking bout some little b*tches that me and him had. We talking about that sh*t and a fight breaks out on the other side of the club. I go over there to break it up and tell security to throw everybody out, and come to find out when I get back upstairs from managing the fight he still standing there, so he don’t know either. I go back upstairs and go back to the n*gga that I know that was security for Berg and finish talking to him. His phone gets to ringing and sh*t and then he runs out the club and he comes back in 20 minutes later like, “N*gga, that was Berg.” I’m like, “Who?” I ain’t know what the f*ck he was talking about. He was like, “That was Berg that was fighting.” I’m like, “Who the f*ck is Bird?” I’m thinking he saying bird like b-i-r-d. He said, “Yung Berg.” I said, “Yung Berg not coming. Calm down motherf*cker. What is you talking about?” He said, “N*gga, they just rushed Yung Berg.” I said, “Well sh*t motherf*cker, I was standing here talking to you.” And then everybody says, “Trick Trick did this. Trick Trick did that.” I’m used to it. I know what the f*ck it is.

D: That’s a good thing though. Most people are trying to use the controversy to sell their albums. You’re the first person in a while that actually just pushed it back due to controversy.

T: Yeah, that’s some stupid sh*t. If the only thing you got is some negativity or the misfortune of somebody else for you to come up, that ain’t how you gain in life. That ain’t what I was taught. You earn that sh*t and get it on your own. My original date was September 30th. I was like I don’t want it to come out on September 30th, because all this bullsh*t is going on. That’s when we moved it. At first we said October 28th, and then I said November 11th, because we were having complications with the video, but it’s all being worked out. But I ain’t trying to blow up off no other n*gga’s misfortune. That negative press don’t move me. It don’t really move me like that. The street is all like, “Trick Trick, he wrong as hell. That n*gga crazier than a motherf*cker man.” Shut the f*ck up, you know what I’m sayin’? Stop gossiping like some b*tches all the time. We gonna let the music speak for itself, and those who don’t like it, it ain’t there for you to purchase. It’s for those who like it.

D: So who’s going to be on the album?

T: Me and Eminem worked close on this project again. I got the American Badass Kid Rock to lay a verse out for me. Ice Cube, W.C., Lil Jon – we on a song together called Let It Fly. Dr. Dre did some production with me. I got Royce 5’9, Diesel the Hitman. You know, there’s like 18 songs and I didn’t just want all that sh*t to be Trick Trick, Trick Trick. Somebody could probably hit a subject better than me. I’m not the best. I’m the best at being Trick Trick, but sometimes people want a change up, a different feel and that’s why I got these different people on different songs.

You know, I’ll make a beat and take it to him like, “What you think about this?” and he like, “Yeah, we need this. Let me sit with it” and imitate the beat and build it up some more. I’ll take it back to him with something on it. Then he’ll lay a verse on it. Like that. It’ll be like, “Ok, well you’ll go good on this. W.C., you should rock this last verse right here, cause you got that California swing for real.” You know what I’m sayin’? Instead of just Trick Trick all over the f*cking place. It don’t hurt to get features. If you gone get features why not get the best?

D: Yeah, get some folks people might know. Might help you do something. I didn’t know that Lil Jon was going to be on your album. I was listening to your joint Let it Fly and I was surprised to hear him on there. I haven’t really heard anybody doing anything with him. Everybody’s kind of assuming that the whole Crunk movement has passed. He kind of seems outdated, but it was a good look though. The song didn’t turn out bad and he actually added something good to it, so it worked out.

T: Right, right. He put that authentication of that Crunk style music. When you feel that a hook should be yelled out who better to do it than Lil Jon on this style of a track? I don’t think that Crunk movement died. I think the complications between Lil Jon and his record label the past 2 years. He wasn’t moving, because that TVT situation wasn’t working out well for him. He just sat still, because why keep feeding these motherf*ckers and they not paying? Now he just gotta get back in the swing of things and do what he do, cause he good at it.

D: Yeah, that’ll be a hell of a climb. I know that he was on top. He has a hell of a way up.

T: Yeah. He’s an excellent producer too.

D: Definitely. Did he do any of the tracks on the album?

T: Nah, he actually gave me some pointers on producing the Let It Fly track myself. I do a track like this and I say, this is like Lil Jon and only Lil Jon can make this track right. So I will build it and then have him come and fix it. I’ll say, “Ok Lil Jon, what should I do to this, what’s wrong with this, what do I do to this?” So he guided me, because I don’t mind help. It’s a regular learning process too.

D: How long have you been producing?

T: Man, I been producing since like ’89. I was doing sh*t for n*ggas in the city forever. You know, just grinding my way up. This music sh*t been paying my bills faithfully since 1995.

D: So you’ve been producing since ’89. When did you start rapping?

T: I started rapping in ’90. I used to just play around with drum machines and started playing instruments – drums, guitars, keyboards- and I would try to just get better at it. I wasn’t really serious about it because I was always in the streets. Then I went to prison in ’94. I got home in ’95. I was like sh*t, f*ck prison. I got to do something else, so that’s when I started going at it hard and I recorded my first record. Back then that Luke and 2 Live Crew style music, that’s what was poppin’. If you wanted to get in, you got to get in where you fit in. I’d been dumb to come out with a record back then that was super gangsta, hard as f*ck and then everybody’s playing (imitating Luke) “Shake that, make that booty bounce.” I got to do something like that, what everybody else is doing, to get in and I did it and it worked.

I made a record called Booty Bounce and started getting it played in all the titty bars I was hanging out at. The DJs loved it and eventually it got put on the radio. We released the single and did like 30,000 of them ourselves. We selling these b*tches for $3.99 ourselves to one stop distributors. We going to one stop distributors and they buying them. Everyday they’re calling for another 1,000 or 2,000. The first load was 5,000. We just kept dropping them off. Take ‘em from the crib, drop ‘em off to the one stopper and they distribute ‘em throughout the stores. Whatever stores wasn’t f*cking with the one stop, we would just go to them direct. But we’d tell them, if you bought it you can’t just get 10 at a time. For us to be driving from the Westside all the way over to the Eastside man, you gotta get 100 of ‘em. And they was buying them.

We ended up doing a licensing agreement with Inner Sound and the motherf***ers did another 390,000 something records. So I was like sh*t, this is what it is. This music sh*t is what it is. It’s just over the years, being able to change with the times and stay afloat, because in this game everybody knows that the next day ain’t promised to the next artist. You just got to stay in touch with what’s really going on and keep that s*** hood. Don’t go outside your circle, don’t go outside your realm, and do that sh*t to the best of your abilities. It’s been working for me. Other artists throughout Detroit and Michigan eventually found out that I was the one that was producing all of that sh*t and was like, “Let me get a beat. Let me get a beat. How much you charge for a beat?” I been going at it since homie.

Watch for Part 2 Monday October 20th at StreetCred.com.

Shout out to StreetCred.com For The Dope Interview