Houston rapper Trae Tha Truth has been an underground music fixture since the late nineties. Trae helped to form rap group Guerilla Maab and dropped their first album Rise in 1999. Rise garnered attention of well-known DJ, DJ Screw, who featured several of the group's songs on his popular Screw tapes. Trae later joined DJ Screw's Screwed Up Click.
In a recent interview, Trae Tha Truth describes hearing himself on a Screw tape for the first time and having the legendary DJ co-sign his music:
He was a legend within itself, but on side of that, that was my partner. The relationship I had with him was never on this move with the music or that move-- which most definitely he played his part. On side of that, [DJ Screw] was helping build me as a person, keeping me focused and keeping me confident when people would say "nobody want to hear that fast rap or that struggle rap." he would keep me grounded and focused, and let me know [that] it's all about timing. It’s never guaranteed that it will be over night, or a guarantee it will be around the corner. Might be on that long journey you got to hike, but at the same time, it's all about timing.
Back then we-- I know I wasn't thinking about radio. You [would] go get the Screw tape and wait to see what song come on. You wouldn't have a track listing that was the amazement of it. You would just wait to hear one of your hardest jams to come on. When you're wired up and then you hear yourself come on that takes you from being one of his number one fans to-- I don't know it's just a crazy feeling. Then on top of you hearing that, you got to think about how many other people-- when you come out and you hear somebody banging the latest Screw tape and your song is what you hear when they're riding by. That was like my first time being seen on MTV. It was a different feeling.
Trae Tha Truth recently announced a partnership with NPO Habitat for Humanity and is working on his Grand Hustle debut album (Read full story).
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