The numbers are in for Trippie Redd's recent release ! which, according to Akademiks, sold 51K units within the first week. ! was a much different sound than fans were used to, and since its release, there has been some controversy regarding the removal of the track "They Afraid of You" featuring Playboi Carti. When he caught up with us recently, he wouldn't give us a direct answer as to why fans can no longer find the song on Apple, TIDAL, or Spotify, but nevertheless, the mystery didn't take away from !'s success.
The Midwest rapper recently chopped it up with Complex to discuss the record and during the dialogue, Trippie got a tad emotional when his late friend XXXTentacion came up in the conversation. The pair had a convoluted history as they were once rivals, but they were able to settle their differences and became good friends and even collaborators.
Trippie shared that he titled his album ! in tribute to XXXTentacion's ?. "Literally, right before I went [to jail], Jah had sent in the 'F*ck Love' track and we had talked to each other," Trippie said. "We had good words for each other. At the end of the day, we always used to argue and sh*t. We was like some little ass girls. [laughs] But we always made up from our arguments. The last argument was very serious but we ended up getting past it and sh*t.
"I got locked up, and then like the day I got out, that sh*t happened," he said of XXXTentacion's murder. "Like literally, I'm driving to my lawyer office, and I just don't feel the vibe or the energy. It's like, I'm gettin' outta jail and I could just feel something was wrong. And everybody knew it, they knew I felt that way, 'cause somebody that just got out of jail would be happy. I wasn't really happy at all, I was just feeling weird. And we got to the building and sh*t, my lawyer son came up, was talkin' about...f*ck that sh*t."