Trippie Redd is a man of few words. Whenever he walks into the building, he brings an air of mystery. While he's not the most charismatic man in conversational form, he's the opposite when he hops on the microphone. When the Ohio native is in the studio, he's truly himself. After releasing several successful bodies of work over the years, he has learned a lot about himself and at just 20-years-old, the young rapper still has a long journey in front of him.
Early in his career, he was seemingly smitten with the social media antics that many young artists involve themselves in. Throughout the last couple of years, we've seen Trippie go head-to-head with Tekashi 6ix9ine and XXXTentacion, the latter of which he ended up befriending after their falling out. The release of his latest album ! got fans talking a lot online, especially after his collaboration with Playboi Carti mysteriously disappeared from streaming services. We caught up with Trippie for a recent episode of How To Roll and during our chat, he told us all about the creation of his new album, his friendship with XXX, what he sees in his future, and what exactly happened with the Carti track.
Read our full interview with Trippie Redd below, edited for clarity and length.
----
HNHH: Yo Trippie, what’s good?
Trippie Redd: What's poppin?
First off, I want to say congratulations on the album release. The last time we spoke to you, you said that you were only interested in making timeless music, do you think that you achieved that with "!"?
Always.
You’re celebrated for being one of the most versatile artists out there. The album starts out with an electronic vibe produced by Diplo. Is that a vibe you want to try and recreate in the future?
Yeah, I mean I always use a Diplo beat so, you know, I just used that one. Every project, you'll notice, all three albums that I dropped recently have a Diplo song on there. From “Toxic Waste,” to “Wish,” to “!”.
On this album particularly, you’re preaching individuality and telling people that if they just be themselves, they'll succeed. What did you learn about yourself while making "!"?
Shit, I really feel like I know myself. I want people to know themselves; that's more my thing. And through the process of the album, I was just on “my self” ass shit because that’s just me. I’ve always been myself since a youngin. Never really changed up.
I think most of the songs on “!” show a lot of maturation and growth. What has changed in your process since last year?
Um, nothing really. I’ve been on the same type of shit. I mean, I just sit in the studio, now I’m at home. So I try to get out a lot. I do a lot of stuff like, I don’t know, go to amusement parks and shit like that. But yeah I don’t really do nothing else but vibe out, I be chilling bro.
One of the most interesting features on the project is The Game. I wanted to ask about how you two linked up and how that came about?
He's cool. He fucks with me, so you know, I just pulled up on him or whatever and we got the song done at his crib. His son fucks with me too a lot. I performed at his birthday party.
Oh, that’s dope! I know you were saying that he kind of came to your world on "Immortal." You even got him to use some autotune. Was that the plan the whole time?
I mean it was really up to him for real, but he came like that. He wanted to come like that, it really was his decision.
You've said that XXXTentacion’s ? album partly inspired the process for !. I know you two didn’t always have the best relationship, but I think near the end of his life, y’all were really close. What inspired you to tribute him like this?
Before I went to jail, he had actually sent me my plaque [for "Fuck Love"]. We had talked, and it was cool. We had apologized to each other and there wasn’t no smoke. Nobody was mad at each other. We did fall out a lot, on some friends shit. Like, nobody really knew we fell out, only the last time we fell out was when people really knew. But yeah, it was just some bullshit to me. I don’t know. We never really always agreed with each other unless it came to music. So, you know.
If there was something you could say to him today, what would it be?
I don’t know, I don’t really want to talk about it.
I’m sure you saw all the Playboi Carti shit on social media about how the song removed from streaming. Do you just want to clear that up? Because people are making all kinds of theories.
I don’t know. You don’t think I should just leave it as theories?
Yeah, if you want to, if you want to man.
*Talking to someone else in the room* Hell yeah, what you think Hunter [Hunter is Trippie's publicist]? I should just let them be theories right? Let them come up with theories about Playboi Carti. Hell yeah, we gon' just leave 'em in the blind.
Alright man. The collaborative EP with Carti, is that still on the way?
Hell yeah!
Dope. My personal favorite song on ! is Lil Wayne. Weezy is one of your favorite rappers ever. Did you try and get him on that song or on the album at all?
Nah. Hell nah. Nah I wouldn’t, he fucks with me though, he sent me a record.
Dope. Is that going to be for Funeral or is it for something else?
You’ll have to see! I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s hard.
I’m excited to hear that. I wanted to also ask about Coi Leray, your girlfriend. How did you guys meet?
Shit, I met her in LA. I really had seen her on Instagram, seen her on the internet. She was making music and shit. And I never really was like following her for her music, I was following her just because she was dope. But her music stands out, that shit fire as fuck. But anyways, I had ended up linking with her or whatever and we was just like super cool. I don’t know. I don’t know how to explain it, it’s like we just clicked instantly.
I feel that. Also, listening to her music I see a lot of similarities between you both, so I think there's probably a lot of musical chemistry in there as well.
She's really versatile.
You’ve accomplished so much in your career at this point, it’s impressive considering you're only twenty. By the time you turn 30, what do you want to accomplish in your life?
I want to have at least 40 M’s. Long as I’m over 40 M’s by the time I'm 30, I’m cool.
You're trying to be on your mogul shit.
Yeah, you know what I'm saying, I don’t really need too much, I’m chill. Need a fire ass crib, another one.
Now that the album is out of the way, what can we expect for the rest of the year?
You can definitely expect a lot of videos. Um, shit, you can expect another project to pop up too.
All before the end of 2019?
Yeah most likely before the end of the year, if not the start of next year.
Damn Trippie, you working hard out here!
Hell yeah. I’m thinking about dropping this rock album.
Oh shit! That’d be fire!
Hell yeah, I got a whole rock album with Travis Barker and Blink-182.
I think that’s a side of you that people really want to see as well because you've kind of explored that world a little already so I’m personally excited to hear that.
Hell yeah. Definitely gonna get the edgy rock side of me. I’m definitely going to be on some other shit when the rock album coming out.
That’s fire, man. How would you describe ! to people who haven’t heard it yet? Is there a song that stands out to you that you think people who aren’t fans are really going to fuck with?
I think the whole project honestly stands out. I really just think if you listen to the whole body of work, however many times you choose, you really get the grasp of the project, you really get to understand what was in my mind or what I was going through and envisioning. That shit is just a vibe, it’s not really the same type of Trippie Redd project I usually drop where there’s like love, or hella alternative. This one was more so just me being myself and telling people to be themselves and really just being myself! I'm not making love songs like I got two love songs on it. But on the deluxe version, there's like 7 or 8 more songs so it’ll be half love songs and half turn up songs.
When are you planning on dropping that deluxe?
A couple weeks.
Is there anything you wanted to add before we head out?
Nah not really.
Alright man, it was a pleasure speaking with you. I really enjoyed the album and I’m excited to see what you got going on in the future.
Hell yeah, thank you.