RAP

I do cry a lot. <laugh> I cry when I’m watching movies all the time. But trap music was like this big thing at the time and I wanted my perspective in it. Cause usually I would make reference tracks, like well this will be for Rihanna, this will be for like Britney. I would write from that perspective, and I’m like, well, I want to do the same thing, but I wanna make it for me. And it wasn’t hypermasculine, like hyper-masculinity is hip hop’s thing, you know? I felt like Trapcry is a rebellion. It’s a different perspective. It’s not that hyper-masculine perspective that was popular in the nineties. I feel like hip hop doesn’t take music seriously unless it is that. And for a minute I was like, okay, I’m doing hip hop, but then it just became my own pop thing and it’s not even what I first started out being. I was sure about my sexuality then, but it was just like, how do I want to portray it and brand it? And this was all in like 2013. <laugh>

I wanna talk about how I unapologetically queer your music is. When I read your lyrics, it feels very biographical. I feel like I’m reading very specific memories and experiences. And it may sound obvious cuz that is the life you’re living. But as a musician, you have the option to paint with broad strokes and kind of beat around the bush or keep some things private and some things public. Is it intentional to thread your queerness in your art? And how does your art interpret your queerness? How does your queerness interpret your art?

I think being a gay person in music, now, you don’t have to be quiet. I mean, I already told you I’m gay, so like, what now? <laugh>. I can just be as revealing as I want, but also I feel like sometimes as Gene it’s different from Trapcry. I like to push the boundaries with who people can perceive Trapcry to be because it’s a hypersexual image and there’s nothing Trapcry can’t do. But like for me, I’m not always there. The songs I put out, they’re all real because it’s how I feel and if it’s not real, it’s how I wish I could be. Like I said, I’m inspired by my friends a lot. And I just feel like as a gay person, I don’t have to censor myself. I can just put it all out there because they’re already beating us up about our identity. And there’s always gonna be somebody that can relate to you. Whatever I put out doesn’t matter, somebody’s gonna be like, wow, this song meant something to me or like, I can identify in this situation. There’s so many stories to tell and I feel like you can’t really live all of these situations. Like, it’s probably unrealistic. But, there is a piece of me in each song <laugh>, there’s something there, but it’s usually up for interpretation. It’s not always exactly how it seems.

Can you talk a little bit more about the dichotomy of who Gene is and who Trapcry is, and what points do they intersect?

Growing up as a student of Beyonce, she had Sasha Fierce and I feel like that’s what Trapcry is for me. There’s definitely moments in my life that I feel like this is not Trapcry. Trapcry is so outgoing, you know, my highest self. But, you have to keep a piece of yourself for yourself. There’s just some things you have to keep private. With social media it’s like post, post, post this, post this. And I do post a lot, but not all of it is personal. It’s okay to be vulnerable. It’s just like, not everything is for everybody.

I know there’s a good amount of artists that put themselves in the camp of a recording artist: I make music because I like to be in the studio and like editing. Then there’s others that make music purely to perform it, to engage with people. I would say you’re probably a combination of the two. When I see you perform, the energy is so intense and visceral, it’s what I would imagine your music would come to be. But for someone who hasn’t been to a live show of yours, describe the experience of a Trapcry show?

You kind of let everything go at the door and you can be who you want to be. It’s super sexy, super fun. I’ve always been a studio artist long before I ever started performing shows, and then when I did do it, I didn’t know that it was going to unlock something. It made me feel liberated. I feel like a lot of people at my shows are going through the same things as me. And even the shows where people probably can’t relate, I feel like them seeing me in my truth liberates them too. Because a lot of times you’re in this box of who you think you’re supposed to be. But coming into my thirties, which is when I started performing, it’s like, oh, you think this is who you are? I had to realize that Gene and Trapcry are two different things. And that’s okay. As Gene, I think I’m all figured out. And then Trapcry is like <laugh> I’ve got something else up my sleeves.

What I’m hearing is something kind of takes over you when you are performing.

That’s the vibe. It’s about just letting everything go and having a good time. Forget all we went through this week and let’s just party and be whoever we want. There’s no judgment. Nobody can judge you but yourself, and you don’t even need to judge yourself here. You need to just love yourself.

Okay, I wanna zoom out. I want to talk about music in general. What do you see as someone who has two decades of music under their belt. Been in the industry for a minute. What do you think is next for music as a whole? What direction is music heading in?

Hmm, I don’t love music right now.

What don’t you love about it?

It is so accessible, right? And this is a good thing. Like accessibility is good because not everybody has the same means, but I feel like with accessibility, you have people who have big platforms and because they have access to music, they’re just putting out whatever. And they’re gonna get the algorithm going towards them because the algorithm will catch it again. It’s like playing a social media game and it’s not even about the music. So I hate that <laugh>. I think the good part about that is I can just make whatever I want and there’s no pressure. Like, I’m not signed. But at the same time, I do wanna be heard. I do feel like there’s a place for me whether or not the algorithm or anybody recognizes it. And that’s why I say, Richmond doesn’t know what to do with me. But I love Richmond so much. So I’m here, you know? I think there’s something new about the Richmond music scene right now. And I’ve been here for a bit. So I kind of saw what it was before the pandemic, and after the pandemic it’s turned into something else. I feel like as a collective, we’re on the verge of something. But we have to get out of the local mindset. Just be who you are as an artist and do your thing. they have all these followers and resources. And then like little people who actually make really good music, they get looked over. Someone like me, I’m not gonna get the playlist placements and stuff like that. I’m just gonna get first week’s radar for a couple weeks. It’ll hit for like a month and then everyone just moves on to the next song. Sometimes I even have to re-release something so that

Now, what do you see as the future for Trapcry? And you can talk about the immediate future if you want to tease something that is coming soon, but also you can talk on a big scale. Like what do you see five years, 10 years, 20 years?

Oh my God. I know there’s gonna be another big release for me. I don’t know when that’s gonna be. But it’s coming.

An album or?

Definitely an album. Like I have so many singles right now and they all need to be put on something. I definitely have an album’s worth of singles. And there’s songs I perform all the time that I just haven’t put out, and it’s funny that some people know those songs better than what’s out on the internet <laugh>. I know I wanna do videos. I wanna do a big campaign for one big project. I don’t know if it’s gonna be this year or next year, but it will be a body of work that tops anything I’ve ever done. And people loved my last project. I loved that project. But I want to make more art that speaks to the time we’re in now. And I think the next project will do that. And this next one is gonna be very pop star <laugh> it’s dancing, it’s sexy, it’s fun. center hip hop a little more. I feel like the country, bluegrass, and punk scene is always getting the support. And so when I’m getting put on shows and stuff, sometimes it’s like, would I get booked for any of these shows? Cause I’m not even strictly one thing. I think people hear my music and they definitely think dance, dance, dance. But I have so many things I can do. I definitely wanna do that with the next album. I think that’s where I’m headed. Just like being able to reflect on the Richmond experience. Hopefully it’ll be a cool summer and if I push hard enough, maybe I’ll have a project out this summer.

More than anything, I just want to keep making good music. I have so much music that’s not out and I like sitting on music and then I’ll release it on my own time. I wish I could commit to doing things faster, but it feels too robotic to just release project after project. My last album was dangerous. That was 2020. Sometimes I ask myself, what would Rihanna come out with now? Like I said, I’ve always wanted to be a pop star, but I feel like nobody else is really doing that here. Making music with a commercial twist, but like also crossing over into urban and alternative themes. People are doing that, but not in this locality. And you know, I think it’s easy for people to look at me and be like, you are like Frank Ocean or Little Nas X and like yeah, I think I do have some songs that fit their aesthetic, but I definitely make songs that are unique to me too.