The Interview: Trenseta

Getting right to the point.. I saw the “Unsigned Hype” article in the Source and my thinking was, “here’s somebody going at Ja Rule, again.” So I wrote something about you on the site and I was kind of surprised at the response. Because it wasn’t only your people that holla’d to say, whasup.. Trenseta is doing something out here. It was other people as well.

This one dude was offering to send me some stuff, like if you really want to hear his music I’ll send you a CD. But your people sent some music out to me and.. yo, I liked it. It was cool to me. But I guess what people want to know is, why did you make the song about Ja Rule?

The idea for the song came about a year ago. I’m a West Coast artist, and me I’m behind West Coast hip-hop to the fullest, hip-hop period, but you look at the whole structure of where hip-hop was going, which Ja Rule was on top. It’s like rappers that get on top start feeling that they can just alter the whole game the way they want it or where they think it’s supposed to go. Dissing other people’s images and stuff like that. It was just boiling inside. It wasn’t just because it was Ja Rule or because everybody was attacking Ja Rule.

My whole diss was even before the 50 album dropped. Cause if anything it was like damn he trying to be 2Pac, he trying to do this, he trying to do that. Making everybody think that’s the way you supposed to be when you come out, when you get in the game you gotta be all “Murda,” you gotta be tough, you gotta be this and shit. So when I was reading an article and he was saying, “he feel like he’s Pac.” It was like, damn. You know how sometimes you can be a critic? I was like, I wish he was in the room right now so I could say, “nah, you don’t come like that” or whatever, you know just get in a whole debate over it.

Because I’m a rapper and I’m able to write a rhyme about it, I did so. It was really just for me, I didn’t really intend for it to get this big. I just did it for some lil shit to record. Everybody started liking it, so I just did a mixtape and through it all together.

Then another reason was he dissed Snoop. Snoop is like all we have on the West Coast. For somebody to tear down Snoop it would finish the West Coast.. to me. In my eyes of the accomplishment of a West Coast artist, we have a lot artists, but the success that Snoop had is cool for other West Coast artists to come up and kinda ride behind him.

Snoop is like one of the icons.

Right, he is. And with an icon it’s like having somebody come up and diss Biggie. Having somebody over here say that Biggie was.. or Rakim was.. you know what I’m saying. It’s like how you gonna diss Snoop? You ain’t even on that level yet. So I felt like me being like a little homie coming up in West Coast hip-hop, I’m gonna ride. In the name of Snoop; in the name of West Coast hip-hop; and in the name of hip-hop.

Did any of Snoop’s people hear it?

Yeah, Snoop heard it and I talked with one of my boys, cause he was with Snoop yesterday and he was like he heard it, so we gonna link up and try to do some stuff. Actually I was supposed to do some stuff with Snoop like less than a year ago, but when you got things in between it kinda fucks up your shit.

What’s the West Coast music scene like right now?

Everybody is really just scrimmaging and trying to do their own thing; it’s like it ain’t no unity. As far as West Coast artists. Death Row was the best unity the West Coast had in years. It’s none of that right now, it’s not a family. Dre he has a West Coast label with Aftermath, but Dre is just taking talent. It ain’t like, “I’m gonna cater to the West; I’m gonna get some West Coast acts in here.” He’s just taking the talent that he gets, as it comes, doing it like that. I think that what we’re missing is unity.

I’ve heard that complaint before from some West Coast artists. Like over here you have your Roc-A-Fellas and your Ruff Ryders.

It’s groups of rappers coming together to do some shit. Over here it’s like, Xzibit he was with the Liks and then he went off to do his own thing cause he got a chance to do some shit with Dre. So it’s like, “okay, the Liks went down.” Ras Kass is all over the place. You have different artists individually that can’t get together. We got some dope MCs. Crooked I, he’s one of my favorite lyricists over here right now. He’s on Death Row and you know how that story goes. It’s just everybody doing their own thing. What I want to do is come out and try to build a foundation for the West Coast.

I see you did a mixtape, are people starting to make mixtapes out there? You know, Snoop has that Chuuch House thing going.

Actually one of my boys from New York came here and he told me, “you should do a mixtape.” He was like I got some instrumentals, put the rhymes to it. It took me like 3 weeks to listen and really hear what he was talking about. He was like, “this is how we doing it back in New York.” And in the back of my mind I was like this is not how it’s done on the West Coast. That ain’t how we do it. I was actually telling him that. He was like, ‘I’m telling you, you sleeping, you sleeping.” So I was like alright I’m gonna go and rhyme to some of these beats, and as I was doing them I was getting more listeners.

I always had the flow and always had the lyrics, but a lot of people if they don’t hear a familiar beat they’re like, “ahhh he ahite.. but this.. but that.” I put my lyrics on some beats that people are gonna listen to. Some of those same lyrics are on other beats and people heard em’ and they was like, “Oh, it’s cool.” Then when I put em’ on some familiar beats they was, “Ohh, that’s tight. That’s hot.” And it’s good that your able to do that now and not be looked as if your stealing some shit.

That’s a good thing to get into for the West Coast, because here in New York, I think it’s kinda saturated. So if it spread around to the rest of the country, I think those people would get some light, cause they would bring something new to it, freshen it up. What part of Cali are you from?

South Central. That’s like Los Angeles. The Crenshaw district to be more specific.

We’re talking a lot about West Coast rap, this and that. Myself, I listen to everything, but West Coast rap to me is is separated into two things: gangsta and then you have the other side which is totally the opposite, like say.. the Heiroglyphics.

Backpack rap, that’s what they call it. It’s either gangsta or the gangsta rappers call it backpack rap.

Where would you fall in?

I’m right in between. I don’t want to be looked at as quote unquote gangsta rap. I put street rapping in hip-hop form, with tight metaphors and flow. A lot of gangsta rappers have good stories to tell, but they don’t tell it with no type of talent, no type of flow. Then you got other rappers with flow that don’t talk about shit that people can relate to. I try to do all different types of rap, but bless that with flow. And by growing up where I grew up, what else am I gonna talk about? I’m gonna talk about the streets. I’m gonna talk about females.

I’m a rapper that can kick some street shit and get real detailed on the sensitive side of relationships with a female or some stuff like that. A lot of people over here think I’m from the East Coast. They not expecting a dude from over here to just straight rip it and add lyrics. A lot of people on the East Coast is like you got that flow, but you got West Coast dialog. Basically that’s what it is. I don’t know, I hope it could be some new shit.

———Part 2 of the Interview———

What’s your philosophy on the way an MC should approach his music and the industry?

As a rapper in the industry you should at least strive to be more original as possible. I think what’s wrong is the industry is putting rappers out there, putting images out there, an image is image.. anybody can create an image. A regular dude could put on a police uniform but is he really gonna fight crime? There are a lot of rappers out there that’s dressed up as rappers, who don’t have the talent. Then you might get a Neptune track, whatever, whatever.. now your considered to be an MC, a rapper. Then you get a whole bunch of features to make your album as big as ever and you get people with talent to make you look like you got talent, and when it all boils down to it, that don’t last long. That’s why you have a lot of artists coming and going now, because it’s just selling the image for now. The rappers that stick around they stay around for a long time. Like some of my favorite rappers.. like Red Man.. Scarface.. these are real dudes who can do it till they walking on a cane.

It’s too many features to where it’s like everybody’s albums are like compilations now. It’s like now when you shop your shit record labels is going, “Ok, now who you got on it?” They not looking at the artist, they looking at who he brought with him or who he got on it. Everybody knows I could get a deal if I had a demo with R Kelly doing the hook…“Ohh, that’s R Kelly on the hook, let me sign it.” That’s wack.

How did the “Unsigned Hype” thing help you?

The Source made it easier for me to get to the Dre’s, it made them open their eyes to where they want to know who I am now. Actually I went down to Aftermath and did a couple of cuts… like four cuts.. and then I met Dre. He want to work with me, I don’t think he has the time right now. Which is cool, but I’m not gonna stop. I think this mixtape thing and this Source thing is getting me closer to the next step, to the next move that I have to take.

Have you done any ghostwriting?

I did some ghostwriting for King T. I did ghostwriting for a lot of people who’s deals just collapsed, but not nothing super big, just some shit that I got paid off. It wasn’t nothing super hip-hop, nothing that I was happy about, but they used me for the job.

One of the interludes on the album, I found kinda funny. It’s where your describing how you approached a battle between you and another MC. Explain that so I can splice it in this interview.

Actually I was describing that and didn’t know they were taping it, they through it on there and it was cool. It was just a dude.. I don’t even want to put his name out there.

Oh, it’s a known rapper?

It’s a known rapper, and I’m cool with him. I was cool with then.. it was just the fact that he wanted to be Mr. Big Shit and I came into it humble. And I’m humble off the mic; I’m humble off the stage.. you know what I’m sayin’.. but if it’s a battle or if it’s hip-hop I gotta be in my character, I gotta be in my mode or whatever. But even then I came in to it humble. I came into like, lets just rhyme, we can rhyme and it’s all good or whatever. But he insisted on saying, “I’ma smash you.” So I just got him. I had to get him. I didn’t expect to run into another dude that was tight as me on the West Coast, as far as lyrics.

It was just like him, he didn’t expect somebody else to be competition. Wherever he was from.. I don’t want to say where he was from.. but he’s from LA. He’s the king where he’s from. When you think you the king of where you from, you feel like you the king of everywhere; especially if it’s in LA. So they come and get me and I come down there and I don’t even look like a hip-hopper cause I’m fresh off work. And he looks at me like..“ahh, I’m gonna kill this dude, cause I’m an MC and we on the West Coast and ain’t too many MCs on the West Coast so how bad can my luck be?” I’ll bet you that’s what was running through his head.

I’m looking at like I ain’t never lost a battle.. and really that’s how I’m coming into it, not let’s just rhyme. So I spit a rhyme, he spit his lil best rhyme, I spit another one.. cause I could go all day. I spit another one, he kinda fumbled up a little bit on his words. After that I spit like four, five, more for the crowd and it was over with. But I saw him the other day at the BET Awards, at the Roc-A-Fella party, and it was all cool. I’ma give you a hint, he was in Unsigned Hype a few months ago.. but it wasn’t Sly Boogie though.. he’s from Englewood. That’ll give you a hint.. but it’s all good though.

One of the lines that I put in my blurb was where you called yourself “The Lebron James of Rap.” I think you’re the first one to use that.

Really, I was just clownin and somebody heard it. Even The Source, they pulled that one out there, and I was like, “fuck it, hell yeah, I feel like that.”

I see it as Lebron James has high expectations on him. Are you getting the same type of expectations from the people around you?

It’s funny. I work in a barbershop. In a barbershop you can display your personality and all that, and I got older people saying, “I know you gonna do it big, cause you this and that.” You know.. they can see my character inside of me. I got everybody around me just got high expectations of me. Not just being a rapper, being an entertainer period. I used to do theater and all that, so you know, I’m more than just an MC.

Well, obviously your name is getting around. Like I said it wasn’t only your folks that holla’d.

Yeah, if you can spark some noise and get people from Cali to like you.. man, they don’t play out here. In Cali everybody got something to do and everybody looking at it like you gotta be big. Right now, Snoop is the biggest on the West and I’m trying to catch up.

Snoop is doing his thing right now.. he has that new TV show going.

And to say that.. Snoop is a cool dude. I met him before. He ain’t gonna remember me, but he was supposed to give me a ride home when I was like 17-years-old. I thought that was cool as a muthafucka.

*Huh* He was supposed to give you a ride home?

Yeah, I was stranded one day at a club with my boys. I used to be too young to get in the clubs, so we would go up there early and sneak in right when the DJ was setting up. We would hide in the bathroom and shit. Then after it was over we would find ways to get home. Snoop was gonna roll me home. Hah, he ain’t gonna remember this shit. I had another way to get home.. but just for that, I was like, “he’s a cool dude.” Despite all that gangsterism shit, I can tell when niggas got good spirits. Them the niggas I try to be around. Like, despite all the Ja Rule dissing and all the shit I talk on the MC level, I got a good spirit. I got luv for niggas.

have you heard anything from the Murder Inc camp?

Nah.. I hate it that it’s like that. It makes it’s look like, “Ahh, he did it cause everybody else did it.” I’ma get somebody else. I’m not gonna put the name out there yet. I’m gonna start getting all the lil candy rappers who coming out, thinking they Mr. Hip-Hop and they not. They need to be attacked man. That’s like a fat girl stealing all the clientele in the stripclub. The females with the bomb bodies need to get her up out of there.

Well you know that’s gonna make you Mr. Controversy.

I like controversy. I could deal with it. It’s gonna be on the MC level though. That’s what I told myself, if I diss somebody on the real it’s gonna be on the MC level and I’m gonna make everybody understand why I did it.

The only bone I got to pick with all the East Coast rappers.. every East Coast rapper there is.. when Nelly and KRS got into it, KRS had no business battling Nelly. A little homie should have done that. To me, that’s the rules to how it goes. You don’t let KRS get chewed up. That’s like an icon of hip-hop, period, and you got the whole world thinking Nelly won.. or Nelly conquered. And that’s hip-hop now. Somebody should have had his back and nobody spoke on it, nobody did shit. Something like that needs to be addressed.

And that’s how I was about Snoop thing, cause if 50 and them wouldn’t have said anything Ja Rule would have got over. He would have got over with that shit. He would have got over with the whole Pac image and “I’m 2Pac now.” To say you 2Pac you gotta understand the kind of life he lived, what he went through. Not just I got shot or I’m thugged out or I got a bandana on. This dude.. and I met 2Pac.. this dude really had a lot of shit going on through his head and people don’t know that shit.

He traveled. He got a chance to see what the East Coast was like, what the West Coast was like, and Oakland, the background of the Black Panthers. He actually did theater. 2Pac was a dancer, he used to dance and all that.. he did everything there is that had to do with hip-hop. And niggas coming out saying, “I’m Pac.” Then you coming out thinking, “Oh, you Pac from All Eyes on Me”? Are you the political Pac? Are you gonna buck the police too? You know what I’m saying.. Stuff like that, they coming out and just stealing the image of somebody, that’s.. that’s wack.. that is super wack.

I remember when Pac was out when he was going down. People was like, “He ain’t no thug… he ain’t this.. he used to do that.” People don’t understand that it’s a lot of thugs that.. Like I came up with niggas who used to ride skateboards and now they pulling guns on niggas and robbing and shit. You gotta know what niggas go through, they life, and how they live before you say I want to be that.”

This is real life. To come out and try to display this as real life, I look at all this as entertainment. I would never bring my real life.. never give you a picture of what my life used to be.. on the bad side of what my life used to be and let everybody glorify that.

With 2Pac and all the fire on it.. Makaveli was probably his most socially conscious album.

The first Makaveli he did was his best album, cause he was touching on all types of shit. My favorite song on there is “Blasphemy.”

And with that, we’ll end it.. but before you go feel free to sample one of the songs from Trenseta’s mixtape Uncutt Vol.1

“Golden Mic Champ” (zipped MP3) and if you haven’t heard it yet, the Ja Rule diss “Little Bishop” (zipped MP3)

whudat.com - July 2003