Trillville has
become an entity all itself – a place, an attitude, and most notably,
a person. As a result of Lil’ Jon’s stronghold in mainstream Hip-Hop, Crunk is finally getting its praises. A key architect in the last five
years of Crunk, is Atlanta’s three man collective Trillville.
Part of Jon’s BME Recordings Group, and partner to Lil’ Scrappy,
Trillville got national acclaim this year in a variety of places. AllHipHop.com
uses Trill’s expertise to get an advanced education on the history of
Crunk, from a New York State of Mind. If you’ve ever doubted, now’s
your chance to get a live explanation from the horse’s mouth!
AllHipHop.com:
I read somewhere that ya’ll said that Crunk in terms of music is not Hip-Hop.
Trill: It’s
not Hip-Hop! Crunk is a way of life, like you be bouted up all day, you got
ya nine to five, you gotta go to school at a certain time, you gotta go the
speed limit, you gotta do ya homework on time. Crunk is basically is away from
all that, its like forget about that, just be free with yourself, and do whatever
you want to do. If you wanna smoke weed, if you wanna drink everyday, its whatever
you wanna do, and be free with it. No limits. Like a big stress reliever and
I think that’s why it taken off so big, like the other genres that usually
don’t make it across the nation like booty shake music, that’s why
Crunk has made it, cause it’s a way of life.
AllHipHop.com:
You just said a whole bunch of good stuff about what Crunk is, but I wanna know
why you don’t consider it Hip-Hop.
Trill: Well, I’ll
put it like this… Hip-Hop wouldn’t even accept Crunk. And Crunk
been around for like five years and Hip-Hop is just now accepting Crunk. So
they didn’t even consider it a part of Hip-Hop.
AllHipHop.com:
Who are “they”?
Trill: The Hip-Hop community, matter fact we was at a Hip-Hop summit in Alabama, Birmingham,
and we were talking about, it was Russell Simons, and the CEO of BME, and it
was like Hip-Hop is not Crunk, because it was something about some history or
something, it was a long discussion. But, Crunk is its own thing, and Hip-Hop
is its own thing, but we come together and make hits. So, it really doesn’t
matter.
AllHipHop.com:
It does matter I totally disagree with you, But ya’ll the ones who created
it.
Trill: Crunk is
Crunk, Hip-Hop is Hip-Hop. We put Hip-Hop artists on Crunk music, just like
Lil’ John did the Crunk song with Usher, but its like he a R&B artist,
so he’s not a Crunk artist, he’s a R&B artist.
AllHipHop.com:
But he’s with a Crunk artist
Trill: Exactly,
it’s collaboration, just like a Rock and Rap song.
AllHipHop.com:
Does Crunk incite fighting? Are the two connected?
Trill: Like I said
before, it’s a stress reliever, if that’s the way you release your
stress, a lot of people release their stress by fighting, so when the song come
on in the club, they just wanna wild out, go crazy. Somebody might of stepped
on their shoe a hour ago, and they just wanna release that stress. And they
just remember that he had stepped on their shoe, and just buss his ass.
AllHipHop.com:
So do you see a problem with promoting that?
Trill: We don’t
promote that, when you listening to a Trillville album our hooks are not saying,
“Bust a n*gga head up.” We got songs like “Get some Crunk
in ya System”, “ Get on My level”, “ You the Weakest
Link”, “ Run Around the Club” and some cuts talking ‘bout
the bedroom
AllHipHop.com:
What interested me about it, is that, they have your show, and in between the
show, they have random shots of people just fighting.
Trill: They’re
releasing their stress. That’s why it’s called The Fight Club DVD
AllHipHop.com:
I think a lot of people really think cats from the south are stupid, just because
maybe cause ya’ll got gold in ya mouth or ya’ll just saying, “Yeah!”
and “OK!” in a record, but set the record straight please for everyone
who doubts your intelligence.
Trill: I think
a lot of people are stupid, especially if you call Crunk stupid, without knowing
what the hell is going on. We just like to have fun, have a good time, shine,
blind, and recline, Let the seat back, and relax and count my stakes. That’s
how we do it man, we jump around, have a good time, I think that’s why
everyone loving the Crunk right now, cause its just do whatever you want to
do.
AllHipHop.com:
So now that ya’ll been out, Have things change in your friends and family?
A good change a bad change? Are people wilding? People acting funny style?
Trill: Ya’ll
n*ggas just be having ya hands out like, “I was there all the time,”
you was their all the time? Let me hold something
AllHipHop.com:
Now Dirty, you from the roughest part of Atlanta right?
Trill: I’m
straight from the West side, Zone 3
AllHipHop.com:
You go back to your hood?
Trill: All the
time. See, we get to go back to our hood. We don’t wear bling bling and
stuff like that.
AllHipHop.com:
Anytime I see women involved in Crunkness on like screen, video or stage, she
shakin’ her ass, Is there any room for a queen of Crunk.
Trill: Matter fact
there is a queen of Crunk,
AllHipHop.com:
Word!!
Trill: Rasheeda
AllHipHop.com:
Really? So why you think she’s not blowing up, like ya’ll. Do you
think it has anything with her being a woman?
Trill: She just
got her deal, Her label has to push it out, make it real big for her.
AllHipHop.com:
Is she Crunk like ya’ll, or is she shaking her ass as well.
Trill: She ain’t
shaking no booty, she just keeping it real.
AllHipHop.com:
A lot of people are getting fired like from radio stations for speaking their
minds whether it’s on politics, sex, or racism, so there a lot of crazy
fines going on, and the government is really cracking down. As artist do you
think that that’s all right, do you think its gonna affect ya’ll
music, and what ya’ll are able to say.
Trill: I just keep
it Trillville, they trying to take away our freedom of speech. Well I’mma
say whatever the f**k I wanna say.
AllHipHop.com:
Do you think people should be able to talk about racism the government without
being fired?
Trill: Ain’t
that the fifth amendment to be able to say whatever the f**k we wanna say? If
we have an opinion, we should be able to express it whether its racism or whatever.
They talk about the war and be showing killing and all that bombing on TV. We
should be able to talk about simple things.
AllHipHop.com:
Last time we interviewed you, you claimed you weren’t going to vote, but
now I hear you guys are involved with some positive things with voting
Trill: yeah we
had to change our mind s when what’s his name started talking about drafting.
Yeah we had to change our mind because I definitely don’t want to go over
there
AllHipHop.com:
So what are y’all involved in something that’s apart of promoting
people to go out and vote?
Trill: Yeah, everybody
needs to vote, because we got to get back on top, the youth, the community,
the whole Hip-Hop community, the whole Crunked community need to vote.
AllHipHop.com:
Where do you want to be in the next five years?
Trill: Well you
know we got our own label so we’ll be putting out albums, you know doing
the same thing we been doing since right here. We gone be putting out artists.
We got the Trillville entertainment, so we gonna be having artist coming out,
just taking the whole crunked thing to a whole ‘nother level, keeping
the good Crunk music out there, because there is a lot of watered down Crunk
out there starting to come about. But you know that happens with any kind of
genre of music. Soundtracks, we trying to do that, movies sound tracks to the
movies…just trying to make a Trill town a legacy continue because wits
going to forever come
AllHipHop.com:
So do you think you guys will definitely be together in five years?
Trill: Of course!
We’ve been together the last five years you already know so why not the
next five years.
Welcome to
Trillville is in stores now.
