When it comes to Memphis, it seems hip-hop has seen a resurgence. From Yo Gotti to Moneybagg Yo to NLE Choppa to Key Glock, there’s no denying the slew of talent coming out of the city. Insert Fresco Trey, who is here to stand out amongst his peers: creating feel-good rap-meets-R&B music that stands the test of time.
Considering himself to be a sonic trailblazer, Fresco fondly remembers road trips with his father who played CDs of Tupac and Kanye West over and over and over. With that grew a hunger, passion, and dedication, feeding his independent grind and fueling him to do to break through into the mainstream.
His name Fresco comes from his high school Spanish class, where he learned the word Fresco means “fresh and cool” at the same time.
Fresco admits his manager forces him to be on camera all the time, which his showcased his personality. “My humor is a little much. I’m a big kid, I do whatever and say whatever. I don’t mean no harm about nothing, people from the outside looking in wouldn’t know.”
Most recently, the 21-year-old unleashed his new single titled “Feel Good,” which literally exudes positive and good vibes upon each spin.
AllHipHop: What was the household like growing up in Memphis?
Fresco Trey: My household was dope, I had my mom and my dad. My parents have their issues and separated for a period of time, but it was nothing we couldn’t get over. All of that made it better for me in the long run, adversity and sticking through stuff. If you have bad times, through thick and thin you learn how to put up with certain stuff and get through it. Music helped me even at my lows, when I thought it wouldn’t work out for me. I was able to learn from my household, keep it pushing and get to the better days which are now. That household was great.
AllHipHop: You grew up to Tupac and Kanye, were you aspiring one day you’d get to that level?
Fresco Trey: Coming up, I never thought I’d be rapping. With Tupac, he did inspire me with his lifestyle. The way he thought about things and how smart he was, how he spoke his mind and what he believed in inspired me. I never thought I’d be doing music so I never thought I’d be as big as him one day.
AllHipHop: Talk about being different from what people assume the Memphis music scene would be.
Fresco Trey: I love being different coming from the city because overall, it makes me stand out. People can appreciate what I do and respect it. You get a lot of hate from the city, which is everywhere. But from what I do, I’m so true to myself that people can’t do anything but respect it. Even if you don’t like it, you can respect it because I’m being myself, talking what I mean and meaning what I say. I love being myself where I come from.
AllHipHop: “Feel Good” out now, how are you feeling?
Fresco Trey: I feel good. “Feel Good” has brought a lot of success to the team like we planned for it to do. Everybody feels good. “Feel Good” has brought a lot of traction to our situation, a lot of phone calls, a lot of people reaching out. Can’t do nothing but feel good about it.
AllHipHop: Are labels reaching out?
Fresco Trey: Yeah you got labels, other artists, blogs. You got everybody reaching out showing love. It’s a humbling experience and I’m grateful for it.
AllHipHop: Bring us back to when you created this record.
Fresco Trey: When I made the record, I was in a space where I felt the world needed to feel good. There was a lot of dark stuff going on in the world. Bro, summer’s almost here. It’s time to feel good again. That’s my inspiration behind making that song, I wanted to think of anything that could possibly make a person feel good. It started with the beat, my boy Thomas sent it to me. It was a perfect fit for the situation. We made some magic. It was all off the top, all organic. I wanted it to be an organic vibe, just feeling good.
AllHipHop: Did you know it would make such an impact?
Fresco Trey: We kind of did, yeah. When I showed it to the team, everyone said “bro, this might be the one.” It was crazy because at first, I only had the loop to the first chorus and the first verse. I didn’t have any drums, any hi-hats, just a loop. I wanted to drop it like that but they said “this song is special, you have to add more to it.” I did a second verse , we built the beat around it. Everybody knew it was going to be crazy so we’re happy it did what we thought.
AllHipHop: What was your creative vision with the visual?
Fresco Trey: We wanted to show fun, good times. We added a little role play to it but for the most part, we wanted to show fun. That’s why we went so hard on the pool party, we wanted to show us having a good time. We had a dope ass Airbnb in California, we wanted to go up and that’s what we were able to do. It was crazy because the police came to try to shut it down a few times, Dylan (manager) almost got taken to jail. We’re partying too loud and it was Covid. There were too many people in the house and they kept coming back, people kept calling the police. Every time the police came, we’d tell everyone to go in one room. We’d all squeeze into one room.
AllHipHop: Like high school days?
Fresco Trey: Yeah facts. [laughs]
AllHipHop: What’s the meaning behind the girl disappearing at the end?
Fresco Trey: First thing in the song, I say “diamonds dancing dripping on my wrist to make me feel good.” It was 3 girls and every time I’d touch them or kiss them, they turn into diamonds. I’m that man, I do something to them.
AllHipHop: Talk about YERT and what it stands for, I know it’s your name backwards.
Fresco Trey: My uncle hit me 3 days ago like “bro, I didn’t know YERT was your name backwards.” I thought of it because I was creating a PSN on my Xbox Live. I was going to put Fresco Trey but somebody had already taken it. The person who did it actually DM’ed me like “bro I’m sorry, I took your Xbox name. I wanted to have it for when you get famous.” I said “alright, you can keep it bro.” I spelled my name backward and it was Yert Ocserf. I started saying YERT when I was on the game and it caught on. I needed to do something so I created an acronym for it: Young Educated Relentless Talent. YERT is a thing people like to say when they see me, YERT! Wassup man?
AllHipHop: Growing up an introvert, how is music a coping mechanism for you? Are you still an introvert?
Fresco Trey: Yes, I feel like I am. With the people around me every day, I’m super playful and hyped with them because they’re my peoples. When it comes to me being around other people, I’m super reserved. I have to be around you for a little minute for me to open up, that’s how it’s always been. Music’s like a best friend to me. Sometimes when people go through things and they come and talk to you about them, they don’t always need a response or feedback. People want to vent and for you to listen, that’s how music is for me.
I can talk to the microphone, I don’t have to worry about the microphone judging me or saying something back that I don’t want to hear at the time. It’s going to listen to me and help me, that’s someone I know I can talk to and not have to worry about anything else. I’m grateful people can relate to the things I say on my tracks.
AllHipHop: You don’t drink or smoke?
Fresco Trey: I drink Bel Air occasionally, but I’m an innocent baby.
AllHipHop: 3 things you need in the studio?
Fresco Trey: I need a Twix. Every now and then I need a Red Bull, then my n#### Matt. He’s going to get me hyped. He’s my hypeman, that’s my dog. If you’ve been on my TikTok, you’d see him.
AllHipHop: What does TikTok do for your career?
Fresco Trey: It’s crazy because I didn’t like TikTok at first, I didn’t get It. The day I said “I didn’t like TikTok,” two days later Dylan posted a video on my TikTok and it went crazy. I started blowing up off that.
Dylan: It was how to make a hit. The journey of him creating his music from scratch and his creative process.
Fresco Trey: It went crazy, the video did 400K views. I posted a video the next day of my song with Zaytoven, it did close to 500K views. The next video I posted was a song I just made that’s going to be on my album, that one’s at 800K views. It’s going crazy.
AllHipHop: Talk about creating your own label, Fresco The Label, as a place to foster music unique to your own pop/hip-hop lane.
Fresco Trey: Fresco The Label is wanting to be your own boss. Whenever we first started this, we wanted to own our own stuff. Have our own label and be like Diddy, be as big as them. That’s our motto: be your own boss. When I make music, I always tell people it’s okay to please your friends and give people what they want. For me as an artist on the rise, I want to create a fanbase that loves what I do. I don’t want to blow up with something I don’t feel comfortable doing.
I don’t want to blow up doing trap music or rockstar music, I want to blow up making honest music. If I make a song and I blow up doing what I like doing, that way I don’t have to feel uncomfortable the rest of my career because my fans love me for the music I like doing. I never put myself in a genre,l I always make music I like to make. People generalize it however they want to and that’s fine, but I like making music I like to make. I want fans that like music I like to make.
AllHipHop: How’s the independent grind?
Fresco Trey: It’s a grind for sure because everything is a trial run. You take bumps on the way and learn from everything. For anyone going independent right now, get you a solid team. Get a team you could trust that will go hard for you, especially as hard as you go for yourself. That’s what we did, my team’s going hard just as hard as I was going in the studio. They went just as hard and everything started spiraling up. Focus on finding the right team. Once you do that, everything will take care of itself fr fr.
AllHipHop: What can we expect next from you?
Fresco Trey: I have a single dropping called “Love Don’t Live Here.” Right after that, we’re going to drop my tape. I’m thinking about calling it “Love Don’t Live Here.” The single we’re going to drop is going to be the intro for my tape. “Love Don’t Live Here” ‘cause love don’t live here.
AllHipHop: Where does it live?
Fresco Trey: S### with you. It doesn’t live with me.
