For any young artist, it’s easy to believe that the goal is to break out beyond your community, to launch yourself onto a much larger, national stage and to leave behind the scene that spawned you, and that feels especially true of young upstarts breaking in Oklahoma.
But if you ask any artist that’s grown and evolved from within our state’s creative scene, they’ll tell you just how important and rewarding it can be to put that same drive and energy into lifting up your local community rather than just trying to transcend it.
Take OKC-based rapper, producer, and promoter Trip G, who spent the past half-decade organizing one of the city’s best-known rap showcases, helping to raise up new rap and hip-hop artists from across styles, and raising his own profile in the rap game at the same time.
It’s a long way from the impulsive, recognition-hungry kid that first launched himself into the scene at just 15 years old.
Trip G: I've been writing all my life. My dad was my biggest role model in that. He produced and he also rapped as well. So I would just watch him do it growing up, and I just caught an interest to it. And at 15, I dropped my first mixtape. So I'm passing out mixtapes in school and whatnot.
I was hard to deal with, man, I know I was. I was just impatient, you know, I wanted to get there tomorrow. Like, for me, it was always like kicking down doors. I kind of had to force my way.
Brett Fieldcamp: Part of that struggle to break through, Trip said, was due to his insistence on skirting the line between what he sees as the two separate worlds of OKC rap.
Trip G: To me, in my opinion, I feel like there's two different lanes here in Oklahoma when it comes to hip-hop and rap.
You have like your street trap rap guys, you know. You got that energy, and you also have like your hip-hop, you know, East Coast-type rappers.
Neither of them are me. I'm not this super “street” guy, and I'm not this super hip-hop guy, you know. For myself, man, I feel like I'm in the middle. I make fun music, and for that, I had to create that myself.
Brett Fieldcamp: After a few years spent carving out a niche all his own – bolstered by support from major local names like Jabee and DJ Reaper – Trip launched the monthly rap showcase Trip & Friends as a way for him to support other up-and-comers, and to provide the kind of open-ended creative space for rappers that he felt he never had.
The showcase grew to not only be one of the premier outlets for OKC rap, but even evolved into a platform for deeper community outreach and youth programming.
Trip G: The whole reason I even started Trip & Friends was literally to give artists an opportunity. That's what Trip & Friends was, “okay, forget it. I'm not bigger than the culture. I'm within the culture.”
I'm in the community. I'm hands on. So from Trip & Friends, you know, it spiraled into, you know, we built Trip & Kids, and that's when I did the Easter egg hunt. We did a backpack school drive.
So it's just, you know, stepping in and finding out different ways that I can, you know, influence the culture.
Brett Fieldcamp: But things have changed over the past five years since the launch of Trip & Friends.
Live music audiences have begun to thin out and fans are discovering new artists less through live performances and showcases and more through online platforms and social media.
So Trip is changing with the changing times, winding down the Trip & Friends showcase and replacing it with his new podcast series Blunt Convo, a new outlet where he can still spotlight and introduce the scene’s best up-and-coming rappers, but where he can also provide a deeper look into their personalities and unique styles, and hopefully, reach an even bigger audience than ever before.
Because without a consistent spotlight revealing the city’s rap community, he’s afraid that it could all go dark.
Trip G: The culture is dying. People are not coming out for rap shows, no more, man.
I just recently cut out Trip & Friends. I've been on Trip & Friends for about five years, and then, yeah, then it turned into “let me start a podcast,” because nobody else is really doing a podcast of this type of quality in our city, for the artists. Who's doing it? Nobody, you know.
Brett Fieldcamp: Even as he says the rap culture of OKC is once again struggling to find its identity and its place in the scene, Trip G remains excited, because without a clear path laid out before them, the city’s new artists will be able to forge and explore whatever new paths they want.
Trip G: I think that's what the culture in Oklahoma has come to, music-wise, is that there's no more makeup, there's no more cover-ups. So you know, to be an artist still consistently and currently making music in Oklahoma City, I just have to give my respect to them.
If you are still making music currently, no matter what you're going through, like, you're still feeding the fans. There's still somebody out there that want to hear. Man, much respect, because we need that.
Brett Fieldcamp: You can catch up with Trip G and the new Blunt Convo Podcast on YouTube and by following @tripgofficial and @bluntconvo_podcast on Instagram.
*Music out = “Mariana Trench” by Trip G
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