INTERVIEW with Trae Tha Truth: Houston Rapper on Upcoming Tour and How He Gives Back

Trae Tha Truth

Veteran Houston rapper and philanthropist, Trae Tha Truth, was most recently signed to Snoop Doggs, new multimillion live entertainment and management company, Bobby Dee Presents and Uncle Snoops Army. He will be joining Snoop Dogg on his “I Wanna Thank Me” tour in December alongside Warren G to perform new music from his album “Exhale.”

 

“I Wanna Thank Me” Tour is a congratulatory act to thank fans and to credit oneself for hard work and achievements. There is not better tour for Trae Tha Truth to be a part of than this one for his philanthropic work, his growing music career, and recently released new album.

 

Trae is probably one of the hardest working men in Houston. He consistently pushes himself nonstop to provide help to those in need. Most recently, the hometown hero provided 150 bikes to kids for the upcoming holiday season through his non-profit organization, The Relief Gang. His social good company has supplied over $500,000 worth of supplies to Southeast Texas and is growing rapidly for those in need across the nation. He received praise from Beyonce for his efforts, and was even awarded by the Houston’s mayor, Bill White, with his own day, Trae Day, celebrated each year on July 22.

 

And it doesn’t stop there. Trae works to rehab homes for families in need across the Houston area, and he ensures that every business venture he’s involved or invests in puts money back into the community.

 

Not only does he help others with his resources and celebrity, he does it with his platform, too. Trae’s no stranger to using his voice and personal real-life experiences to serve as a light of encouragement and empowerment to people who are facing challenges in their own lives. His authenticity is one of the many keys to his success.

 

In other words, Trae Tha Truth is a man of many hats. And after nearly twenty years in the entertainment industry, this is only the beginning.

 

Trae joined me to share more about what fans can expect from the upcoming tour, the inspiration behind his newest music video, ‘Letter to Truth, his philanthropy work that’s changing lives in the city of Houston (and beyond), and more.

 

 

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Makeba: Let’s talk about that you will be on the road soon, joining Snoop Dog on his ‘I Want To Thank Me’ tour that starts next month, alongside Warren G. How did that partnership come about, and what can fans expect to see from you doing your performance?

 

Trae: Of course, giving it my all, but it came about because Snoop Dog and Bobby B stepped in the picture to try and help me with management, get the title agency as a whole, just trying to get me that support with them watching me, kind of be out here on my own. It’s a process. We’re getting the kinks out by taking the first tour together, and from there, it’s nothing but uphill. But, I definitely want to salute them, because again, this was my situation, of being banned and black balled throughout the industry from radio. A lot of people are not able to play concerts, or do business with me, and they stepped out, prepared to stand with me, good or bad. So I definitely commend them. Definitely going to get out here and do the show and give them all.

 

 

 

You mentioned Bobby Dee earlier. What has his involvement through his company Bobby Dee Presents meant to you in terms of getting back out there and getting that support that you need?

 

Trae: Bobby stepped in, with him and Snoop, they partner when it came to me. That’s how they brought me onto Uncle Snoop’s Army. So you know, he just, he have a vision that I’m supposed to be bigger than I am now. He wants to help create that path where I can be bigger than I am now. I’m kind of just sitting back and letting him drive, I’m just rolling with the punches.

 

 

 

You are approaching the 20-year milestone in your career. Congratulations on your success and your longevity. You’ve recently released a new album, called Exhale. What inspired some of the tracks on that album, and how is it different from your last album?

 

Trae: Life. Life in general. You know, I felt like nobody could, nobody could keep my life for me better than this. That’s why I have no teachers or anything in it. If anything, I go up there at the present time, and I feel like I bring the rest of the world into my world.

 

 

Speaking of giving insight as to what you’ve been through since your last album, you’re a proud father and your children are beautiful, by the way. One of the songs on exhale is called ‘Letter 2 Truth’, and your new video for that song, not only gives us a glimpse of your life as a dad, but also delivers a powerful story and message of encouragement to those who might be facing challenges in co-parenting, or even being a single father. What was the inspiration behind the creating that song, and what do you most hope that viewers take away from your Letter to Truth video?

Trae: A lot of the stuff on this album was my life, my real-life situations. In certain songs, like Letter 2 Truth, will recall a place where I was having to live with my daughter, like even with the track Nipsey[Hustle], that was a conversation I was having with him, which was in the form of music. So, it really was just expressing to my daughter everything I was going through and everything I felt, the way when she gets older, she’ll understand exactly what was going on with me at that point in time in life. What I hope people take from it is, there’s a lot of people that go through these situations, and when they go through them, some people don’t have the platform or a voice. And you know other people who are going through a way worse situation than me, and they’ll have a platform or a voice to be heard and understood.

Because the way it’s designed, as far as in court, fathers don’t tend to get the best side of the stick. So, you know, a lot of times they get slipped under the rug. If you don’t have a voice, or if you’re not able to fight it. You don’t have a phone, they’ll get a lawyer and fight. So I think what I hope they take from it and understand they’re not the only one going through it. And even people like me, that they see as “famous” or whatever, I’m going through the same thing they’re going through. But, on the same token, I plan on standing up to fight for equality. I mean, I feel like, sure enough, some mothers definitely deserve to be primary, the ones who have the competence. In some cases, you have some fathers that are just as equal as the mothers. So, just because some fathers that were unwilling to step up to the plate, don’t hold every other father accountable either, to take a loss for what they done.

I say each situation should be tried specifically for that situation. But, that’s why I feel it should be equal. It shouldn’t be, you can see your child here and there, or if you’re not doing exactly what the other person needs you to do, then you have to wait to see your child. That doesn’t make sense to me. So, that’s the whole goal that I have with that situation.

 

 

You’re an artist, a father, but you’re also a philanthropist. Your organization Relief Gang has done a great deal for the people of Houston and even beyond, and we mentioned earlier about your bike giveaway for the holidays. What else has Relief Gang have in store for this year, to make the holidays brighter for those in need across the city of Houston?

 

Trae: Well, I do something just about every other week, if not every week. You know I did the pop-up trunk-or-treat, where I took all the kids in the city of Houston to my warehouse – 240 plus thousand square feet – and created a Halloween [themed environment] where they could trick-or-treat and be safe there. And then, you know, I personally bought the candy with my team, so we don’t have to worry about strangers giving them something that’ll poison them; or harm the kids.

And I did that with my daughter, because each one of my kids, I always make sure they’re doing some form of give-back so that it can be instilled in them future-wise. At the bike giveaway, I partnered up with Lotus Seafood. On the 21^st everybody who goes to any location of Lotus, proceeds would be donated back to Angel [By Nature].

Angel By Nature is the actual nonprofit of Relief Gang. It’s a branch under that. So, when all the proceeds are kicked back to Angel By Nature, that’ll give us enough time before Thanksgiving to even do turkey giveaways. We do this stuff all around the clock.

 

 

 

In the same vein of making a positive difference in the lives of others, one of your newest business ventures is a restaurant, where a portion of your proceeds go back to charity to benefit the city as well. How did that come about?

 

Trae: It’s actually not my restaurant. It’s my chef’s family restaurant. My personal chef, he has the restaurant. Him and his mother, they used to do catering and stuff. I would push him, I was always on him like, “Man, you need to do something to really let people experience your cooking and your other [food],” and they ended up opening a restaurant. And they used to make personal food for me that I would have here at the house, but that would be my personal food. So, one of the things was a chicken sandwich we used to always do, and we used to do it in a real different way.

And when he was opening the restaurant, He was like, “Man, we got to have something that ties into you. Why don’t we make your sandwich, and, and we just call it ‘Tha Truth’, allowing people to experience stuff that I do for you at your house, and that’s your personal item.” And we did it. And they’ve been running off ever since.

Even at first, I was doing it out of love. I didn’t get anything from it, just supporting them, and then they were like, “Well, man, we want to start out giving back the way you do, so a portion of the proceeds we’re going to give to you or Angel By Nature, for everybody to come in and grab Tha Truth chicken sandwich.” So you know, a lot of people say it’s my restaurant, because I’m a full supporter and they’re my family. But, it’s just all about Christian [my chef] and supporting independent-owned, black-owned businesses.

 

 

 

You are also heavily involved as part owner of Cubby Love Bears, which makes teddy bears to help foster language development for children and assist kids with special needs. Now you recently created an adorable new bear, especially for nonverbal children, that was inspired by your 16 -year old son. Tell me more about that.

 

Trae: My son’s name is D’Nico. His foundation is [named] ‘U’Neek and Gifted’. So, the bear’s called U’Neek, the Gifted Bear. It helps children who’s nonverbal because, the problem is a lot of times we try and think we know exactly what they’re feeling, or what they’re thinking, or what’s wrong with it, but they’re not able to communicate with us, so what happens is, once we teach them how to press certain buttons on the bear, they can communicate with us without having to speak.

 

 

Because, say if they’re irritated, or they may be crying, we may think they fell, hurt their self, or we may think they just sad about something, anything. All the while it may be that they’re hungry, so they can tap that [specific] button to tell us exactly what’s what. Or, they may can be frustrated: like, they need to go to the bathroom, but we’re not knowing what’s going on. They could push that button to say, “Hey, I need to use the restroom.” You know, it could be a button on the bear that says, “I’m sad.” It’s a way to meet in the middle, to help us understand them, and to help them show us how to understand them. So, that was the process for that.

 

 

 

By the looks of it, the demand for the teddy bears has already been overwhelming thus far.

 

Trae: People have been trying to get them ever since they got them out, sister. They’ve been going left and right for it. It’s on the way. But [the bears] also teach days of the week, numbers, and colors; and every bear teaches English and Spanish. It’ll even teach an adult person, from hearing it, so much stuff that they didn’t know in in Spanish or English, too.

Oh, and we also have the [teddy bear] that holds iPads and iPhones. Kids are always trying to find some way to prop up their iPhone or their iPad. And we had one specially designed that’s actually in stock, that holds the phone or the iPad for the kids. So not only can they tote the bear along, they could fit the bear anywhere, and it’ll hold their iPad or their iPhone up for them, so you don’t have to find some way to hold it up, while they can watch TV, or, I mean Netflix, or whatever the situation may be.

 

 

 

What additional projects you have coming up for the year 2020?

 

Trae: I mean, my main stuff that I have now is Bump Boxx. The Bump Boxx, that’s the largest and loudest Bluetooth radio, that I made a mixture of vintage and modern day [design]. But, if you go look on 98% of the artists in the industry, you’ll see on their pages, you know? There are at least five different versions. But, it’s crazy. It’s won a lot of fame, and it’s convenient. A lot of artists take them on tour, a lot of artists use it for party. One of them is so big, two of them can make the same amount of noise that club speakers make. So, they’re very convenient, and everything activated from your phone, these days, Bluetooth phone. That’s a perfect setup for that, because it’s for a Bluetooth phone. Or, they can use the karaoke with a mic. It does a lot of stuff.

And then my merchant line just kicked off, so that’s [called] Traemerch. We released over 70 items and we still have a few more that’s going to be out. It’s only been up a week, but up and running.

People can follow trae@traecartoon – my cartoon series is about to kick back off, with me and my partner. They should, definitely check that out. New episodes are already done, but I’m just not sure of the release platform yet. We’re going to release them soon. A lot of people asking about it, so…

 

 

 

We’ll be on the lookout for those. You’re a busy man, Trae. We can’t keep up!

Trae: I’m probably going to be weighing myself down, but we going to make it work.

 

 

 

Follow Trae Tha Truth on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  

Trae Tha Truth’s new albul Exhale is available now – take a listen here.

 

 

 

US Tour Dates for the ‘I Wanna Thank Me’ Tour with Snoop Dogg and Warren G:

Dec. 2 — San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore

Dec. 8 — San Diego, CA @ House of Blues San Diego Presented by Cricket Wireless

Dec. 10 — Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues Las Vegas Presented by Cricket Wireless

Dec. 11 — Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren

Dec. 12 — Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot

Dec. 13 — Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium

Dec. 16 — Houston, TX @ House of Blues Houston Presented by Cricket Wireless

Dec. 17 — New Orleans, LA @ Fillmore New Orleans

Dec. 18 — Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore Charlotte presented by Cricket Wireless

Dec. 19 — Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz

Dec. 20 — Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle presented by Cricket Wireless

Dec. 21 — Orlando, FL @ House of Blues Orlando

Jan. 17 — Wallingford, CT @ The Dome at Oakdale

Jan. 18 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore

Jan. 19 — Silver Springs, MD @ The Fillmore

Jan. 20 — Boston, MA @ House of Blues

Jan. 22 — New York, NY @ The Gramercy

Jan. 23 — Montcalir, NJ @ Wellmont Theater

Jan. 24 — Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues

Jan. 25 — Louisville, KY @ The Palace Theater

Jan. 26 — Detriot, MI @ The Fillmore

 

To purchase tickets, visit BobbyDeePresents.com or LiveNation.com.

Trae Tha Truth