TruCarr On His Love For Watts, Resurrecting The Hot Boys Sound & Keeping It All The Way 100
A name tells you a lot about a person. For rising rapper TruCarr, his moniker speaks to his persona and his family. “I started off like I wasn't going to tell anybody any fake shit,” explains the Watts, California rapper, whose visibility exploded thanks to his street record “Outside.”
As the latest signee to Wack 100’s 100 Ent. and eOne (also home to The Game and Blueface), TruCarr is one of rap’s most distinctive new voices. He hails from Southern California and has that LA swag, but he’s got a bit of a Southern twang to his tone. That’s because his mother and grandmother are from Louisiana, and his father is from Michigan. It all adds up to a remarkably distinctive talent unlike one rap has ever seen.
TruCarr’s passion and personality shines on his pounding 2020 release, “Up Wit It.” Here, he delivers an impassioned anthem for his hometown, shouting its name throughout the high-energy track. “I did it to turn the city up, to get the city some recognition,” TruCarr reveals. “There’s people from our city that’s on, like Jay Rock. Shout out to TDE. But I want to bring more to the city. Like people know Compton, I want them to know Watts.”
As TruCarr records material at a furious pace, he’s got his eye set on his debut project, ‘Based On A Tru Story’. Like many things with the wise-beyond-his-years artist, the meaning of the title is straight-forward. “I'm going to keep it 100 and I'm talking about my life, so it's Based On A Tru Story,” he says. “It’s me and my name’s Tru, so it just fit.”
Catch up with TruCarr in this Hype Off Life exclusive, where we chop it up about his eclectic upbringing, his love for Watts, working with Rich The Kid, and bringing back the Hot Boy sound that took over for the 99 and 2000s. Also, be sure to stick around until the end for his new single “Watts Up”. Right now and only on Hype Off Life 👊🏾
Photo credit: Pep Williams
Thanks for coming through! How has 2021 been treating you?
The year’s new but we’re still working over here. The pandemic may have slowed down a lot of things, but we still have to make things happen.
Your new single “Lose My Mind” is currently going up. What was the inspiration behind it?
When I first heard the beat for “Lose My Mind”, I just wanted to go in on it. I go off of a vibe, and when I heard the beat I started freestyling something. That song took me to a place where I was going through some things and not being calm about it, and that’s where the aggression on the track comes from.
How did you and Rich The Kid link for the collab?
I got that collab with the help of my manager Wack100. Rich and Wack been cool for a minute, and he heard some of the tracks I’ve been working on in the studio. He was feeling them, and Wack made the suggestion that we work together, and that’s how he got to be on “Lose My Mind”.
The visual’s dope too. How did you come up with the concept for it?
Shout out to LouieKnows as he really put everything together. We tried to make it where you can see us losing our minds, and the stuff that cause us to lose our minds like money, girls, cars, etc. Then you see us getting out of those situations out of state, and just living good. Working with the green screen and shooting in different locations was dope too, and we’re getting a lot of love for that video.
The track will be part of your upcoming debut project ‘Based On a Tru Story’. What type of vibes and content can we expect to hear?
I have different vibes I want to bring out with this project. Lately I’ve been hearing that my voice reminds some of the Hot Boys from Cash Money, and I should bring back that Hot Boys sound. With this project I’m trying to cater to different crowds and regions as I tap into different sounds. I’m telling my story on different beats, and I want to be more global with this project, and from there I can do a lot more things.
Stay on your grind 25/8, stay focused and don’t worry about the bs, and just do you.
Speaking the Hot Boys, you’re from Watts, but your Mom and Grandmother are from Louisiana, and your Dad’s from Michigan. How has having those different influences given you a different perspective when it comes to life and music?
I can say that my southern influences helped when it comes to delivering music with a serious message in it. You could be talking about life, and southern folks have a way of putting it together so you can feel it. Cali has a “turn up” vibe, so I believe that blending it with my southern influences will create a different lane for me, and make the lane pop even more when I throw in the Hot Boys sound.
Speaking of Watts, one of your recent singles, “Up Wit It” serves as an anthem for your city. What do you love about Watts the most?
In Watts you have unity, but you also have that survival mentality. You got to get out of the struggle by any means. Watts is beautiful, but you have the struggle, and Mozzy said it best that we experience a beautiful struggle there.
Why do you feel it’s important for artists to live in their truth and stay true to their roots?
Keep it 100 with yourself and not us because somebody goin’ find out something about you and make you look dumb as hell if you weren’t living your truth.
How else do you plan to put on for your city?
Shout out to Top Dawg for doing a lot for the city by bringing Rihanna through and having different events in the holidays, but I want to do things for the city all year ‘round. I want to have more people come to Watts and experience it, not just people on the outside though, but those who live there too.
I want more things to happen so the people can do more than either choosing to get caught up in the streets or just get a job. I want to see the kids do more sporting activities, and I might just open up a youth center and set up some programs for football, basketball, baseball and other sports. I want to get the youth out the streets and be occupied with good things because if not, they’ll get bored and do some dumb sh*t.
You got to get out of the struggle by any means
Where do you want to ultimately take your career?
I want to be able to have several streams of income out of this. I encourage people to do their best at their craft so that they can expand and add more sources of income. I don’t have all the answers because I’m still trying to figure out everything, but I know I want to have a couple businesses, get into real estate, invest in stocks, anything really.
Any message for your fans?
Always keep it 100 with yourself and not us. Stay on your grind 25/8, stay focused and don’t worry about the bs, and just do you. A lot of things will come to sidetrack you in the wildest of ways, but you must remain focused. Don’t let something stop you from doing what you love because you’ll end up losing out on giving it your all, and only putting in half or less.
