This week’s feature on 1 on 1 is the young hip-hop artiste named Trigmatic. After reading his interview, he will clearly tell you he is all of the hip-hop artistes in Ghana (smart move by him), but clearly stands out among them.
Trig’s brave creativity and unique experiences he brings to the mic has kept him going for the past years. Simply put, Trig’s got skills. If you don’t believe it, you should have witnessed him eating emcees up at every battle freestyle show organized in Ghana. But more about that later…
In my high school days, Trig was making noise, but he was still searching for his big break and has cooked up his maiden album – “Stain on Cloth”.
He is no respecter of person when it comes to rap and says “Sway as an artist wouldn’t have made it if he was still living in Ghana because Ghanaians wouldn’t have appreciated his music and that’s a real fact. I don’t blame him bringing the UK flag for bet awards”.
Trig had a lot to say in this interview so why you don’t relax whiles Ghana Music.com takes you into ‘Matic’ world.
Ghana Music.com: Is there a deeper meaning behind the title?
Trig: Yeah,’Stain on a cloth’ actually describes how disappointed and down hearted one becomes, after identifying a particular stain on his shirt, skirt, cloth etc. and how it becomes impossible for him/her to attend whatever event he/she has planned. It tells you how the album, has become a threat or barrier for most emcees especially with my display of versatility, hence most of them taking a pause on their projects/albums.
Ghana Music.com: So I was listening to the new album. I don’t understand some of the tracks. Fill me on it?
Trig: The album itself is made up of 12 tracks, all of which have stories behind them. Let me take you through a few of the tracks. Track one - which is BOOT CAMP serve as an introduction and a welcome note into the Matic world. The 2nd one, ONE talks about togetherness and how unity can lead us to the hidden minds of success. I GO (feat. p-dice), which is track 3 on the album, talks about how me and my ‘goons’ go hard on the streets where we come from. After the struggle on the streets, comes NO MAN which is legendary having REGGIE ROCKSTONE put a verse on it. It warns u against snitches and backbiters who hail you after you make it, BEWARE!!! Then comes BADBOY which describes a school scene, and the life of one naughty boy who causes trouble everywhere he goes but the remix with tinny tells the audience how successful he became after school. It goes on and on like that.
Ghana Music.com: I was surprised because your flow on your album sounds pretty different because you used to rap like Eminem?
Trig: I can say that 90% of GH artiste that I know mastered the hip hop art trying being like someone, eventually they let it go and pick up their own styles. That’s exactly what happened with me. I selected Eminem because at the time when he stepped out, he was the artiste that that had the greatest of challenges considering his race and style. I decided therefore that to get all eyes on me, I’d pick up the Eminem style since I had his voice pitch. Trust me it worked, and then it was time to switch to me - Trigmatic.
Ghana Music.com: You know we can’t forget your free styling past?
Trig: I can’t forget it myself because it still lives in me. Gone are the days where ciphers use to be the tool. Nowadays peeps don’t freestyle anymore, everybody wanna do crunk or something commercial. It was free styling that actually brought me to the surface.
Ghana Music.com: You’ve got Reggie Rockstone, Tinny, and Mobile Boys on the album. These are guys I would not have expected to hear on a Trig album. Why?
Trig: Why not Reggie, Tinny, M. O.B, or the Mobile Boyz, these are hip hop cats who rap in their mother tongues. The days of SOURCE, WRECKOGNISE, FUNWORLD etc it was all about rapping on hip hop beats, these cats were the bomb. They had to switch just to make that gwap, though most who followed were just wack. Just wanna say that it is a plus to have all these gurus on ma first project. They have more than hiplife. One needs cats like these to sell in GH. Tinny has a complete hip hop album which he released in Nigeria. Until Ghanaians understand hip hop and hip life, our problems can’t be solved.
Ghana Music.com: There’s one track even though I couldn’t understand what you were saying, I could really feel it. It’s titled “Kwaashe Girls”?
Trig: “Kwaashe Girls,” simply talks about gold diggers whom we come across everyday. They want your d***k, money, fame and everything you’ve worked for. Kwaashe which runs through the song is a street jargon which is used to describe phone snatchers and car jackers. This song is different becomes the flow was in pigin and beat is crunk, “would you call it hip hop”?
Ghana Music.com: Youth worldwide have initiated projects to tackle issues to promote social justice and to effect change within their own or global communities. What are you tackling?
Trig: Hmm, if there’s anything I would tackle, it should be on the attitudes and the frame of mind of our generation. I’d probably use music as a platform to inject positive thoughts and ideas into the minds of my fans because majority of them lack a lot. They are lazy, refuse to think for themselves, copy blindly, don’t wanna hustle legally and I think rich kids should be trained to understand LIFE.
Ghana Music.com: “Who’s the best MC?’ “Top 5 dead or alive?”
Trig: Biggie, Jay Z, Immortal Teknik, Eminem and Jadakiss.
Ghana Music.com: You got into Hip-Hop at a young age, who were some of the artists you used to listen to when you were first getting into rap?
Trig: Biggie, Jay Z, Canibus, Eminem, Bob Marley and a lot more, actually I listened to different genres of music, thanks to my dad.
Ghana Music.com: Who did the beats for “Stain on a Cloth”?
Trig: Skonti, El, Skaydee and Jay Foley.
Ghana Music.com: What’s the tone and feel of this new album, how is it different from other hip hop albums?
Trig: Stain on a cloth is a totally different album, which defines versatility and clearly defines the true magic in me. Just when you are tempted to, something about a track prompts you to listen. It has tracks that appeal to all classes of people in our society. I just refused to copy blindly, so I put on the album what I wanted. It’s about time we serve our people with a bit of our meals. There can never be another BADBOY track unless I decide to do a better one, which has already been cooked.
Ghana Music.com: What do you think about Hip-Hop in Ghana? Hip-Hop is really blossoming out in Ghana now, have you been out there to do any shows yet?
Trig: I’m not trying to sound cocky, but I will say that apart from Scientific, I am the only hip hop artist who have done the most show both last year and this year and the only artist with the most publicity. I have been on the lyricists lounge and held it down to the final which I eventually became the winner. I was on the lyrical hype show organized at Aviation Social centre and I have been on the number of shows organized for second cycle schools. I have hosted my audience and treated them to the best of hip hop at the Bless The Mic hip hop show at hipnotic, Osu.
Ok, about hip hop in Ghana I think it’s still at its immature state and people involved in it should study the art as well as the business aspect of it. Hip hop in Ghana lacks a unified force which is suppose to hold it down unlike the states or other countries, our hip hop cats are too egoistic and full of themselves. I would prefer fusing with the hiplife cats to get into the main stream than been on the track with another hip hop cat who would either spit a verse about guns, flossing or something unrealistic believe that hip hop is a culture and rap is one element of it used as a tool to disseminate information to it audience. If we begin to understand and identify other element hip hop such as disc jockeying, graffiting, break dancing etc people will do other stuff and still be part of the hip hop family. All I can say is without unity hip hop cannot grow like it should. Then again, there are too many empty headed radio presenter hosting hip hop shows and this is what is killing the game. These presenters will either not play good music or misinform their listeners as too what real hip hop is. Event organizers should begin the act of fixing underground hip hop cats on their shows. the reason being that, they do less research and refuse to the see the good ones therefore always put in similar performances all the time. I will not be a crusader because I know other people have fought the same war and have lost. I cannot just be me but all of us. I am only afraid, now that all the hiplife cats are beginning to do crunk, I hope it does not become another genre that people will blindly follow. I hope they don’t call it ‘crunk life.’
Ghana Music.com: Trig good luck to you and I’m going to keep picking up the albums. Where should the people that don’t know where pick your material get copies?
Trig: You can always find a Trigmatic album at cyber city, Dansoman, Illa’s barbers, Dansoman, A- town barbering shop, Madina, or call +233243167459 or +233244160611 or download samples of badboy from ghrap.com.
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