You know, there's this idea that music genres
are these like super rigid boxes. Right. You've
got your rock kids over here, your rap fans over
there, and they just don't mix. It's like high
school all over again. Totally. Historically,
that was true. You picked your tribe, you wore
the uniform, and that was that. But then you
look at the last decade and you look at this
one kid from Canton, Ohio, Michael Lamar White
II. Who we all know as Trippie Redd. Exactly.
And he didn't just cross the lines between those
genres. He took a sledgehammer to them. A sledgehammer
is a good way to put it. His discography is,
it can give you whiplash if you're not ready
for it. For sure. So that's the mission for this
deep doc. We're trying to figure out how this
artist became, I mean, almost a Rosetta Stone
for modern hip hop. How did he connect the dots
between, say, the angst of grunge rock and the
swagger of Atlanta Trap? Yes. And how did he
do all that while his personal life was basically
a reality show? And we have to mention, secure
a $30 million contract and basically invent a
whole subgenre before he even turned 26. That
age thing is just wild to me. Born in 99. It's
early 2026, so he's only 26. But he feels like
a veteran. He does. He's been shaping the sound
for a decade. In rap years, that's like two lifetimes.
To really get it, though, you have to go back
to the beginning. Back to Canton, Ohio. Which
is not exactly a music hotspot. It's the Pro
Football Hall of Fame city. Exactly. And we're
talking specifically about 14th Street. The 1400
block. You hear him shout it out all the time.
1400. Right. And that's not just marketing. That
was his world. It was a tough place to grow up.
He was affiliated with the Bloods pretty early
on. See, and that's the first thing that doesn't
add up. You hear Bloods affiliation and you expect
the music to be. Well, you expect street rap.
NWA, maybe some Chief Keef. Yeah. But his mom
was playing Ashanti and Beyonce and Tupac in
the house. A very soulful, very lyrical foundation.
But Trippie himself, he was the kid in the corner
listening to Kiss. Wait, Kiss. Like, face paint
and pyrotechnics, Kiss. Marilyn Manson, Nirvana.
Green Day, and then he'd switch right over to
Gucci Mane and Lil Wayne. That playlist makes
absolutely no sense on paper. Yeah. How do you
go from simple plan to Gucci Mane? Well, think
about the energy, not the instruments. What's
Marilyn Manson about? Shock, raw emotion, being
an outcast. Right. And what's Gucci Mane about?
Rebellion, being an outsider, grit. To a teenager
in Ohio, they're not that different. He heard
the feeling, not the genre, a guitar scream and
a trap snare. They hit the same nerve. So he's
soaking all this in. But just listening to music
doesn't make you an artist. There's usually some
kind of catalyst, a spark. Or a tragedy. And
in his case, it was a tragedy. In 2014, his older
brother, Dirty Red, was killed in a car accident.
And his brother was the one making music first,
right? He was. And that death, it just flipped
a switch in Trippie. He didn't just mourn. He
sort of took up the mantle. He started recording
almost right away. Putting out tracks like Sub
-Zero and New Ferrari. Which he later deleted.
They weren't great. He was still learning. But
the intent was there. That voice he has. That
strained, cracking, almost screaming delivery.
That's not a vocal lesson. That's pure grief.
He was rapping to process the loss. So he graduates
high school, moves to Atlanta. Yeah. And that
unique voice is what makes him stand out. Atlanta
was everything in 2016. He connects with Lil
Wap, gets in studios with Cody Shane. He starts
to bubble. But the real explosion was May 2017.
A love letter to you. And the single Love Scars.
Love Scars is the blueprint for emo rap. Forget
Wikipedia. Just listen to that song. Let's break
that down, though. What is emo rap, sonically?
Okay, so you have the bones of trap music, the
rattling hi -hats, that booming 808 bass. But
over that, instead of a traditional rapper, you
have someone basically... singing or whining
in the best way possible about being heartbroken.
It's super raw. Sounds like it was recorded in
a bedroom. Totally. And it's vulnerable, but
it's also incredibly catchy. It went double platinum.
Yeah. And it put him on the radar of the other
huge figure from that time. XXXentation. You
can't talk about that era without talking about
X. They were the twin pillars of that whole SoundCloud
wave. And Trippie was the only feature on X's
album 17. The only one. On Fuck Love. A track
that, I was just looking this up, was Certified
Diamond. in 2023. 10 million units. That's insane.
Most artists never get a diamond record in their
entire careers. He hit that milestone so early,
it proved he was more than just an internet fad.
He was a real star. It really cemented his place.
Then came his debut studio album in 2018, Life's
a Trip. And that gave us Dark Knight Domo with
Kravis Scott. Oh, that music video. It was like
a zombie movie. It was pure chaos, dark, high
energy. It was his first time on the Hot 100
as the main artist, and it showed he wasn't just
going to be the sad boy, he could also rage.
Which brings us to the next chapter, the full
-on genre bending. He starts leaning way more
into that rock sound. He really does. In 2021,
he drops Neon Shark vs. Pegasus. The Neon Shark
part was a whole rock album produced by Travis
Barker, the king of pop punk. The ultimate cosign.
And for Trippie, it wasn't a costume. This was
him going back to the stuff he grew up on. It
felt authentic. But he didn't just look back.
He was also pushing forward with this new sound
people started calling rage. Rage music. Yeah,
you hear that term everywhere now. Can you define
that for us? It's not just angry music. No, it's
very specific. It's high energy. almost frantic
it's built on these buzzing distorted synthesizers
that sound like an old video game like an arcade
machine breaking exactly the loops are repetitive
hypnotic it's music made specifically for a mosh
pit and the prime example of that is miss the
rage 100 with playboy cardi that song debuted
at number 11 on billboard his highest chart position
ever which is funny because it is not a radio
friendly song it's abrasive but that's the point
He knew his audience was raised on internet chaos
and video games. He didn't make a song for the
radio. He made a song for the festival and the
radio had to catch up. And he just kept working
with everyone. Drake, Lil Uzi Vert, even that
EP with MGK in 2024. Genre. Sad boy. Which got
some pretty mixed reviews. Mix is being kind.
A lot of critics hated it. But it shows he's
not afraid to try things, even if they don't
always work out. Okay, we have to talk about
the personal side of things now. Yeah. Because
for a guy who thinks about heartbreak, his real
-life relationships have been volatile. That's
the word for it. Volatile. Okay, we have to start
with the big one. Tekashi, 6 '9 by 9". Ugh, yeah.
If X was like a brother, 6 '9 was the arch nemesis.
They started out as friends, though. They had
that track, Poles 1469. They did. Back in 2017,
they were on the same wave. But then the allegations
came out about 6 '9 and... Trippie just, he drew
a line. He publicly denounced him. And it wasn't
just Twitter beef after that. Not at all. It
got physical. Trippie got jumped in New York.
6x9 got jumped in L .A. There were threats. There
were other rappers getting involved. It was a
mess. Then it got even more serious during 6x9's
federal case. Yeah. In court, under oath, 6x9
named Trippie as a member of the 5 '9 Brims gang.
He snitched on him. In federal court. He did.
But look who's still standing, still evolving.
Trippie outlasted all that drama. And his friendship
with XX Tentation was also full of ups and downs.
It really was. There was a point where X literally
banned him from coming to Florida. That's so
wild to think about now. They patched things
up, of course. X apologized. But then came the
tragedy. X was killed on June 18th, 2018. Which
was Trippie's 19th birthday. Can you imagine?
Turning 19 on the day your friend is murdered?
That changes you. He dyed his hair in tribute,
released songs for him. He still talks about
him all the time. Loss is just a constant theme.
Even in his romantic life, it's been public and
messy. For sure. His breakup with Sky Morales
in 2023 was all over the blogs. He even publicly
apologized for cheating. Which is pretty rare.
It is. But now there's the whole thing with Coyle
Array. The ultimate on -again, off -again relationship.
They dated years ago, broke up, and then got
back together. together in 2024. And now it seems
much more permanent. It does. They had a daughter,
Miyoko, in June of 2025. He's a father now. A
father who still has run -ins with the law, though.
Right. We can't forget that. There were assault
charges back in 2018. And just last year, July
4, 2025, he was arrested at Miami International
Airport. What a way to spend the 4th. Yeah. He
had an active warrant for driving without a license.
It's just a reminder that even with all the success,
Old problems can still surface. And speaking
of success, let's talk about where he is now,
the current era. This is not the SoundCloud kid
anymore. Not at all. He signed a $30 million
deal in 2022, bought a $7 .5 million mansion
in Florida. He's a mogul. Creatively, though,
it feels like he's at a bit of a crossroads.
I think so. Mansion music in 2023 got a lukewarm
response, and that single he did with KSI in
late 2024, thick of it. Oof. The internet was
not kind to that one. No, it was. It was panned.
And that's the danger when you're so prolific.
When you put out so much music, sometimes the
quality dips. You risk burning out your audience.
But he's not slowing down. Right. We've got the
new album, NDA, on the way. Right. We've heard
a couple of singles. And the big news is that
it's supposed to have a feature from Kanye West.
Which is still a huge deal. A Kanye feature still
means something. It shows he's still aiming for
the very top. He's not just coasting. So let's
sum this all up. He blended rock and trap. He
basically birthed the rage sound. He survived
all these insane feuds. And now he's a dad with
a massive record deal. What's the takeaway? I
think Trippie Redd is the guy who made it okay
to be everything at once. He destroyed the idea
that you had to pick a lane. He showed you could
be a gangster rapper who also sings about being
sad. He made it cool to scream your feelings
over an 808. Exactly. The entire sound of modern
melodic rap. You can trace so much of it back
to him. He took the weird kids playlist and made
it the mainstream. All before turning 26. Which
brings me to the thought I want to leave everyone
with. He did all this as a teenager and a young
adult. He's a father now. He has the money, the
house. He's got, what, another 20 years of his
career ahead of him, potentially? But will the
music change? So much of that sad boy and rage
sound is fueled by youthful chaos and angst.
Right. When you're not struggling anymore, what
do you rage about? Can his sound mature with
him? Or is he kind of trapped by the sound he
created? Can you still make... believable rage
music when you're a millionaire dad. That's the
real question. Can you rage responsibly? We're
about to find out with this new album. That's
the whole story of the NDA era, isn't it? What
happens next? We'll be watching. Definitely.
If you haven't already, go listen to Dark Knight
Demo and Miss the Rage. Essential tracks. Thanks
for joining us for this deep dive. Stay curious.
We'll catch you next time.