Genre: Rap and Hip Hop

Trump Savage’s MNotez Interview:

• MNotez: How long have you been making music? What age did you begin?
  • Trump Savage: I started rapping at about age 10 or 11 in the city of Bloomington, Indiana.

• MNotez: What motivated you to start making music?
  • Trump Savage: I remember this one well. I had always liked rap music and at the time my Mother and I were living with a friend of hers who had a daughter that was about 7 or 8 years older than me and one day she was listening to some rap music I never heard before. I asked her who it was and she told me it was some people from the neighborhood and I couldn’t believe it. I figured if they could do it then so could I, and I went straight to my room and started writing a rap to songs on the radio.

• MNotez: Who were your musical influences, idols, or bands growing up that have helped mold you into the musician you are today? Or helped mold the music that you create?
  • Trump Savage: Well my first dose of rap music was Dr. Dre’s The Chronic and Warren G’s “Regulators”. That CD and that song made me fall in love with the beats and hardcore reality of life, and I could relate to it. The people that influenced me as an artist would be the people I met when I came down to Florida. They rapped too and we all rapped together and fed off each other. I still roll with the same cats, but today we are called “Dime Set” or “Diamond Family”. Now I’d have to say that David James has helped mold me into the artist I am today. He opened up his studio to me and let me do what I wanted without negative criticism, and has also opened me up to aspects of the music I never thought I’d be involved with.

• MNotez: If you could rap with any other artist or group… who would it be? (past or present)
  • Trump Savage: Pac, Biggie, Nas or Outkast (from the past). Pac because he got that Thug Life shit but still can open people’s eyes up to bigger, more important things. Biggie because his lyrics just seem to flow off his tongue and he always got some slick shit to say. Outkast because they bring out the more hip-hop side of me. And Nas because he is the poet of the streets. He has the capability of painting the picture while he spits and has that balance of Humbleness and Street Wise Mentality that you just can’t deny. I’d collab with anybody though, whether good or bad, known or unkown.

• MNotez: You work with David James a lot, and have made some amazing tracks with him, how come you think it’s turned out to be such a great artistic relationship? Anything each of you excel at over the other to compliment each other? And finally… how’d you meet?
  • Trump Savage: DJ and I make good music because we understand each other without judgment. I do me and he does him and when you put us together something beautiful is bound to happen. He can sing and engineer better than I can so it’s nice to be able to write a song where you know you would like to have singing in it and not worry about your own vocal restraints or the sound quality not being there. It’s like he knows what you want before you want it. I think I bring the streets to his music, cuz that’s where I come from. I’m the bad guy you know? A wise man told me once that we are the equal and opposite of each other which brings balance to anything we do, musically or otherwise.
    
    We met because I had gone to a rap contest in Clearwater, Florida where I had heard the winner could possibly get a record deal. What I didn’t know was that it was a contest for who had the best song, and at that point the only recordings I had were not up to par as far as the sound quality goes. I ended up just doing an acapella freestyle for the crowd. Needless to say I didn’t win the contest, but the man who hosted it liked what he heard and gave me a number to a studio and said he’d make sure I get a free hour. The studio was David James’ and I went in there and recorded my first song “My Only Fear of death” and came back every Saturday for the next couple years.

• MNotez: What’s the ultimate goal you want your music to achieve, or for you to achieve in your career as a musician? Any particular message you wish to send?
  • Trump Savage: You know I never really had a message to send. I always did this because I love it. All I ask for is recognition for my skills as an artist and too see people jamming to my shit. Money would be nice, but I’m not expecting too much out of it. If I had to choose a message it would probably be just to let people know that stereotypes mean absolutely nothing. I’m a white kid from the projects and have struggled all my life and people don’t think stuff like that’s possible. It’s like cuz I’m white I automatically got to be wearing skinny jeans and flip flops or I’m trying to be black. I’m not trying to be anything but me and I hate people that judge others by things they have no knowledge of. No matter what you hear from me it will always be ME and nothing else.

• MNotez: How does it affect your style of rapping from freestyling to reading what you’ve written? Do you have a preference in either technique? Are you more creative in one over the other?
  • Trump Savage: I prefer freestyling any day. It lets me pull things from any where and when you say something raw off the dome, people love it. When I write I notice there’s more pain in it. Going through so much, it’s hard not to have it come up when I’m writing. I just don’t like giving people a reason to feel sorry for me. I think my rhyme scheme is better when I write but I’d say I’m definitely more creative when I freestyle, it just helps me think outside the box ya dig?

• MNotez: You’ve traveled a rough road and had some tough times, how has this affected your music or you as an artist? Has the rough road here made it that much sweeter?
  • Trump Savage: I still have yet to reap the benefits of my music, but my past has given me the drive and ambition to never give up. I been through a lot of shit but I’m still here and I’ve been making music the whole time. It helps me to not try to fight what’s going on or even understand it, but to adapt and overcome. Some things you can’t do anything about and no matter how you feel about it all you can do is pick yourself up and get ready for the bullshit to happen and try to be prepared for it. If what don’t kill you really does make you stronger, then there is not a lot of people out there who can whoop me (laughs)

• MNotez: Out of all your songs… do you have a favorite, why? What influenced it?
  • Trump Savage: My favorite song right now would have to be “Quiver”. DJ made the beat and sang on it and I just went in and freestyled my part and when he mixed it all down it sounded like magic. That’s a song that could be played anywhere and probably has the most potential. Not to mention the females love it! I think it was influenced by DJ’s lady, it might have been a song he made for her on her birthday or something, but he let me get down on it and the rest is history!

• MNotez: How do you believe the internet helps the music industry or you as a musician?
  • Trump Savage: Well since I’m not signed and everything I do is basically coming out my pocket it allows me to reach a broader spectrum of people for next to nothing. I don’t have to send anything through the mail, I can just e mail it or post it somewhere and promote the link. It’s probably killing the cd sales for the industry, but that’s not something I have to worry about at this point.

• MNotez: Any hobbies outside of creating your music? How do you like to spend your time?
  • Trump Savage: Music is my fulltime job. I’m lost without it. If I’m not making music, then I’m probably doing whatever it is I got to do to be able to see my son and get him what he needs. He’s my heart, soul and inspiration for everything I do and every breath I take. (Junior I l Love you!) I make money from the engineering side of it to so even if it’s not my music I’m working on, then I’m getting paid for working on someone else music. Pretty much everything I do is music oriented.

• MNotez: Anything else you wish to say about yourself or your music? Any message to your fans?
  • Trump Savage: Shout outs! Dime Set, David Jacho, Krazy K, Big Intel, Loot, David James, Yung Valor, Melissa Ricci, Jeremy Junior, Lil One and the whole Young Gee’s Camp, 2 Pistols, DJ Kid Hustle, Mr. Pringles, Blood Money Union, Young Joe, C Ride, Acafool, Money Ace, Charlie Brown (Free My Dog!), Desi, Baby T, Shawty “Mr Made it Rain Stacks”, Tom G and Young Fetti, Strizzo, Jovon Films, Hitz, Rize, DJ Truth, GOD and all the listeners! Without ya’ll I’m nobody!