Cut to a laid back sunny southern California day. Take a walk down the street to the record store. Kick a verse alongside arts district murals. Give a pound to the homies. Dig through some crates. Feel the breeze. That’s pretty much the recipe for Trek Life’s opening visuals for the Duke Westlake produced lead single “Just The Music.” Nothing left to do but relax and enjoy the music.
Trek Life’s new album with Duke Westlake “Hometown Foreigner” is out everywhere now, but we wanted to take a moment for people to hear the mixtape DJ Rhettmatic of the world famous Beat Junkies put together featuring some of Trek’s greatest moments. The mixtape (playing off the album title Hometown Foriegner) is called “Hometown Heroes” and was originally released only as an actual mixTAPE. We pressed it on limited edition cassette, then Rhettmatic himself promoted the tape at SXSW this year. The original tape version is also available for free when you pick up the new album on CD. But for people today, we wanted everyone to have a chance to hear the magic with a free download. The mixtape features Oddisee and Exile among others, as well as production from Evidence, DJ Babu, Duke Westlake, and more, and of course cuts and mixing by DJ Rhettmatic.
This song is the sum of all my most genuine fears on the path to success. I didn’t try to speak for everyone when I wrote it, I just felt like I needed to express all the fear, loss and fuck it that goes on in those quiet moments away from the mic. There’s triumph in the end though. When through it all you realize that there’s nothing you would change. You accept the challenge and know that it only makes the success sweeter. – Trek Life
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Shot in an off the beaten path location in the COV, Trek Life lets loose over a Jansport J instrumental. Press play on the official video, produced by Data One.
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The summer is heating up worldwide with the release of the #626TAPE, which features an exclusive cut from Trek Life, “What Y’all Know?”, produced by Jansport J.
The #626TAPE was a Top 10 feature on the Big Boy’s Neighborhood (Power 106 FM) blog the week of it’s release! Shoutout to Jason BR05KI for producing the #626TAPE series, which highlights tracks from artists local to the 626/San Gabriel Valley, CA.
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The DMV’s SlimKat78 Delivers Some West Coast Inspired Production
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Due West, the 3rd single off Trek Life’s new project Wouldn’t Change Nothing, is availabe for free download via Mello Music Group’s bandcamp page. Due West is a play by play break down of the black migration from the Midwest & South to the West Coast. Trek Life puts a different spin on showing Cali love by taking you through a historic ode to trial & triumph in the Golden State. Labelmate Has-lo re-reworked the beat magically, adding a haunting loop and heavy drums to make the story complete.
Wouldn’t Change Nothing is a sonically perfect re-work of last year’s critically acclaimed Oddisee produced Everything Changed Nothing. With production from Apollo Brown, J Bizness, ST MiC, MarvWon, Audible Doctor, Has-Lo, Captain, Slimkat78, Duke Westlake, A3, Bombay, and of course long time friend and collaborator Oddisee, this project has breathed new life into an already great album. Wouldn’t Change Nothing is available now on iTunes and will be released on CD on July 19th via Mello Music Group. You can pre-order the CD via UGHH or Fat Beats.
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West Coast great Trek Life just dropped his newest project “Wouldn’t Change Nothing “!! To celebrate, we are giving away the all new title track “Wouldn’t Change Nothing ” produced by Oddisee. Additionally Al Lindstrom’s Chris Moss, in conjunction with Mello Music Group, ran a debut of the track today with an in depth Q & A that highlights Trek’s amazing path in the rap game.
Q: Tell us a little about your background in the game.
Trek Life:
I’m an LA artist who was a fan of LA hiphop in the mid-90?s: I watched Dilated Peoples, Pharcyde, Souls of Mischief, all those people come up, and I studied what they were doing. From there I grew and started making my own music. The first producer I ever did a song with was Will.I.Am and from there I worked with Motiv-8 (Black Eyed Peas producer). Then I started doing records from there on working to hone my craft. At the time, I was running with Bishop Lamont and Spontaneous.
Probably my first big break was being on Showtime’s “The Next Episode” and meeting DJ Babu of Dilated Peoples. Babu then did my first official 12” called “Hard Work” and FatBeats picked it up. After that I worked with Evidence and Rhettmatic, Khalil and J Bizness, and managed to make my first full-length album “Price I Paid”. Over the next couple years I worked the record, toured with Kev Brown and met Oddisee. I was touring the States and Europe this whole time. Oddisee then remixed the whole “Price I Paid” project and we called it “New Money” – which Oddisee brought to the new brand new label he was working with, Mello Music Group and they picked it up. This was only MMG’s 2nd project, so it was a learning experience. Odd & I then decided to do an original album together called “Everything Changed Nothing”. At the same time a lot of my music was getting on television shows like MTV‘s “G’s to Gents”, “The Hills”, “Breaking Bad”, “The Eddie Griffin Show”, and ESPN used the track “So Supreme” during the NBA Finals with the Lakers. That was last summer, so now I just finished the remix project called “Wouldn’t Change Nothing”.
Q: Tell us a little about the new project “Wouldn’t Change Nothing”.
Trek Life:
“Wouldn’t Change Nothing ” is coming out on my label, Mello Music Group, Tuesday July 12th , it’s another summer record. We brought on a lot of dope producers to revisit the “Everything Changed Nothing” album. This one’s got some of my West Coasts people like J Bizness, Duke Westlake, A3, Captain, and DJ Buddy. Plus it’s got Detroit’s Apollo Brown and MarvWon, Philly’s Has-Lo, Audible Doctor who did Joel Ortiz’s Battle Cry, ST/MiC came through with some heat, SlimKat78 who did a lot of work on yU’s Before Taxes killed a joint, and of course Oddisee jumped in for two tracks. It’s a big record. Aaron Sutton from Visual Goodies did the cover art.
Q: What direction was Oddisee taking the production on this single?
Mike Tolle (Mello Music Group): Oddisee’s range and ability to produce songs that fit into a variety of genres has always been one of the reasons for his success, whether it’s producing a track with artistic sentiments and irregular rhythms, or making a classic grimy boom bap track, or even a polished commercial gem. For this one Oddisee dipped into a more commercial sound, polished and more epic in it’s tone. It is completely sample free as well, he used nothing but stock Pro-Tools sounds this time around.
Q: What’s ahead for Trek Life?
Trek Life:
First and foremost, working this record – everybody needs to be at itunes on opening day and cop “Wouldn’t Change Nothing”. On top of that, I’m working on my next record called “Hometown Foreigner” with Duke Westlake. Otherwise, just spending time with my family and making music. Shout to Al Lindstrom for hooking up the debut!
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There’s palm trees, gangbangin, and the best smoke, but there’s so much more to the West Coast – Cali’s elite emcee Trek Life opens a new realm in Golden State Hiphop.
Today the first single, What It Is (Apollo Brown Remix), was released from his upcoming project Wouldn’t Change Nothing. Detroit producer Apollo Brown approached the track by trying to craft an entirely new sound from the Oddisee original in an effort to compliment Trek’s agressive flow. Trek Life commented after hearing the finished track: “What It Is is one of the rawest tracks I ever recorded, it’s crazy that Apollo made it even MORE RAW!”
The upcoming album is a remix project that gives new producers a take on last summer’s Oddisee collaboration “Everything Changed Nothing”. The new project contains production from Apollo Brown, J Bizness, ST/MiC, MarvWon, Has-Lo, Captain, Slimkat78, Duke Westlake, A3, Bombay, and of course long time friend and collaborator Oddisee. Look for the new album at itunes next Tuesday July 12th!
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The group features Trek Life as the emcee, violinist Jason Yang, producer Speesh Beats, & DJ Buddy. The concept was brought together when DJ Buddy & Speesh Beats felt like the combination of different musical ideas yet hardworking personalities of the groups members would be able to come up with something dope if given the chance to vibe out in the studio.
The Extremeties (Album)
