Interviews

Trillville: Making Them Cuts

March 2005
Albert McCluster III

Songs about keepin’ it real, staying true to the game, bar-b-q’n versus mildewin’, and opting to ride or die, always seem to find themselves laced throughout a rapper’s lyrics to prove his or her value and credibility. So much so it’s gotten harder and harder to tell who’s who and what’s what.

The alternative? Keeping’ it “trill”. At least that’s what Atlanta’s own Trillviile believes. Instead of keepin’ it real, Don P. aka Corleone, Dirty Mouth aka The Gucci Man, and Lil LA aka Lil Atlanta...Keep it Trill: a culmination of what’s truth and what’s real.

Being from the ATL where everybody is doing it...How’d you guys hook up?
DON: Dirty Mouth was writing raps in the 9th grade and I liked his raps

DM: Keeping it Trill in the city, the hood and in the state. I got my name from spittin’ dirty rhymes…Music has always been a part of what I do. Even in Morris Brown college where I majored in music production. I was doing mixtapes and my thang and then I hooked up with Don P…he was producing and such and such in the ATL…LA was doing shows, promoting and we just clicked.

DON: Right, right…that’s basically it know what I’m saying, I went to Clark-Atlanta University…I was working on a Mass Communications major.

LA: I met both of them in the 9th grade too…I started promoting for them…then Don found out I could rap…and we been “trill” ever since.

How’d you get your deal?
DM: We was like underground and people was feeling us and they knew it, but it was hard. Then Warner Brothers came into the picture and we did a show for Vincent Phillips the CEO of BME.

DON: I called Vincent and we set up a meet, got the CD in his hands which he passed on and they saw us perform and we cut the deal. That’s a little short…we put in mad work, but, that’s basically how it went down.

LA, you were promoting parties right?
LA: Yeah, we was doing "hood rich shit"…you know passing out flyers, throwing parties errywhere, grinding and getting our shit out. Whatever we did it was packed houses, cause we worked and we gave the people what they wanted… Trillville is a voice for anarchy and rebellion. Our focus was and is on the movement of young people in high school and college. Trillville is like Black heavy metal.

DM: We all (pronounced: ahwl) been about the grind since we was yea high…lil kids off the block, jumping off the porch young and puttin’ in work, you feel me.

Where did you obtain your tracks when you first started out?
DON: I was doing all the tracks…see, Trillville wasn’t even a group at the time…

DM: We were working together and in the studio, but…

DON: Errybody at the time was working on they own solo album…It was just my label at the time…Trillville Entertainment and Dirty Mouth was our lead artist…LA had a solo album too…But, I did all the tracks and we came together to do “Neva Eva” and that’s how Trillville was basically born with that cut.

LA: Trillville started because everybody else was being real, so we decided to be three times as real. Trillville is any city, any hood, land… any state that’s trill about representin’ they shit!

How did “Neva Eva” come to be?
DON: When we hooked up with Lil Jon and we worked “Neva Eva” it just clicked and we realized what we had…

LA: We just clicked and when we did shows…it showed!

DM: We still got our own label…instead of Trill”ville” Entertainment it’s now Trilltown Entertainment…

DON: It’s just more money! Plus, we signing new artists!

What’s coming up next with Trillville?

DM: We got the new album coming up this spring, “Trillville Reloaded”

DON: Cha-Ching! We going to continue what Lil Jon established as the King of Crunk. We gonna keep the movement going and the energy moving. We the crown princes… the heirs to the Crunk throne…When we done we gonna be known as the Gods of Crunk.

LA: And we got www.trilltown.com www.trillville.com so check us out on that…we doing them thangs.

DON: On “Trillville Reloaded” we are doing our thang…we got production on therr from Lil Jon, myself, Fade…dude named Don Vitto. Plus the mixtape scene is sick…we got “Trilltown Vol. 1”…it’s hot…got over 15,000 downloads on debut...thang about it is it’s not like an ordinary mixtape…it’s all original music and people are snapping it up. We got DJ’s requesting copies errywhere…

DM: Big shout outs, excuse me…(laughs at Don P) to all them DJs around the world…didn’t want to forget to say that…without y’all we wouldn’t be out therre or herre circulating in the streets…much love.

LA: We got the “Welcome To Trillville” DVD too…and the movie with soundtrack around next year. Ya’ll look out for all dat…Trillville Reloaded, Lil Scrappy, Kings Of Crunk, Crunk Juice, Lil Jon, Crime Mob, dat new E-40…if it got a shark on it get it.

DON: Oh yeah…if you need some tracks holla at ya peoples!

Anybody that you want to work with…your dream sheet?
DM: Any and errybody and somebody that’s making it happen.

DON: If I had a chance…LL Cool J…you know L got the ladies.

DM:Slick Rick…errybody really.

LA: Errybody that’s hot now and who gone be hot.

Where do y’all see Trillville in the next 5 years?
LA: On top…of the world

DM: Taking over the world like Pinky & The Brain

DON: 5 years and 5 houses…5 cars and 5 spouses…That‘s how to do it.

DM: There it is.

If you ain’t got it pick up that “King Of Crunk & BME Recordings Present: Trillville & Lil Scrappy” featuring “Neva Eva”, “Some Cut” and “Get Some Crunk In Your System”, the album has proven to be groundbreaking and sets the stage for the release of “Trillville Reloaded” Spring 2005.