Strap of Atlanta Hip-Hop group Travis Porter and I have a couple things in common. We like to eat a late breakfast. We both drawl our words like we committed too many sins last night. And we both bonk strippers on the head with a stack of ones... Or was that Quez? Regardless... I’m here now at magic hour on the patio of Helen’s Fish & Chips, trying to mount some change on the typer and punch in on the cats from Travis Porter. So let’s take a look at what Strap, Quez, and Ali, the three founding members of the collective, have in the way of credentials.
According to the Wikipages, Travis Porter’s biggest hits to date are Go Shorty Go, Bananas, Make It Rain, and Bring It Back, which are all vaguely reminiscent of the snap music trend that swept through Atlanta back in the mid-2000’s. But they’re also indicative of Atlanta’s new moniker as Hip-Hop party capital of the red, white and blue, along with the tunes of Don Cannon, DJ Drama, Young Jeezy, and co. Personally though, I’m in no rush to get back to the A, ever since I got ambushed at the Marta terminal as a young teen. I never quite recovered from that episode. So now when I leave the penthouse, I’m certain to have a pocket full of trouble in my jeans. Just in case.
Can you give us a small intro, Strap?
Travis Porter, we’re from the East Side of Decatur, Atlanta. We’re ready to grow. We were underage performing our songs in the stripclubs. Quez and I are stepbrothers. All of us grew up together. We started kicking it in the 6th grade. We’ve been doing music together since, shit, like 7th grade.
You got the new mixtape Music Money Magnums, and Porter Land is not the name of the debut album. Tell us about the album, and what we can expect?
Naw, I don’t know where that name Porter Land came from. A couple people said that, but that’s not the name. The album is in the works right now, working with a lot of producers, like DJ pin, we brought some people together and made like a super producer team. The beats are going to be crazy, because we put all the producers together and made one beat. So, we’re trying a lot of new stuff. The album’s going to show a lot of growth. You know, we usually treat every mixtape like an album, and they said the album’s going to be even better than the mixtapes.
One of the latest singles is Bring It Back. Tell us about that one.
What mixtape was that on? I think it was on... was it on I Am Travis Porter? Bring It Back came from just me playing around. I think that was supposed to be a line in my verse, and then we started playing with it. It was about 3 or 4 in the morning. We had had a long day, and I just ended up playing. And my engineer just started playing with it, and that’s how it came out. Actually the name of the song was something different at first, and we changed it to Bring It Back and put an extra part on it, and it just took off, and we put it on the mixtape. But that’s how things sometimes come about, just playing around and you come up with something.
You got Juicy J on Durr She Go. The line, “Gotta stay high til I die” made a big impact on Wiz Khalifa. What about you guys?
Yeah, we got a couple of records with Juicy J actually. Yeah, I mean, everybody gets high. But Juicy J is a legend, man, so he’s good to work with. Every time we work with him it’s great.
You signed with Jive at the end of last year. What’s the difference been since you signed?
A lot more people are looking at us right now, to see what we’re going to do next. So my main thing is just to keep the same grind. We get more TV time now, on 106 & Park. The label’s doing its job!
And now you’ve got the ads before your videos on YouTube.
Yeah.
You could say you guys follow the Atlanta trend in Hip-Hop of making primarily dance/club music -- along with Jeezy, Don Cannon, and DJ Drama. How would you guys describe your style?
I try to describe a lot of it, but you really can’t describe it. When our music drops, it gives people a feeling that some other music doesn’t give them. That’s why they love our music. That’s the best I can explain it.
You have a lot of party tracks, but some slower ones also, right?
We still do all kinds of music. But, I mean, if you curse too much, they might take a while to play it on the radio, but it’s already playing in the club. That’s what people need. They need club music, so we feed it to them.
Has your style evolved from the underground records to the new music videos? Like more polished maybe?
Actually somebody asked me that yesterday. What they said, “Do you ever feel like your music has changed?” And I said when I go back and listen to our music from a couple years ago, I don’t feel like the label made anything different.
Just a natural progression.
Yeah. It’s a progression. The label exposed our music so much, that we do a lot of traveling now. We get to see so much. So as the scenery changes, we’re going to start rapping about different stuff.
In your short bio film, Proud To Be A Problem, you guys are eating sausage and egg biscuit sandwiches at Waffle House. I love Waffle House, but why not bacon instead of sausage?
[Laughs] I don’t know, man. That whole experience at Waffle House was crazy. It was real life. In fact, that Waffle House was in South Carolina, and after our show, we got wasted and went to Waffle House. We got what came on the sausage dish, you know what I mean? [Laughs] But speaking about that Waffle House, they got us a lot of fans too. It was real funny. It was all spontaneous.
You don’t go to Chick-fil-A?
Yeah, we eat Chick-fil-A.
How’s the Atlanta music scene these days?
Terrific. I really like Atlanta music from ten years ago though. I like the old T.I., the Hot Boys. Today, a dude that calls himself a rapper is not even like a rapper. He just imitates something that’s hot. People do that. I ain’t gonna say any names. Some dudes just imitate what’s hot. And a lot of dudes from Atlanta do that, like ride on the waves. Like a lot of people rhyming about lean. But it’s just a fad man. A lot of people from Atlanta like to go with the fads. That’s what separates us.
You think Atlanta’s kind of eclipsed Los Angeles as the new party Hip-Hop capital? The new guys like Kendrick Lamar and Odd Future are a little different than let’s say DJ Quik.
Yeah, you could say that.
What’s next for Travis Porter?
Just working on the album, reaching out with more artists, taking it worldwide. Staying in touch with fans on our websites. Traveling, living life.
And you said, or I believe it was Quez, said he hit a stripper in the head with a stack of bills...
[Laughs] Yeah. It caused an altercation. It was a dancer. He hit her with like a stack of ones, and her people got mad. Got us into a fight about it. [Laughs]
Where can fans get the latest Travis Porter news?
We’re on Twitter, @IAmTravisPorter. Our website, www.wearetravisporter.com, and we got another website for the chicks. Chicks submit their videos doing the Bring It Back dance, or whatever. Twerk 2 Travy I think it’s called.
- By Peter Marrack
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