F  L  A  U  N  T

     
Raised between Florida and North Carolina, the son of a pastor, Trent the Hooligan is no stranger to assumptions and misconceptions. “When you’re from the South, people will think you’re stupid, that we talk slow,” he says. He does speak with an unmistakable accent and grew up listening to Christian rock and other worship music; looking at him, you wouldn’t realize when his mouth gets going that he could rap circles around seasoned veterans, turning all the disparate experiences of his 22 years on this earth into music that’s as thoughtful as it is hard (and fast). Working in the tradition of OutKast, Goodie Mob and UGK, Trent is living proof that the South still has something to say.

Trent was born in Atlanta and then moved to Orlanda, Florida, where he lived with his seven siblings and parents until the family relocated to Wilmington, North Carolina when he was 15. Trent’s brother introduced him to hip-hop music, and Trent was blown away by the connections he discovered to his upbringing. The cadence of Pimp C’s voice and the gospel influence in OutKast’s work, for instance, captivated him, especially the choir that takes the duo’s classic “B.O.B.” into the stratosphere on the song’s outro. A gifted writer, recognized for his facility with words and essays in school, Trent realized that this music was big enough to contain everything that mattered to him.

In a moment of crisis as a teenager, feeling depressed and adrift, Trent wrote his first rap song. His fate was sealed—this is what he wanted to do. Soon he made connections across the state that fueled his passion, linking with producers and artists, building a community.

He released his first project, the EP
. Taken together, they introduce Trent as a remarkable technician, capable of stringing together complicated lines and ideas with ease. “As a pastor, my pops touches people’s lives with his words, and I think that’s where I got it from,” he says. “In my music I be preaching in the least preachy way possible, delivering substance so that when the listener finishes a song or an album, they leave with something they can apply to their life.”

ALLGASNOBRAKEZ! drops in June. It’s the sophomore follow up to his debut project,
,