F  L  A  U  N  T

 Photo Credit: @mpvinny300 [Trippie Redd](https://www.instagram.com/trippieredd/?hl=en) is only 21 years old and already one of today’s most talented, sought-after artists in the music industry. When it comes to his sound, his style, his personality, his work ethic, his overall persona, the Canton, Ohio native stands proudly in his own lane—creating nothing short of bangers for his incredibly dedicated and loyal fanbase.  Exploding onto the scene with his debut mixtape, _A Love Letter to You_, spearheaded by lead single "Love Scars,” Trippie immediately drew attention from audiences all around the world, creating emotional, heartfelt ballads that speak volumes to everyday struggles, relationships, and simply life in itself. Quickly following it up with fan favorites "Dark Knight Dummo" featuring Travis Scott, "Taking a Walk", and "Topanga" (to name a few), Trippie provides the perfect blend of love and rage, showcasing versatility and growth with each release. In October of last year, Trippie unleashed his critically-acclaimed album titled _Pegasus_, reeling in all-star features from PARTYNEXTDOOR, Future, Young Thug, Chris Brown, Rich the Kid, Lil Wayne, and more. Kicking off the new year on a high note, he recently revealed the tracklist to his forthcoming album titled _NEON SHARK vs Pegasus_, presented by the legendary Travis Barker.  _Flaunt_ caught up with Trippie in downtown Los Angeles, for [Shirley Ju](https://www.instagram.com/shirju)’s latest episode of Shirley’s Temple. Read below as we discuss how the new project is a poll for his fans, discovering a young Kid Laroi, _Neon Shark vs Pegasus_ inspired by Lil Uzi, working with PARTYNEXTDOOR, Busta Rhymes, & Kid Cudi, love for Icewear Vezzo, epic memories with XXXTentacion and Juice WRLD, “Fuck Love” being his favorite song, missing the stage, true love, his favorite anime, Chris Brown’s studio, and more!  Photo Credit: @mpvinny300 **How much is that chain?** Uhh, about $100K. $50K for the chain, $50 for the pendant. It’s because it has a light in it. It’s a mechanism back here to do it. I ran the battery because I wear it so much. I’m a _Trip At Knight_, it lights up in the night, so I was wearing it at nighttime. **_Trip At Knight_ coming! I know there’s a song with Polo G, Lil Tjay and Kid Laroi.** It’s gon’ be hard. That song’s fire, it's some pop back outside shit. That’s what it’s about. I’m tired of this Covid shit, I’m ready to pop back out type vibe. **Are you going to drop it when we’re done with this shit?** Hopefully it’s over and set in stone at the right time. If not, shit. It’s still a moment, people still gon’ feel it.  **A&R Trippie, talk about putting that record together.** So Tjay and Polo G obviously, you feel me. \[“Pop Out”\] My homie Peter’s one of my managers, he really put the session together. We got into the session together, that’s what we came up with. Kid Laroi, I linked up with him. I love his vibe. I love his music. I vibe with him. I met him way before the blow-up type shit. He was actually with Juice WRLD everyday. I come over to the house, he’s on the couch like “yo wassup.” He looked mad young, he looked way younger than he looks now. He didn’t even look the same long hair, he had short hair.  **How are you on all these talented people?**  I try to be tapped in with most of the artists coming up. I love finding new artists and listening to a new vibe. I love everything about finding someone that’s talented.  **I was listening to _Pegasus,_ you put that artist on the intro and closing track. Talk about having a platform and putting new artists on.**  That’s my artist, her name’s Myiah Lynnae. She’s fire, she’s dope. My other manager Charlene showed me her music on Instagram. She’s singing to the camera, it was amazing. Her voice caught my ear fast like that. \[tries to snap\] I can’t even snap because I fucked my finger up. \[laughs\] **How did you fuck your finger up?** I fell off of a dirt bike. 20 minutes down the road from my house, I was at a warehouse. My friend really fell, I was laughing at him and pointing at him. I tried to hop off to get him, it whiskey throttled and kept going. I tried to pull it, I didn’t want the bike to drive in the middle of the road and hit somebody else’s car in mid-traffic. Fuck it, tried to put it down and that shit smashed my fingers. **Did you break anything?** No, I thought I did. When I was looking at it, I got nauseous. My lips turned white, I’m like oh shit. It’s so much different seeing your own blood versus somebody else’s.  **Does smoking help? Don’t feel it that much?** I wish that smoking really helped. Honestly, I still feel that shit. You gon’ feel it a lot more smoking. When you smoke, you gon’ feel the pain even more. You’re high, you’re going to be focused on that thing. **What’s your favorite tattoo?** \[pulls out left arm\] My favorite tattoo is a Stargate. \[I got it\] a little under 2 years ago. **Is tattoo pain okay for you?** I very rarely get tattoos. It does fucking hurt. Tattoos hurt, but I be trying to get the right ones. I don’t want to get a bunch of bullshit that I thought of this year. I like to get a bunch of shit over time. I’m 21, to have 1000 tattoos... I didn’t even tat my body up, I’m still fat. \[laughs\] I gotta lose this weight. \[rubs belly\]  Photo Credit: @mpvinny300 **How have you been holding up in the COVID-19 pandemic?** I’ve been eating good. I got quarantine weight on God, with the homemade meals. **Are you cooking or getting a chef?** Me and my homies cook. We put our minds together on what we want to make today. My homies Bortz, Zoo, they both cook. Zoo in here: “yeah n\*gga, steak!” \[laughs\] **How do you like your steak?** I like it well-done, still a tiny bit in the middle. In the middle, I don’t like it to be too tender so that it rips apart beautifully. I don’t like it too hard or rough, trash like that. You’ve got to be detailed with the steak, you can’t eat any type of steak.  **_Neon Shark_ _vs Pegasus,_ what’s the meaning?**  _Neon Shark_ is because one of my favorite bands is Deftones, they made an album called _Pony_. I liked that they used some type of animal to symbolize what they felt on the album. I made a rock album called _Neon Shark_. It was supposed to be its own album but fuck it, I’m going to make it the deluxe to _Pegasus_. _Neon Shark_ vs _Pegasus_ literally means what it says. Is _Neon Shark_ better than _Pegasus_? Or is _Pegasus_ better than _Neon Shark_? What y’all fucking with more? That’s what we’re going to see throughout sales, if people want _Neon Shark_ or if they want _Pegasus._ **That’s so smart, how’d you think of that?** I ain’t gon’ lie, I seen Lil Uzi do it. _Lil Uzi vs. the World_. I don’t know what he did with his deluxe but I listened to it fasho. He put vs. so let me put my spin on it. I look at him as one of the OG young guys, I really admire what he does for the culture. I really pay attention to what he does.  **How did “Excitement” with PARTYNEXTDOOR come about?** Me and Party hit each other up, he really vibed with me and fucked with my music. He’s telling me “_Life’s A Trip,_ one of my top 10 albums.” He loves that album, shout out to Party.  **Did you feel the same way about him?** Hell yeah! I love PARTYNEXTDOOR music. \[sings “Persian Rugs”\] You get the lights dimming. \[laughs\] Party sets the mood.  **Talk about sampling Busta’s record, then getting him on the record.**  I don’t even think we sampled it, it was really me liking the beat. For some reason, it sounded like that to me. It brought the vibe of that older song to me. This beat’s nostalgic, it feels like this. Fuck it, I’ma make this. I’ma go Live like “yo, we gotta put Busta Rhymes on this!” If he taps in, we’re gonna put him on the song.  **And he tapped in?** He tapped in. He hit somebody up from my team.  **What are your favorite songs on _Pegasus_?** My favorite song is “Moonlight, “The Nether,” I love “V-12,” and my song with Future and Doe Boy. He’s hard. That song means a lot to me because Doe Boy from Ohio, Future signed Doe Boy, he put him on. I’m from Ohio so fuck, we have to do this for Ohio. I need Doe Boy on this song. **Do you miss Ohio?**  I be there. I go back and visit. I have a lil apartment there. I need to build a house out there. My family’s in Ohio. My family loves Ohio.  **Do you like LA or Ohio?** I love both. It’s amazing to be in LA. In LA, you can be in two different parts of LA. You could be in the real LA or the fantasy LA. I live in the fantasy LA. \[laughs\] It feels good to wake up to the palm trees.  **What’s Ohio like?** Ohio’s seasonal so whatever season it is, it really looks like that. It’s boring, most people do drugs there, work a 9 to 5. It’s hard, really hard. Most people think it’s country, it’s not even all that country. We have farmland too, but it’s city. It’s regular neighborhoods, it is what it is. We’re right between Chicago and Detroit.  **Speaking of, I work with Icewear Vezzo.** That’s my boy! I love Vezzo, he’s hard. Me and Vezzo got over 5 songs. Icewear Vezzo is on _Trip At Knight_ for sure. **He’s one of the most slept-on out of Detroit.** His wordplay is immaculate. He pulls up like a superstar, he doesn’t come less than a superstar. He pulls up on his superstar shit, he be chillin’. He’s a good person, he’s humbled. When he gets on the mic, he kills shit. He doesn’t play, that's what I like about him.  **You too though, you have a crazy recording process.**  Yes and for Icewear Vezzo to be able to keep up with me, I love that. I could lay something down, he’ll come right after me and lay some shit right down. If we wanted to for real, we could knock out 20 songs in one night. He’s that type of artist, and most of them would be hits. I’m calling at least 14 of them out of 20. The other ones would still be listenable, feel me? You’d still want to vibe to it.  **What about you? You be talking your shit!** On God, I've been on that lately. Saying some shit, I usually be screaming like muhfuckas be saying. Screaming my heart out, I put all my passion into that. Rapping, I've been keeping up with bars and saying metaphors. I’m going crazy with that type shit.  **How much do you miss the stage?** I miss that shit fasho. I miss the rage on God. I can’t wait, I’ma be like \[raises arms\]. “Stand the fuck up! Rage!” \[laughs\] **What’s your favorite song to perform? I feel like I know the answer: “Dark Night Dummo”?** “Dark Knight Dummo” set the tone. I came out as a love n\*gga, but it was some love rage shit so then I switched it up. Fuck, I’ma be a complete rage n\*gga and drop that shit with Travis. I set both worlds for myself. My new _Trip At Knight_, I’m dropping all rage shit. Most of it rage shit. I love rage music. We gon’ rage and do some “Dark Knight Dummo” shit.  **Shout out to Honorable C-Note, I know he produced that one.**  He produced _Trip At Knight._ I have the original cover artist doing the cover. C-Note has a hand of songs, like 5. Even if all 5 of them don’t make the album, at least 2 to 3 gotta be on there. If not, I’m stupid.  **Do you keep track of all that shit in your head?**  Yeah, I listen to my music all day every day. I study my craft. I try to figure things out within listening to my music. I try every day when I do the checklist. Know I listen to the whole shit every day and this is what I came with. I try to stay in tune with myself. I gotta figure out myself more.  **You’re doing really well...** I have to get more in tune with myself though. I was in tune with myself, then I got famous. I got to keep my brothers around me. They elevating, it’s going to be a point where they go do what they do and I’m going to be by myself. During that time, I’ma be really in tune more with myself because I’m not waking up every day to some other shit. I’m waking up to whatever I think or what I feel. Different time periods take that, you gotta do that sometimes. My house, I’ll have friends that fly out from Ohio and a lot of friends from out here. Shit, I love my friends. They pull up, have a good time. **A huge part of the show is mental health, I know you lost 2 close friends: Juice WRLD and XXXTentacion. How are you holding up?** For one, I always think about them every day. Musically if I don’t listen to myself, I’ma listen to them. They’re the leaders of everything. They’re the ones I was coming up with, really chillin’ with, seeing their process during my process. I’m a different type of person, I really don’t be around a lot of artists. I might pop out on some artists and feel them out, but I don’t really consider a lot of artists friends. They’re really friends to me. We didn't even care about doing music when we’re around each other, we’re friends.  **Juice WRLD has such a big heart too!** Right, and Jah. They both had big hearts. Even X, one day we’re playing the game. I was whooping his ass in Naruto: Shippuden. I made him get off of the sticks because Sauce Walka was over. I wanted him to get on the sticks, then he whooped my ass. He was mad that I got him off of the sticks on some jealous friendship, that’s how close me and my friends are. I loved that boy. **What do you feel when you hear “Fuck Love”?** Bruh, that’s my favorite song I’ve ever made. That shit’s out of here, that’s going to be my first Diamond in record. If it’s not, I know that one’s going to be my first Diamond. It’s already 7x Platinum.  **How many plaques do you have?**  Almost 40 now.  **How does that make you feel coming up out of Ohio?** Shit, I be motivated. I be working. I don’t stop working. I usually drop 2 albums a year only, I only dropped one last year in 2020. This year, I’m trying to drop 2 to 3. **How much music are you sitting on?** A lot, but I keep creating so I’ma to try to make more new shit. New sounds, new vibes. I ain’t really trying to hold the albums. The new shit I have, _Trip At Knight,_ I’ma try to keep it short. I’m not gon’ try to do too many songs.  **I know _Pegasus_ has 26 tracks...** That’s why _Trip At Knight_ can’t do that. It gotta be at least 14 to 16.  **What made you come to that number?** 14 defines balance. If I can balance 14 of the right records, it’ll be a great thing to have out there. Fasho 16 ‘cause I like the number 16. That’s two above the balance so even if I have two different records on there, that ain’t really the same vibe of everything, that’ll be cool too because it’s a different moment on the album. They can have something completely different than what the album feels like. **Are you more excited for _Trip At Knight_ or _Pegasus_ _Deluxe_?** I’m really excited about both of them. The deluxe is rock music completely and the other one’s _Life’s A Trip,_ but rage. Both really, I ain’t gon’ lie. I was really trying to accomplish putting rage music—because “Dark Knight Dummo” and “UKA UKA,” adding more to that. _Life’s A Trip_ was emotional, but it wasn’t a love story. It was me being me, explaining how I feel as a person rather than how I feel in the love world. I got that on there, but I try to balance it with the rage. Out of 14 songs, you’d think 7 + 7.  **Do you believe in true love?** Yeah, but I don’t know. \[laughs\] That shit don’t come too fast or too slow. When it pops up, be ready. You learn from situations and when you learn from other situations, you're better and you’ll know what’s next. You’ll grow and hopefully, the next one will be that. Other than that, I don’t know.  **You pulled up with the rolled Backwoods with the filters.** That’s me everyday, I promise you. I took a joint break for a month. It was a Backwood break, I was smoking joints for a month then I went back to smoking woods. We need to find a way we could make papers so it doesn't stick to your lips. They have glass tips, that’s so extra. A whole lot, I can get to the wood quick. Roll that bitch up, it hits great. The paper, I fuck with it but if you don’t have any filter, that shit sticks to your lips and rip the skin off your lips. Damn! What’d I do to myself?  **You get to taste the weed the most!** You get to taste nothing but weed which makes it amazing because if you really smoke great weed, it tastes good. If you smoke that trash, you gon’ hate papers. You need that tobacco kick.  **How much do you smoke a day?** About 10 or 15 woods. To myself, 2 ounces. An ounce or 2 a day. **Do you like Sativa or Indica?** I like Indica. I be too antsy and turnt up, full of rage. **I have insomnia, so I’m in my head.** Me too! I be up bro, that shit’s trash. If you ain’t got no love life going on, somebody to keep you tired, laid up, your ass gon’ be up if you got insomnia.  Photo Credit: @mpvinny300 **Talk about your gaming app Pegasus Runner.** I don’t get on Pegasus, not gonna lie. I never played that, I helped make it thought. **You weren’t curious?** I don’t even want to ruin it. I want to play it in 5 years from now. Download Pegasus Runner 5 years from now like “this some shit I made back in the day, I didn’t even play it.” \[laughs\] **Do you play other video games?** Yeah, I play a lot of games. I mainly play Zombie or Call of Duty. I play PC so it’s moderate. I can play zombies at McDonald’s. I can have someone make this set where we’re at right now and play Zombies here. **Do you go to McDonald’s?** That’s the last resort. If nothing else is open, the only place open is McDonald’s. Get me some hash browns.  **What if it’s not breakfast hour?** Fries. Their sandwiches is so 50/50, they don’t hit. **What food do you like out here?** I like Jamba Juice. I like to go get me a little juice . My preference is Pink Starburst. Get the secret menu, it used to be Sour Gummy.  **Did you ever work part-time jobs?** I worked at Little Caesars. 5 minutes ‘til you’re off, you put that pizza right in there. **How was the pizza?** I trusted it because I made it. From time to time, it be nostalgic. I’m not going to say that’s my favorite pizza but sometimes, I’ll be like “I worked at Little Caesars.” **What’s your favorite anime?** My favorite anime is _Soul Eater_ because of their animation style, the way they made that anime specifically. It’s very precise, no other anime looks like Soul Eater. Soul Eater moon \[points to chain\], my homies Sunny has the sun.  **You’re going to build me a Shirley’s Temple right?** The most creative thing I’ve ever seen in my life is Chris Brown’s studio, his booth is built like a pyramid that you walk into. It’s like a temple.  **Is that inspo for the studio you're building at your crib?**  Hell yeah, that’s the most creative shit I’ve ever seen. Shit, I’ma do some super creative shit too. **Was there anyone in the industry that helped you get on?** Kodie Shane helped me, that was my help. She promoted my shit, posted my songs. Before you know it, I blew up after she helped me with promo. She was on the song, she was my sister and she loved me. She helped me.  **Can you bring us back to when Playboi Carti was trying to sign you?** Shout out Playboi Carti, he tried to sign me. He tried it. I fuck with bro, I love his music. All of it, I was listening to Carti when he’s produced by ICYTWAT making remixes. I love his shit, don’t get me wrong. He definitely tried to sign me, I had a different plan.  **How was working with Kid Cudi?**  I just wanted to make a song with him, I didn’t ask to be on the album. He put me on the album, I’m like “whew, that’s crazy.” On God, that’s my homie. I fuck with him, he's a genuine person. He’s so humble. He’s chill, one of the chillest people I’ve ever met. We smoked, got high and made a song. That’s Kid Cudi, I wasn’t about to do no regular ass verse. Gotta give him that shit.  **What does it mean to be “Rockstar Knights”?** The record is symbolizing being rockstars. The shit we go through as rockstars or the trials and tribulations of being a rockstar, that’s all the song meant really. ”I’m all alone, fuck a soul. I ain’t worried about nobody, I’m ruthless.” That's what I’m worried about, being ruthless and being myself. Elevating me as a person.