CONCRETE: You just dropped your first mixture titled Don't Be S.A.F.E. How did you come up with that title and what exactly does it mean?
Trinidad: Don'r Be Safe. Safe is an acronym for Sensitive as fuck everyday. There's a lot of different ways you can take that, cause it's kind of weird. For me personally, people are sensitive and they let the smallest things in life change their outcome of a day or that year. Things that you can't change anyway. And I feel that life would move a lot smoother if people weren't so sensitive about everything every God damned day.
__________
CONCRETE: Who did you work with on the production for this project?
Trinidad: Actually those beats were all free online. I just found them and started doing music with them. Me and my engineer just put them together.
_________
CONCRETE: Where did you record the album?
Trinidad: At my boy Justin Patrone, ATL. He's a really good engineer here in Atlanta off Ponce De Leon.
____________
CONCRETE: You've talked about the project like it was almost an accident that it happened. Can you talk about the process of making this project?
Trinidad: My cousins "The Summit" they do music. They were rocking with some other guys that I'm really cool with called Them Boys Music. This was last year around November. When I started hanging around them a little more, from time to time I would do some music. When this year came about I kind of split from every body and was just focused on doing my business thing. Then I got in some little trouble or whatever, and I looked back on life and thought, 'I don't have any accomplishments as a man.' I did the music, because when they always told me, "Man you've got the gift." My cousins and friends would always say, "You got the juice. You should do it.' So I took them up on it and did my whole project. That was about 5 months ago. I took about two months, found somewhere to record, started writing, finding the beats and put it together.
CONCRETE: What are some of the good things that have resulted from your buzz?
Trinidad: For a guy like myself who just made the Don't Be S.A.F.E. album for my friends and family, to be in Complex Magazine's web article listed as one of the Top 10 New Artists Out of Atlanta. The Fader presented my mixture when it first dropped. I've been doing shows in other cities like Nashville and New York. I been meeting some really nice people. I did a really great photo shoot with the legendary Jonathan Manyen. Just a lot of cool things. I'm doing A3C this year in Atlanta, getting ready to turn up. I'm doing CMJ in New York.
______________
CONCRETE: Your name Trinidad James, are your folks from there?
Trinidad: I was born there. Me personally, I was born there. I was born in Port Au Spain, Trinidad. At first my name was Nick James, but I saw there was another rapper named Nick James while I was making my tape. He's from Cali if I'm not mistaken. I wanted that guy to have his own lane, cause I know how I feel about doing my thing and not wanting anyone to be like me. So I just let go of the Nick James name. That's a name that I inherited. Not as a rap name, but just as a nick name from the guys I chill with. So I was just like, "Fuck it. I'm going to rep for were I was born." Because my music is really about my life, true, real things that happened. So me just putting my name as Trinidad James just made sense.
CONCRETE: Have you traveled back to Trinidad since coming to America?
Trinidad: Yeah. Actually last year I was blessed enough to go back and chill with my family and have a good time. It was a real blessing.
______________
CONCRETE: Was this before you recorded your project?
Trinidad: Yeah.
______________
CONCRETE: What part of Atlanta are you from?
Trinidad: A little bit of everywhere. I grew up off Collee Road, Zone 3 Atlanta, the Forest Park area, then the South Side, Clayton County, Riverdale, Valley Hill. A little bit of everywhere. I went to school on the West Side right by the West End train station.
_______________
CONCRETE: Can you tell us about your Gold Gang Movement?
Trinidad: That's basically the individuals you will see me hanging around tough. Those are my boys. These are all people who individually, without me doing music, before my music, they were go-getters. The whole Gold Gang Movement is a mentality honestly. It's about you thinking about life, and you wanting to be a winner. Gold is first place. When you wake up in the morning, I want you to have that winning mentality. You want to win. You want to succeed. You don't want to wake up with no purpose in life. I want you to wake up thinking like, "Man shat am I going to do today? What am I going to accomplish?" Besides the little things that you have to do in life. We all have to get up and go to work. It's something new that we're doing to help us get somewhere better in life. Cause we're not comfortable just getting up and working a 9-5 per say.
CONCRETE: Besides the symbolism, what is about gold that you like?
Trinidad: I'm a vintage type of guy. I like old school shit. My fashion is all over the place, but I love vintage. Gold, it just makes sense. I watched my dad wear gold growing up. I watched artists like Slick Rick, Rakim, that whole time when it was gold crazy. That era just stuck in my mind. Platinum is cool and all the diamonds is cool, but gold was just that shit to me.
________________
CONCRETE: What's your approach to being fly and fashionable?
Trinidad: I'll wear whatever the fuck I want. Me personally, I don't have no limitations on what I'll wear for the most part. If I feel comfortable in it or I like it or I want to express a certain look this day, I'm going to put it on and boom, let's go. Whatever you think about me is your opinion. God gave it to you, I respect it. It don't change shit in my life. I'm good. I'm not just caught up in high end brands. I'm not even that big on high end brands. I'm really a street wear master. I fuck with street wear really tough. But I've got my own twist on it, cause I've got vintage looks too. I like old school. You see me perform in old school style Versace shirts and shit like that. But you'll catch me coming up the street in some leopard print pants, leather vest. It's no telling how I feel that day. I've got a really nice kick game that I take pride in. I don't people to think, 'Oh I just started buying shoes' just because I'm an artist now and that's what artists do. I've been collecting shoes. If you do your research, you'll find that I've been collecting shoes. Seriously.
_________________
CONCRETE: What are your all time favorite shoe?
Trinidad: The Air Jordan II, the original one from 1987. It's just cool cause that's the year I was born. That's my all time favorite shoe. That particular one, the one that came in the original box with all the different pictures and colors on it. That one. It was like Italian leather. It was a really good shoe just in general. I'm still trying to get a pair of those. But I'm a really big shoe conessouir. I'm a fan of Jeremy Scott shoes. They're really dope. They kind of express my fashion. They express me as a person, so I really like his shoes. I'm a really huge fan of Versace. Versace Loafers and stuff like that. I'm working my way up to afford those things, cause they're expensive. Nike of course. I'm a Nike head. Jordan is close to the heart. As far as one shoe, the Air Jordan II that came out in '87.
CONCRETE: You just dropped your first mixture titled Don't Be S.A.F.E. How did you come up with that title and what exactly does it mean?
Trinidad: Don'r Be Safe. Safe is an acronym for Sensitive as fuck everyday. There's a lot of different ways you can take that, cause it's kind of weird. For me personally, people are sensitive and they let the smallest things in life change their outcome of a day or that year. Things that you can't change anyway. And I feel that life would move a lot smoother if people weren't so sensitive about everything every God damned day.
__________
CONCRETE: Who did you work with on the production for this project?
Trinidad: Actually those beats were all free online. I just found them and started doing music with them. Me and my engineer just put them together.
_________
CONCRETE: Where did you record the album?
Trinidad: At my boy Justin Patrone, ATL. He's a really good engineer here in Atlanta off Ponce De Leon.
____________
CONCRETE: You've talked about the project like it was almost an accident that it happened. Can you talk about the process of making this project?
Trinidad: My cousins "The Summit" they do music. They were rocking with some other guys that I'm really cool with called Them Boys Music. This was last year around November. When I started hanging around them a little more, from time to time I would do some music. When this year came about I kind of split from every body and was just focused on doing my business thing. Then I got in some little trouble or whatever, and I looked back on life and thought, 'I don't have any accomplishments as a man.' I did the music, because when they always told me, "Man you've got the gift." My cousins and friends would always say, "You got the juice. You should do it.' So I took them up on it and did my whole project. That was about 5 months ago. I took about two months, found somewhere to record, started writing, finding the beats and put it together.
CONCRETE: What are some of the good things that have resulted from your buzz?
Trinidad: For a guy like myself who just made the Don't Be S.A.F.E. album for my friends and family, to be in Complex Magazine's web article listed as one of the Top 10 New Artists Out of Atlanta. The Fader presented my mixture when it first dropped. I've been doing shows in other cities like Nashville and New York. I been meeting some really nice people. I did a really great photo shoot with the legendary Jonathan Manyen. Just a lot of cool things. I'm doing A3C this year in Atlanta, getting ready to turn up. I'm doing CMJ in New York.
______________
CONCRETE: Your name Trinidad James, are your folks from there?
Trinidad: I was born there. Me personally, I was born there. I was born in Port Au Spain, Trinidad. At first my name was Nick James, but I saw there was another rapper named Nick James while I was making my tape. He's from Cali if I'm not mistaken. I wanted that guy to have his own lane, cause I know how I feel about doing my thing and not wanting anyone to be like me. So I just let go of the Nick James name. That's a name that I inherited. Not as a rap name, but just as a nick name from the guys I chill with. So I was just like, "Fuck it. I'm going to rep for were I was born." Because my music is really about my life, true, real things that happened. So me just putting my name as Trinidad James just made sense.
CONCRETE: Have you traveled back to Trinidad since coming to America?
Trinidad: Yeah. Actually last year I was blessed enough to go back and chill with my family and have a good time. It was a real blessing.
______________
CONCRETE: Was this before you recorded your project?
Trinidad: Yeah.
______________
CONCRETE: What part of Atlanta are you from?
Trinidad: A little bit of everywhere. I grew up off Collee Road, Zone 3 Atlanta, the Forest Park area, then the South Side, Clayton County, Riverdale, Valley Hill. A little bit of everywhere. I went to school on the West Side right by the West End train station.
_______________
CONCRETE: Can you tell us about your Gold Gang Movement?
Trinidad: That's basically the individuals you will see me hanging around tough. Those are my boys. These are all people who individually, without me doing music, before my music, they were go-getters. The whole Gold Gang Movement is a mentality honestly. It's about you thinking about life, and you wanting to be a winner. Gold is first place. When you wake up in the morning, I want you to have that winning mentality. You want to win. You want to succeed. You don't want to wake up with no purpose in life. I want you to wake up thinking like, "Man shat am I going to do today? What am I going to accomplish?" Besides the little things that you have to do in life. We all have to get up and go to work. It's something new that we're doing to help us get somewhere better in life. Cause we're not comfortable just getting up and working a 9-5 per say.
CONCRETE: Besides the symbolism, what is about gold that you like?
Trinidad: I'm a vintage type of guy. I like old school shit. My fashion is all over the place, but I love vintage. Gold, it just makes sense. I watched my dad wear gold growing up. I watched artists like Slick Rick, Rakim, that whole time when it was gold crazy. That era just stuck in my mind. Platinum is cool and all the diamonds is cool, but gold was just that shit to me.
________________
CONCRETE: What's your approach to being fly and fashionable?
Trinidad: I'll wear whatever the fuck I want. Me personally, I don't have no limitations on what I'll wear for the most part. If I feel comfortable in it or I like it or I want to express a certain look this day, I'm going to put it on and boom, let's go. Whatever you think about me is your opinion. God gave it to you, I respect it. It don't change shit in my life. I'm good. I'm not just caught up in high end brands. I'm not even that big on high end brands. I'm really a street wear master. I fuck with street wear really tough. But I've got my own twist on it, cause I've got vintage looks too. I like old school. You see me perform in old school style Versace shirts and shit like that. But you'll catch me coming up the street in some leopard print pants, leather vest. It's no telling how I feel that day. I've got a really nice kick game that I take pride in. I don't people to think, 'Oh I just started buying shoes' just because I'm an artist now and that's what artists do. I've been collecting shoes. If you do your research, you'll find that I've been collecting shoes. Seriously.
_________________
CONCRETE: What are your all time favorite shoe?
Trinidad: The Air Jordan II, the original one from 1987. It's just cool cause that's the year I was born. That's my all time favorite shoe. That particular one, the one that came in the original box with all the different pictures and colors on it. That one. It was like Italian leather. It was a really good shoe just in general. I'm still trying to get a pair of those. But I'm a really big shoe conessouir. I'm a fan of Jeremy Scott shoes. They're really dope. They kind of express my fashion. They express me as a person, so I really like his shoes. I'm a really huge fan of Versace. Versace Loafers and stuff like that. I'm working my way up to afford those things, cause they're expensive. Nike of course. I'm a Nike head. Jordan is close to the heart. As far as one shoe, the Air Jordan II that came out in '87.
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