T Baby is the “Trench Baby,” and he’s here to take over the rap game. At only 16 years old, the Chicago native is already living his dreams out on the daily, creating heartfelt trap bangers for the streets and beyond. Following in the footsteps of his older brother, rap phenom Polo G, T Baby proves talent definitely runs in the family.
T Baby describes himself as “trying to bring that real, nitty gritty drill music back to the city. Really trying to come with my own wave. “Not a lot of people my age pursue their dreams of being an artist, I’m here to show them you can do this.”
Fresh off the momentum of his debut single “F### Yo Homie,” T Baby returns with his newest release titled “Richest GangBanger.” The bar is set high being Polo’s little brother, and T Baby rises to the occasion each and every time.
AllHipHop: Why are you the Trench Baby?
T Baby: Man, I come from the trenches. The nitty gritty. That’s how I got my name. Everybody knows: oh yeah Trench Baby, T Baby. That’s what we gonna call him. So I took it and ran with it.
AllHipHop: What’s the reality of coming up in the Southside of Chicago?
T Baby: You know, it was like any other trench. Hard, nitty gritty, but it was a time when it was actually fun. Going to school, not having to worry about nothing. You got your friends out, some of y’all are going to the park. Doing normal, regular kids stuff before we grew up, then became immune to what we’re doing now.
AllHipHop: Biggest influences coming up?
T Baby: Polo for sure, my brother. G Herbo. I mess with Durk. I really rock with everybody out of Chicago. Everybody going crazy, everybody doing something.
AllHipHop: At what point did you realize music could be a viable career path?
T Baby: It’s crazy because we were in Miami, they said “man, why you don’t be rapping? How you little bro and you don’t rap? I know you got it, it runs in the family.” They played some beats, I just hopped on a song. Not gonna lie, my first song I didn’t like it, but I kept doing it. I seen myself progressing at it and I kept doing it.
AllHipHop: How’d it feel to have Polo G’s career take off the way it did?
T Baby: S###, it was crazy. I ain’t gonna lie, it was crazy. Seeing everything unfold piece by piece was crazy. People where we’re from, it doesn’t usually happen like that, you feel me? Blew up in two years, that was major fasho.
AllHipHop: Any advice Polo gives you in this music game?
T Baby: Oh yeah, for sure. Stay consistent. Never feed into none of the games. Social media plays a big part of why artists don’t grow. Don’t pay attention to the hate. The love always, always outweighs the hate. You know, regular brother talks.
AllHipHop: How’d it feel to release your first record “F## Yo Homie”?
T Baby: It felt good. Like dang, I’m really a rapper now. I recorded that in Chicago. I said “oh yeah, I’m gonna get on that play crazy. I gotta come — Polo’s little brother, gotta set the standard.” You know, I can’t come out with no regular stuff. That’s my brother. Man, everybody gotta feel me say something. Hit something. I came up with that.
AllHipHop: “Richest GangBanger” out now, how are you feeling?
T Baby: “Richest GangBanger” out now, go cop that. That visual’s hard. The song’s hard. Shout out Todd, he did the producing. I’m rocking with it. That’s my favorite song right now.
AllHipHop: What were you on recording this one?
T Baby: I recorded that in Atlanta with Todd. We were playing with beats, he played that beat and I freestyled really. S###, made the song.
AllHipHop: Best memory from shooting the visual?
T Baby: My sister hopped in the video. I ain’t expect her to hop in the video. This is supposed to be a solo thing, she hopped in the video to support it. That made me inspired to go even crazier. We shooting the video, then in the video there’s a scene where we put the dude in the back of the truck. We pull up to the store and we throw him in the truck, we can see people calling the police like really thinking something’s going on. They see all these black dudes throwing this dude in a truck, they calling the police. Police come, we say “nah, we shooting a video.” They get to tweaking off us, really thinking we doing something. We said “nah, chill. We just trying to shoot our video.”
AllHipHop: Instagram deleted you at 93K followers, what happened?
T Baby: Man, they deleted my Instagram at 93K. I don’t know what I be doing on Instagram, what they got towards me. [laughs] Instagram be tweaking with it. That’s the second page of mine they been deleted. The first time, I was at 75K.
AllHipHop: What were you posting? What happened?
T Baby: No, no, no. I had used the lyric caption, I had the “N” word and all that other stuff. Somebody reported it. It was lame really.
AllHipHop: Being only 16, are you still in school?
T Baby: Yeah, I’m still in school for sure. I’m a sophomore. It’s really hard trying to pay attention to school when I have a crazy life outside that, but I’m a strong person so I persevere. I persevere through anything, so I adapted.
AllHipHop: What do you need in the studio to record?
T Baby: I don’t really need nothing in the studio. Really Cap: he doesn’t necessarily tell me what to say, but he gives me direction. Polo says “oh yeah, you should say it like this. It’ll sound better like this.” He got the knowledge, so it’s always good to have him in the studio when I’m recording something.
AllHipHop: Anything else you need in there?
T Baby: No, not really. I ain’t no smoker. No drinker. I be sober for the most part. I don’t really do all that.
AllHipHop: Goals yourself as an artist at this point of your career?
T Baby: Oh yeah, for sure. I want to get on XXL. I want to get me an XXL cover fasho. I want to do an interview with some big name people. Get my passport, travel outside the country. I want to do a lot of stuff. There’s a lot of stuff I want to do, I got to put them goals in mind and do it.
AllHipHop: Anything else you want to let us know?
T Baby: Trench Baby, “Richest GangBanger” out now. I got a whole bunch of fire dropping. I promise you, you won’t be disappointed. Hall of Fame 2.0 the Deluxe, I’m gonna be on that too. Polo’s Hall of Fame deluxe, I got a feature on there. We finna turn up, go crazy.
AllHipHop: What song are you on?
T Baby: It’s called “Invite Only.” We were in the studio and our DJ, his name’s DJ Tony Tone, he makes beats. He just started making beats, so me and Polo hopped on the beat. He said “you should keep going crazy,” so we can persuade him to keep doing beats. He played this one beat and it went crazy. It was a turnt type vibe, a Polo type vibe. I did the hook on there, Polo did the verses.
AllHipHop: Do you guys have mad records in the vault?
T Baby: No, we only made two songs. But we’ve been in the studio every day. That’s what’s crazy, we been in the studio with each other every day.
AllHipHop: Is that where you get your work ethic from?
T Baby: Fasho. Seeing him in the studio, how he uses his thought process in recording songs, that’s definitely motivation for me. That makes me get in there and want to go crazy too.
AllHipHop: Anything else people might not know about you?
T Baby: I’m from the low end of Chicago, a lot of people ask me that. Around the Fuller area, 40th Street. All that good stuff.