Not afraid to be outside, inside, or on top of the box, Travis Porter
has been representing Atlanta in a major way without a major deal.
AllHipHop got a word with the hottest unsigned group on the radio, made
up of members Quez, Strap, and Ali. Travis
Porter has been stirring up commotion in The A for some time, and they
caught up with us to talk about their latest single “Make It Rain,” and
their upcoming mixtape. The track just
hit number 50 on the urban radio charts and debuted on the Billboard top
100 charts at number 97.In just over a year, Travis
Porter has made longer strides as an independent trio than some signed
acts. The young phenoms have taken the support from their 25 million
Youtube views and strapped up, locked and loaded for the release of
their video on MTV Jams and a tour in Germany. MySpace’s #1 unsigned
group is Proud 2 Be A Problem. See what really went down with Roscoe
Dash on “Turnt Up,” and take a closer look at where Travis Porter is
planning to take Hip-Hop.VIDEOSTravis Porter – iM a DifFerEntER DVD [FULL LENGTH]Travis Porter | Myspace Music Videos
AllHipHop.com: Tell us about your name, Travis Porter?Travis Porter: Travis Porter is our alter ego really. It’s like a lifestyle: Travis Porter doesn’t care about what anyone thinks, Travis just does whatever Travis wants to do. Really though we had come up with the name to be real marketable. We didn’t want a name just like any other Atlanta group… Dem Swag Boyz or sumn like that… you feel me? So it’s like when you say Travis Porter and you find out it’s three black guys, you start talking about it and telling other people about it. Really its a conversation piece.AllHipHop.com: The topic of conversation. How old were ya’ll when you got together? How’d this happen?Travis Porter: Well we’re all 20 except for Strap. Me (Quez) and Ali are stepbrothers so we met when we was young and our parents hooked up. We met Strap in middle school and we hooked up because we all was the different ones out of all the people we hung out wit. We been rappin since we was in middle school., and I used to make all the beats. Then Strap joined the group and it took off from there.
AllHipHop.com: And from there has come exclusives with DJ Drama, performing on the Mo’ Nique Show, house mixes with DJ Paradime in Raleigh. How is the transition from being teens in Atlanta to being noticed in hip hop? What was it like to ditch school for the studio?Travis Porter: Really we’ve been ready for this. We grind it out each day and we made ourselves. No label made us, and money didn’t buy our way in the game.. We worked our way onto the scene so really none of this is a surprise. We’re grateful for the success we’ve had so far, but we got a long ways to go too. We had to make a decision after high school that this is what we were gonna drop everything for…and we gonna take it all the way to the top. Shoutout to all my old teachers who said I wasn’t gonna be sh*t… [Laughter]..AllHipHop.com: Most popular rappers have you beat with age, they’ve lived years of experience and thus bring a totally different vibe than Travis Porter. Some call you “hipsters”. What do you call yourselves?Travis Porter: We call ourselves “differenters”… we ain’t like these other folks out here. We’re different by the way we talk, by our actions, even our business decisions. We plan to lay the new foundation for how this music s### goes, everyone is already starting to follow our moves. Its like…..we do this, then everyone else starts doing it..AllHipHop.com: Is Travis Porter reppin a new kind of Hip-Hop?Travis Porter: Yea, we’re changing the game. Some say we’re the biggest independent act in the world, but all I know is that we have signed artists opening up for us at our shows.AllHipHop.com: Do you see yourselves as similar to an act Hip-Hop has had a glimpse of before? Where does Travis Porter fit in or stand out?Travis Porter: We are really ourselves. A lot of people say we’re kinda like The Beastie Boys and 2 Live Crew. We’re just out here creating and developing in the studio, making fun music. You know everyone else is out here tryna be tough all the time. We just wanna party and f### hoes. [Laughter].AllHipHop.com: The allure of the game. So there was the YouTube beef with Young Dro, there’s the Roscoe Dash situation that left you off of the hit “Turnt Up,” but everybody doesn’t know exactly how it went down. Roscoe originally had you on the song right? Clear the air!!Travis Porter: Shoutout to Young Dro… that’s patna dem. But with the Roscoe situation, basically he came to us to do the song “All The Way Turnt Up“ with him. We did the song with him and put it on our mix-tape. The fans and the people thought it was our song because we had a bigger brand than ATL (Roscoe’s name before he was Roscoe). The song started taking off and we pushed it all the way to radio. Then once the song took all the way off.… Roscoe took off… Lol. But that s### is old now. Everyone has moved on with their career. There’s enough room for everyone.
AllHipHop.com: Politics. How is Travis Porter adjusting to the industry?Travis Porter: We aren’t. The industry is adjusting to us.. We coming in this b#### and shakin it up!AllHipHop.com: And is it everything you thought it would be?Travis Porter: Hell yea. We traveling the whole world, from Germany to Hawaii to Alaska, we all over the place. Girls screaming… but the best feeling was seeing ourselves on T.V.AllHipHop.com: So now you’re the biggest unsigned hype with Porter House Music. You hooked up wit DJ Teknikz and the Proud 2 Be A Problem mix-tape is smashin the indie scene. What’s next?Travis Porter: We have an indie album coming out December 7th! Be on the lookout for that and we have two official singles, “Make It Rain” and “Bring It Back”Check Travis Porter on Twitter @iAmTravisPorter