After releasing music for over five years, Watts rapper TruCarr finally released his debut mixtape, Based on a TRU Story. I talked to TruCarr about his name, his inspiration, and his first official project.

On His Name TruCarr

“I said I was going to keep it 100 and nothing else when I started rapping, so to keep it authentic I put tru as my first part of my rap name and my last name is Carr.”

On What He Raps About

“I talk about what I go through. Everyone goes through the same thing, but we’re in different spots. I’m talking about stuff that other people can relate to and be in my shoes, so it’s like I’m telling their stories.”

On How Tragedy Has Motivated Him to Make it

“Ever since my daughter Journey passed, I’ve been on different type of stuff. My daughter passing away matured me. It made me stop doing dumb stuff and taking life for granted. She passed in 2016 but that my motivation to keep going and never stop because someone is looking down and me and I have to make her proud.”

On Who He’s Influenced By

“I was influenced by DMX, Boosie when I was in middle school, because my brother was in high school playing that, so that’s what I grew up on. Lil Wayne, Hot Boyz, stuff like that. The Game, 50. With the new music, I fuck with everyone who is doing their shit right now. I just want to see everyone win. All the new music that has come out is encouraging; there is different stuff that can encourage me to do different type of music.”

On How Social Media is Important to His Career:

“[Its important] because that’s how it is nowadays. We can get to more people without even having to go to a show. Like coronavirus did a little bit, but people were still able to get to their people because of these social networks like Zoom and other platforms where people can log in and get to to whoever they like, they artist that they like.”

On His Debut Mixtape, Based on a Tru Story:

“I named it that because like I said I was going to keep it 100 and nothing else. I did a couple of tracks where I stood up in different lanes, and you going to see how I stood up on the track by how I came on the track that I’ve never been on before. But I can get on it like I did it before. And I’m aiming for a different crowd. On this tape I directed myself on different songs to go with this type of party, this type of party, this type of crowd so I’m able to build every base and make my fanbase bigger than it is right now. You gotta be different. You can’t just give all the same sound because people are going to turn that off. They’re going to be like they already heard that.”

Listen to Based on a TRU Story below: