Young rappers are often filled with as much naiveté as they are ambitious, let alone a young rapper who is a white full-time student from ""Chicago... well, north Evanston, Ill."" Their eagerness to talk about smoking weed and grinding on the streets often dilutes any uniquely personal perspectives and quirks. A giddiness to make every line rhyme leads a new rapper to grasp at the beat like a drowning man at a life preserver floating by. Their lack of preparation can lead to amateur observations of the local grocers, while preparedness can quickly become an awkward inability to adapt in the booth. At some point or another, all of these plagued Jeff Trigg's solo rap debut, Through the Window... To My Soul; naiveté equaled passion and ambition. For his follow up, The New Era Mixtape, Trigg attempted to leave some of those barriers behind.
""I had a lot of immature thoughts, and I needed to grow. Lot of that stuff came from high school, but now I'm feeling like I've grown. And then I put that music together and this new era came,"" Trigg said.
Part of this resulted from the criticism he received after his debut made its way around family and friends. More importantly, he connected with an actual rap producer, as opposed to the producer from his debut, who had worked mostly with rock artists. Lastly, the maturity comes from the subconscious dedication need for a student for with such a ""hobby.""
""I stay up forever. I'll be up until 3 or 4 in the morning. I'll just kick back, blow back and write a song, just listen to beats or listen to anybody's music,"" he said of his casual writing process. ""Hobby; that's all it is right now.""
""When it comes to writing the music, I'm just trying to blend into the community. I feel like I should be part of it,"" he said.
Yet Madison's hip-hop scene is fickle and often doesn't reward ambition or initiative. For local rappers, this reaches a point where keeping their craft a hobby is unavoidable. A show scheduled for tonight at the Orpheum's Stage Door, featuring Trigg (among others), was in the works for months before collapsing under complications. Similar problems have popped up around town, causing shows with more notoriety and appeal—Clipse at the Majestic last Sunday, for example (Freddie Gibbs was scheduled to open)—to deal with similar fates.
After four years of working through nights and long summers of organizing recording sessions and collaborations, Trigg has yet to perform at an official venue in town, resorting to his own release parties and makeshift venues. But with his new release (available for free download at jefftriggmusic.com), he offers up a more defined and pointed collection that promises his passions are paying off and that Madison's reeling rap scene hasn't caused him to jump ship on his layman lifestyle. ""I'd like to say hip-hop is definitely a hobby and school is the main goal, but I want to integrate them. I want to make music and school together. That's why I want to do some performances here while I still can.""
So as opportunities abroad for Trigg begin to look brighter as his networks expand and his dreams look skyward, keep an eye out for this local rapper seeking out exposure in a town so reluctant to give it up.
