TREY SONGZ Having seen your stage show, I have to ask, were you a stripper in a past life? (laughing) Nah, I was never a stripper. You’re from Virginia, right? Where exactly? Yeah, I’m from Petersburg, Virginia. Do you think Virginia is somewhat overlooked on the music map, with everybody talking about East vs. West or North vs. South? Virginia’s kinda stuck in the middle of everything. I ain’t trippin’. It is what it is. As far as I’m concerned, I ain’t really trippin’ on whether it’s overlooked or not. I think in the last few years, with Missy and Timbaland and the Neptunes and the Clipse and now Chris Brown and myself, we doing pretty aiight. Chris Brown is from Virginia too? You and him could kinda fall into the same category, huh? Yeah, something like that. Chris Brown is actually my nigga, he’s like a little brother to me. As far as anybody else R&B-wise, they’re not even in my mindset. It’s not a competitive type thing. I’m just by myself, as far as I’m concerned. Are you getting a lot of R Kelly comparisons? Actually, they stopped for a while. I haven’t been compared to R Kelly in a while. I mean, it’s an ongoing thing, but in the beginning it was a lot more comparisons than it is now.
to be fucked up with you. That makes them wanna get at you. They want something to be twisted about you or something different. But I don’t think I need none of that shit. Being out on the road, the more places I go, I’ve learned that the more you put me in front of people, it’s all over. We were introduced to Trey Songz in the video for “Just Gotta Make It.” Is that a true story of how you came up? Naw, it wasn’t autobiographical to the point where everything in the video was literal. It was just put in a way where people could relate to what I was saying. I ain’t even got no girl, they just threw in a love interest because it is R&B. But that was just to let folks now where I’m coming from. I’m on the grind to get where I wanna get. In the video, you were working a 9-5. Did you have a regular job before you were singing? Nah, I ain’t never had a regular job. Was singing just a hobby? That’s exactly what it was, a hobby. It was just something I thought was a cool thing to do. Once I met my producer Troy Taylor, that’s when things really came to light. A friend of a friend of a friend of a friend introduced me to him and after that it went from being farfetched to.... - Photo and words by Julia Beverly For the rest of this interview, check out the February issue of OZONE Magazine at www.OZONEMAG.com.
Do you have a fetish for underage girls like R Kelly? (laughing) Nah, I don’t have no problems like that. Well, you know, most musical geniuses have something wrong with them. You’re not perfect, are you? (laughing) I don’t know. I don’t do nothing that everybody else doesn’t do. I’m just a regular nigga, baby. All day, every day. Do you think that you need controversy to sell albums? Is it necessary for an artist to have a famous girlfriend or bullet wounds or a sex tape or court cases or something to become a superstar? Nah, personally, I don’t think that shit is necessary, but the world we live in is so goddamn crazy that they want something OZONE
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