With his new single “Hercules” hot in the streets and DJ Prostyle backing him, rapper Traffik is in his own lane. While you’re on your way to the game or partying during the Classic, pop in his CD because this rapper has something FOR EVERYONE. What do you have going on right now? I got the “Hercules” song out right now. It’s been getting a lot of buzz and play in Orlando. We’ve got Jadakiss, Pitbull, and Gorilla Zoe for the remix, and we just shot a big video for that. I’m just working on my album right now. What’s going to be the name of your album? Die Hard Fan. When does the album come out? We’re pushing for the second quarter, and we’re trying to drop the single in January. When you collaborated with Jadakiss, Pitbull, and Gorilla Zoe, were you guys all together? Yeah, we were all together. How was it working with all of them? It was crazy. I learned a lot from each one of them. Pitbull told me to “stick to my grind,” Gorilla Zoe told me to “have fun”, and Jadakiss, he just told me a lot. It was really legendary for me. How did you hook up with DJ Prostyle? I hooked up with Prostyle like in 2002. I was back and forth from Ohio to Brooklyn – I was born in Brooklyn and moved to Ohio after I graduated. I came down here and just hooked up with him through listening to the radio. I heard him doing his thing so I started freestyling, and then I used to go to the clubs he was at and I would give him my CD. I would stay on my grind like that. He would play some of my joints on the radio and I would freestyle for him and that’s how I met him. It’s crazy because a lot of people thought I knew Prostyle but I didn’t know him at all, it was all just a hustling thing. When I moved down to Florida I was listening to 102 Jamz and I heard him talking his shit like he do and I just got at him, so he got my rhymes and would play it on the 5:00 Traffic Jam.
How do you think living in New York, Ohio, and Florida has influenced your rhymes and lyrics? I left Brooklyn when I was 13 to move to Ohio, but then I left Ohio and moved back to New York to try to get my record deal popping over there. I used to mess with a lot of rappers like Wu-Tang; I been around for a long time and I learned a lot up there. But I really didn’t get the thing I was looking for up there so I was thinking, let me move down to Florida. I was going to move to Miami but I moved to Orlando. What made you move to Orlando? Well, actually when I was in New York, I met this chick from Miami and she put me on to Florida. But I didn’t follow her all the way to Miami. I stopped in Orlando. I guess you can say it was the will of God and everything has been working for me since I got here. I can’t complain. Was it hard adjusting from the North to the South? Not really, because when I was living in New York and moved to Ohio, I got put on to different music. When I was living in New York I was listening to all New York shit. When I got to Ohio that’s when I got put on to Ice Cube, Bun B, the Geto Boys, and all them other cats. So it definitely affected the way I was rhyming because it told to accept all music. That’s one thing about me now; I love all music. Your song “Dead Homies” is a really good song that some people, including myself, can relate to. How has having some of your loved ones passing affected you? Well it’s crazy because actually in 2002 two of my cousins died. One of my cousins had just got shot in a random shooting in Dayton, Ohio. My other cousin was 32 and died from lung cancer, so I lost two close cousins in one year. It’s made me look at life differently and not take it for granted. Besides your album coming out, do you have any mixtapes coming out? I did a mixtape called The Hoodlum. That’s what really caught Prostyle’s attention. I did that with my homeboy Vegas Stacks and Syllabus right in Pine Hills in my crib. It got a lot of underground love. What do you have going on for the Classic? I will probably slide through some clubs.
OZONE MAG // 21