As A MEMBER of the group TREAL, Poetic has had a successful run as an artist/producer – the group even locked down a single deal after breaking through on radio. With that experience behind them, TREAL has branched into new realms, allowing Poetic to explore his individual talent. So you’ve been working on some of your own music lately. Tell us about the solo projects you’re promoting. I just dropped a new mixtape called Twist the Industry hosted by DJ Jay Rock and mixed by my homeboy Cheeze of TREAL. I just dropped a video for “Impatient.” It’s about – with me right now, I’m kinda impatient. I send beats to people and sometimes they take too long to drop verses on ‘em, or people take too long with business. I just wanted to drop a song pertaining to my life and about trying to get money. Time is money right now. To get my mixtape you can google it; It’s getting a whole lot of downloads. People have been hittin’ me up for beats, hooks, a whole lot of stuff. What do you mean by “twist the industry?” I’m just as good as the industry. My songs, my beats, my hooks – I’m just as good as the industry. Put my song up against an industry song and let the people judge how good I am. I’m a producer, a writer, an artist, all that at the same time. I want people to look at my creativity. I call it Twist the Industry ‘cause I’m mixing my songs with the industry songs. Is that your family in the “Impatient” video? It’s my son, my daughter, my little brother, my grandmamma, my dad, everybody in that video. My whole family is in it pretty much. My mom, of course she couldn’t make it, and my wife couldn’t be there. But I put everything into that video. It was over there off of Parramore ‘cause that’s where I pretty much grew up at in Parramore Village. How do you think the song pertains to other people’s situations and what’s going on with the world right now? Especially the economy. You’ve got a whole bunch of rappers coming out actin’ like they got a whole bunch of money. I’m being real with the people. A lot of these artists ain’t got it. They sign with a record label just to get a chain from ‘em. I ain’t about that. I’m speakin’ for the people that ain’t got nothin’, people that are hustlin’ everyday tryin’ to feed their family and make ends meet.
That’s the people I’m targeting. Even the President says we’re broke, so how does everybody have money? A lot of artists are scared to touch on that [topic] ‘cause they don’t want to mess up their appearance to the people. You touched on some pretty personal things in that song, like living in a foster home. I was living in a foster home at one point in my life. My mother went to jail. I saw my mama on the news and everything when I was a kid. I had to stay strong for my little brother and sister. I’m the oldest on my mama’s side. As time went on, she got out of jail and got us back. But I went through all that, and I wanted to talk about it ‘cause a lot of people don’t know that about me. It’s my time to show people who I am. What’s going on with the group TREAL? We’re restructuring everything business-wise. We wanna be able to sign other artists and expand. We got flown back and forth trying to work out [record] deals, but the deals they were offering wasn’t what we were lookin’ for. We ain’t have enough pull to say what we wanted. We had a little single deal with Universal, but they never helped us push the record. “I’m Not Lock Down” was a hit record and they didn’t push it. Every radio station it got played on was because of us and our personal grind. Big ups to Clay D, he helped us out on traveling and everything. But you guys didn’t break up? For everybody that’s saying TREAL broke up, I got another thing comin’ for you haters. We got a new mixtape that’s finna be droppin’ real soon. We’ve proven to the game that we’re talented, we just gotta make good business moves right now for us as a group. Before we go, is there anything else you want to say? I just want to give a shout out to everyone that looked out for TREAL and me personally, and the whole Orlando movement period, all the DJs and promoters. I also got a new project where I’m just doing beats and hooks, which is pretty much what The Runners did. It’s gonna be a Florida type thing and I’m gonna let these local rappers rip it. I’m just gonna keep dropping these hits. I’m trying to build a strong base for myself as an artist and producer at the same time. //
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