Irish born, Nigerian rapper and personality Trill Tega is taking the UK music scene by storm with his innovative blend of Rap, Afrobeats and Electro. Get familiar with him with this VIPER interview…
What five words define your sound?
Trappy, Electric, Real, Original, Amplifying.
Tell me something unique about your creative process?
Something cool about my creative process is that I don’t necessarily feel like I have one, I kinda just do stuff in between making my tracks like game and play other songs I’ve made. So I guess that’s the process, I just re-shift, focus to other stuff while getting a fresh mind to finish a track.
Which song of yours would you like people to hear first?
‘All Of My’ most definitely because till this day, I stand on it when I say the meaning of the track gets realer and realer by the day. If you pay attention to the lyrics, I feel like these are lyrics the majority – if not everyone can relate to – and probably even might be facing the topic I speak on this current day, so the resonating must be insane.
What inspired you to make that song?
It’s inspired by the correlation between the topic of the song and the meaning of Trill [Too real in living life], about me and everybody that’s with me, all chasing life in the most authentic way possible.
What’s the most vulnerable you’ve allowed yourself to be when writing/making music?
I talk about the hardships of being a real independent rapper and I feel like people might think “yeah independent” but seriously I’m out here with no distribution, no label and no manager, so I guess I find myself talking about overcoming some of the struggles real independent artists have coming into this.
What’s the best/worst experience you’ve had on stage?
Best experiences are when I’m performing in front of any crowd that’s turnt, no matter where I am or what night it is. Funniest story is when my grills popped out when I was on stage.
What is your favourite song to perform?
‘All Of My’ – performed at Wireless. I was the first Nigerian rapper to perform at Wireless festival, which was a big moment for me.
Which artist/song/album made you want to make music?
Winter Time. He was around during the Soundcloud era. He raps so slow and soft. He gave me hope to be myself. And I’ve only seen one picture of him online. My favourite song of his is ‘thru it all’.
What’s the meaning behind your name?
TOO REAL IN LIVING LIFE TEGA.
If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing instead?
Architecture – I’m still building stuff now (furniture/figurines, I want to make huge ones). I would still love to chase that. I also have a politics degree. I could also be a model and just say nothing.
What’s success to you?
Success is to carry on learning, you will always understand more later down the line. I’ve achieved some of my goals and not others, but nothing is definite… things change. Success is a thing you want to achieve, so you can get better and not stay stagnant.
What moment in your life/career forced you to change direction?
When I moved from Nigeria to Canada at 13. I was still quite young so I had room to find my purpose – I could explore more of what I wanted. Seven years down the line, I’m still doing music – so I feel like destiny doing its thing. Leaving Nigeria was like the catalyst for my expansion.
Where can people keep in touch with you?
On my socials…
Instagram: @trill_tega // @23hunniddd
TikTok: @officialtrilltega
YouTube: @trilltega3767
