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T-Rex: King of the Dinosaurs

By Mark Williams-Washington

You've probably seen the T-Rex on Smack DVD or in the hood battling your favorite rapper, and he's crushing the stereotype that battle rappers can’t write songs. With his man Ron Browz next to him on the beats, expect more bangers that capture the masses like his latest song, "Windows." Shine recently sat down and chopped it up with T-Rex about some of his recent battles and the art of rhyming...

Shine: So what’s good fam?

T-Rex: Same sh*t. I’m chilling man, hard work that’s all right now.

Shine: What’s popping with Money Ave Entertainment – are ya’ll coming out with an album, you working on solo project?

T-Rex: I’m like 200 songs deep into my solo project. We constantly hearing new beats, and we just dropping mixtapes. This is our second mixtape. We got like 5,000 sold and we done gave out about 10,000. It’s just a part of the grind. Whenever we feel like the time is right that’s what we go with.

Shine: Congratulations on the Source article and the Smack DVD! How did you end up being on the Smack DVD joint?

T-Rex: Thanks. The streets was just doing a whole lot of talking. Un Kasa was talking. He was saying he’ll kill me, I was saying I’ll kill him. And Smack is like a hood n*gga, so he heard about it and he contacted us and he was like “Yo I’m going to come and record it. When ya’ll want to do it?” So we set up a date and time and we recorded it. It was actually around last summer around this time and he just brought it out on a later DVD.

Shine: Where did you get your name?

T-Rex: My middle name is Teon. My father used to always call me T. Me and Mook use to play ball a lot and everybody use to call me T. I was like “Damn there’s too many T’s rapping, there’s an Ice T already [so I was like] I got to have something”. So I used to think and I used to read a lot, and I read that the dinosaur’s king was T-Rex so I just left it at that.

Shine: How many battles you think you been in so far?

T-Rex: Damn, like three hundred.

Shine: Damn, that’s madd battles.

T-Rex: A n*gga done did Fight Klub. I done went to other n*ggas hoods like Detroit. I was out there with D12. Me and Mook was out there battling them n*ggas. I just came back from Miami, I was battling n*ggas in Miami and all types of miscellaneous battles in New York. Sh*t that ain’t on camera. Sh*t that is on camera. You never know when sh*t is going to pop off.

Shine: Who are some of the heads that we know of that you battled?

T-Rex: Jae Mills, Shells, Postaboy, me and Mook go at it all the time. JR Writer, Juelz (he’s not really a battler), Grafh. Basically other dudes like that that’s popping.

Shine: You got any memorable moments from the battles, or is there one thing that sticks in your head?

T-Rex: In 2000, me and Shells at the Harlem Day Parade. The crowd got so big that both of us wanted to charge. If we would have charged n*ggas to come we would have made us some bread. The police stopped it and made everyone move. Shells kept popping sh*t, I kept popping sh*t. It was at a point where nobody would win the battle; it was like the 10th round and we still was going at it and still had rhymes and the police made us move right when they cut the cameras on. Right when they turned the cameras on the police was making us move saying it’s going to cause a fight and all type sh*t like that.

Shine: Where did you come up with the concept for your song "Windows"?

T-Rex: Ron Browz, my producer, played this beat. Honestly I was listening to Nas and I was thinking damn “I want to do shit like that. Nas always making some ill @ss concepts. I want to do shit like that.”

And I’m like “Yo I want some story sh*t” but I want it to be the flow so it can feel like I’m talking. So at first it wasn’t even the Window yet, it was the studio sh*t at first. I was talking about how I was the n*gga and I was the studio chair, and I got beef with these n*ggas. I was Jay and he would come to the studio this week; and then Nas would come this week and I would hear them n*ggas dissing each other, and both of them my man. But then I thought I don’t even really f*ck with either one of them; so I thought let me come up with some other sh*t. When I listened to the track, the track was telling me “No one knows the windows to the streets.” The beat just gave me the concept and [said] just run with it like that, and then I just start writing it. At first Ron ain’t even like it. My manager Fuzz – nobody liked it. When I was standing over the phone [playing it] n*ggas was like “Ah, I don’t know”. I was like I’m going to record it. I booked some time, I went and recorded it and it came out the way it is now.

Shine: Is there anybody in the west you want to work with?

T-Rex: I would love to work with Dre. Anybody in they right mind would want to work with Dre. But I don’t really mess with producers. I feel like my man is the best. I would love to work with Snoop, Cube. People from those days when it was poppin, like NWA, I love that feel. That Snoop, that Doggystyle feel. Upcoming I really don’t know anybody right now.

Shine: Is there anything we should be looking out for?

T-Rex: My mixtape. My mixtape is called All Down is a Bet. I’m taking all down. The point is I’m not even a battle rapper. I feel like my songs are way better than my battles. Ask anybody that listen to them. A lot of n*ggas don’t want to hear your songs though, they just want to see you battle. I kind of shied away from the scene, 'cause I don’t want to be labeled as a battle rapper. Then nobody will want to hear your songs. I think my records are way better than my battles. That sh*t don’t get you nowhere. I ain’t seen nobody that did that yet. That ain’t already established.

Shine: Any last words or shout outs?

T-Rex: Yeah, always my CEO Ron Browz, Big Fuzz. My whole team. Takeover, Angelique, Sincere, Young Zay Zay, my whole dot squad, my DJ Web Star, Don Diva Magazine, Source, Murda Mook, Maino, Cory Gunz, Jae Millz. Everybody that’s doing they thing. I spread love to everybody. A lot of people think I got problems with n*ggas but I ain’t got none. I just want to spread love to everybody. Good luck. May the best man win!