Trace Austin is a Los Angeles based artist who just happens to be the grandson of the legendary Temptations founder Otis Williams. Trace Austin found his love and passion for music at the young age of six, where he had the opportunity to perform alongside his grandfather and the Temptations singing their biggest hit, "My Girl". After this, Trace Austin fell in love with performing and being able to connect with an audience. He soon began doing his own singing and rapping, and to date, has gained over 1 million streams, gained roles in musical theater, learned to play the drums, and has been performing locally in Los Angeles clubs. Trace Austin recently released his single "MO$H" and it is full of character in every aspect. This record features an interesting keyboard that sounds completely unique, a melodic flute, heavy punchy 808 drums, and a master-crafted lyric performance that is full of attitude and flow. The instrumental remains steady throughout the tune and provides the perfect amount of space needed for Trace to deliver his message. Trace's vocal performance in "MO$H" is dynamic and full of character, they transition in and out of being something more aggressive, high intensive and driven to be more flowing vibing and hitting every word perfectly with the drum hits. Combined with the exciting adlib tracks laid out this makes for an exciting release and you definitely will not want to be missing.
Listen to "MO$H" here and get to know more about Trace Austin in our interview below.
Hey Trace Austin! We are absolutely loving that intense masterpiece "MO$H"! How has the work of your grandfather influenced and inspired the way that this release had come out? How did you put your own spin and personality onto it?
To be honest MO$H was a natural masterpiece the production and the beat was there I kind of just vibed with it, I had the beat for a minute and played it for a few people I even went over to London and played it for my cousin Louis Culture who liked it a lot. After a while, I just recorded the song and it became an instant banger. The song originally was suppose to have a feature on it anyway. The work of my grandfather has influenced me a lot just seeing the work he’s put into building his legacy, that kind of inspired me to put that type of work in not only to just music but things like my performances, me producing some of my songs and writing all of them, I kind of just ran with the guidance of watching him since I was a little kid.
We are loving your flow in this, there are moments of being driven and others of being more laid back. How did you come to this performance? Was any of this freestyle and come up with on the spot?
My mom is the one who got me there, I went in the studio more laid back, I had a flow for the song but it was more chill until my mom gave me some guidance on the tone and cadence of my flow. I got in the booth for about an hour and vibed with the beat, I had a crazy element of energy on the verses, it just came naturally. It’s almost like when I was actually in the booth I just let other things go and it wasn’t so much the beat I was focused or stressing over what went into it. The funny part is there was a guy that actually broke into the studio the day I was recording the song, he wasn’t coherent and he just kinda barged in, and to be honest, it was sus, I thought we were about to get robbed, he was high and started grooving to the beat. I think he forgot why he came in, the engineer thought we knew him and vice versa, I felt pressured to spit crazy rhymes so we could keep him entertained. I think that is one of my best songs, the day was so crazy. We got the hell out of there!
The instrumental production of "MO$H" is able to keep steady but also perfectly supports your vocal performance. Was the instrumental created before your lyrics or the other way around? How did you create it?
I actually had a producer on the beat of MO$H, the instrumental was created before the lyrics, I had the instrumental for a few months and even worked on it in place such as London, and Dubai, I got back to L.A, wrote the lyrics to the rest of the song, mastered the flow, went in the booth, and the rest is history.
After having done quite a bit of amazing things in your career already, do you have any advice that you would offer to anyone that is wanting to make it in the LA Hip-Hop scene?
The one thing I would say to anyone wanting to make it on the scene is, stay around the right people, meaning industry people, whether you’re going to studio sessions, or attending music events stay on the scene. Keep releasing music and get your music heard by even doing things such as posting on Instagram and marketing to reach a larger audience. Also, another thing is to never rely on anyone to do things for you be on your own wave, book your own shows, reach out to agents, write your own music, and most important work hard and that work will pay off.
What can we expect to see from you throughout 2020?
When the corona is OVER! I will be dropping an EP soon! Socially and in the media, I will get my name out there, it also gives me an opportunity to create and work on my craft. I get to develop more music following another banger like MO$H, COACHELLA, COACHELLA, COACHELLA I see in my future! I have many positive vibes I’m putting in the Universe!