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With young rappers sprouting up almost every day vying for our attention, it’s sometimes easy to forget the seasoned veterans who have been doggedly cranking out music in an effort to gain our respect and recognition.

Don Trip is one of those seasoned veterans, but his music certainly isn’t forgettable. For beneath his determination and work ethic is a man whose lyrical dexterity, ear for hooks, and wise choices for collaborators motivated us to award him as October’s Rap Genius of the Month.

Trip has been buzzing around the mixtape circuit for a while, but it hasn’t been until recently did the hip-hop community take a deeper look into his craft. Surprisingly, the song that is landing him the most critical acclaim currently is a tune he released nearly two years ago titled “Letter To My Son”.

The video for “Letter To My Son” hit YouTube in early September 2009, and although it has become Trip’s most well known song to date, the track didn’t boost his status overnight. After the song’s release, Trip continued to release mixtape after mixtape, and gradually hype started to spread. As of this moment, the video for “Letter To My Son” has snatched up over one and a half million views.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQGUz-ntEPE

In an era cluttered with rappers boasting ridiculous claims about their glitzy lifestyle, “Letter To My Son” sounds brutally honest and grim. The lyrics to the song read as a plea for forgiveness to his son for as well as a tirade against his son’s mother, who after a heated custody battle, got permission from court to see his son for much longer periods of time than Trip: “Apparently I’m an unfit father, coz all I know is dope / And all I got is dirty dollars / But I’m selling dope to help my family get farther / Cause no 9 to 5 is gonna prevent us from starving.”

Moreover, Trip is an artist as prolific as he is poetic. “The way I am, I believe in quality, then quantity…normally people just pick one, quality or quantity, I believe in both. So that’s why I keep releasing no matter what,” he recently told Hip-Hop Wired. Trip wasn’t joking: he’s released no less than eleven solo mixtapes since 2009 and shows no signs of slowing down. But even though it would be a stretch to say that Trip’s mixtape output is completely consistent or focused, his flashes of ingenuity often lead into something special.

Don Trip recently released a mixtape with Nashville MC Starlito called Step Brothers, and it’s one of the finest joint collaborations of the year (here’s looking at you, Watch The Throne). The stupidly hilarious Will Ferrell/John C. Reilly buddy-comedy film of the same name inspires its title. But while Trip and Lito sample some of the film’s funniest bits throughout the mixtape, listeners won’t be hearing a new motion picture soundtrack. Truthfully, the only real comparison that can be made to the movie is the underlying themes of fellowship and camaraderie.

The main reason why Step Brothers the mixtape works is because Trip and Lito use Step Brothers the film the way Wale used Seinfeld on his finest hour, The Mixtape About Nothing — refusing to let the source material outshine the music. Trip and Lito complement each other’s styles effectively even though their tone of voice and flow are largely distinguishable from one another. When Trip raps, he brings an emotive, high-pitched Memphis drawl that is both harsh and vulnerable, while Lito presents a bit more of a laid back, snarky, and occasionally blurry-eyed persona. Yet for all their differences they share one very important thing in common: they know how to spit some impressive punch lines.

• “You’re so familiar with defeat, like a podiatrist / All I do is win, I’m DJ Khaled at his quietest.”– Starlito, “4th Song”.

• “Buddy, you too broke to have a voice / You see, cause money talks and mine will never go hoarse.”– Don Trip, “Boats and Hoes”.

There’s little doubt that Don Trip and Starlito motivate each other, share a special friendship and strive to reach similar goals, yet it appears that Trip is soon going to attain something that his pal Lito doesn’t have at the moment: mainstream success. But on his road to glory, Trip never wants to sacrifice his individuality, and the most telling evidence of that can be found in the track “Hate You 2” in which Trip raps over a brooding piano pattern, “I don’t wanna be Wayne, no I don’t wanna be Shawn / No, I don’t wanna be Pac, I just wanna be Don.”

At long last, Trip’s individuality seems to finally be paying off. Trip recently signed to Interscope through Cool & Dre’s Epidemic Records and his debut studio album Help Is On The Way is set to be released sometime this year. There’s little doubt that Trip’s busy year is about to get even busier but he still took the time to speak with Rap Genius about his bond with Starlito, his role as a storytelling MC, and why he believed 8 Mile wasn’t actually a movie about hip-hop.

Rap Genius: What inspired you to name one of your mixtapes after a Will Ferrell/John C. Reilly movie?

Don Trip: When me and Starlito first met each other, we pretty much felt like rappers, you know, his ego was gonna be too big, and I felt like mine was gonna be too big. But when we met each other, we pretty much felt like we was cut from the same cloth, so to speak. You know, we aren’t identical, we aren’t exactly the same, but we’re similar in a lot of manners. Step Brothers the movie just seemed to fit.

RG: When did you first link up with Starlito and what made you guys want to do a mixtape together?

DT: I actually had linked up with him around January of last year, so right before the Super Bowl was when we actually met. We had already heard of each other. I had heard his music and he heard mine. He was well aware of his lyrical ability, you know, he was good at what he do, and vice versa. So when we met each other, the personal relationship worked out, so you know, we thought we might as well do that (make a mixtape). It really ain’t been done in the manner that we did it. It showed that two artists could get along even though we’re from different states.

–Starlito

RG: How do you think your rhymes are different from the other rappers in the Memphis scene, like say, Three 6 Mafia and Yo Gotti?

DT: I think I’m different from all other artists in music. I feel like what I offer hasn’t been offered in quite some time. I feel like me coming in and carving my own path, so to speak, is what makes me stand out from pretty much everybody. I don’t look at it like I need to get away from the Memphis sound. There’s a lot of music here that ain’t been exposed to mainstream that people don’t hear, you know, there’s more than just those two artists that have put music out. So it’s a little easier to sound like a lot of the stuff that come from Memphis, but I don’t sound like none of it. I sound like me, cause no matter what, I want you to be able to say that I’m a good artist, not say “he’s a good rapper from Memphis”.

RG: Your debut LP Help Is On The Way is set to come out this year, and you’ve worked with Cool & Dre on it. What was it like working with them and did you ever think you’d ever be working with producers of that caliber?

DT: I mean, of course it’s exciting to work with them since they’re people I look up to in the music business. I never thought that it would happen but I always hoped for it and I always pushed for it. You know, I ain’t where I wanna be yet but you gotta start somewhere and I’m satisfied with how everything is moving along. But like I said, it’s an exhilarating experience to work with someone, especially when it comes to producers. There have been so many producers that I have looked up to and appreciated.

RG: Have there been any other big name producers or rappers that you’ve been working with recently?

DT: As far as rappers, not so much. As far as producers, working with The Justice League felt special to me. Sitting down with them and watching them make beats was a different kind of feeling. I also liked the vibe of The Fifteen Hundreds. Also, when I worked with Lex Luger I was expecting to hear the same piece that everybody else get and I was hoping that he was more well rounded that that, and he actually is, so he was one of the people who I had fun working with, too. What I was looking more forward to than anything else when stepping into the music business was working with more producers with a wider range.

-Producer Lex Luger

RG: Which rappers would you like to work with?

DT: Cee Lo, Jay-Z, and Andre 3000. I feel like they are more of an artist than anybody that’s out and anybody that’s about to come out. So if I was looking forward to working with any artist, them would be the main three.

RG: A lot of your lyrics have great punchlines, similes and metaphors. Are those the types of things you like to pack into your rhymes?

DT: I try to entertain you. Even in lines where there’s metaphors and punchlines, I try to include a message in every line. I ain’t trying to save the world; I’m trying to involve you with what’s going on with me while entertaining you at the same time. I want to make every rhyme loosely based on a true story, so to speak.

RG: How is your debut album going to sound compared to your mixtapes, and are you going to continue to release mixtapes at the same rate?

DT: I couldn’t say if I am going to put ‘em out as much as I am putting 'em out now. I assume I’ll be a lot busier than I am already and it will be difficult to record as much. I do a lot now, and it’s getting hectic, but I expect it to be overwhelming to the point where I will have to use the music that I’ve already recorded. I got a lot of records and I couldn’t really count 'em. But as far as the mixtapes…when I do mixtapes I do them more for the sake of entertainment than to simply inform. But the album will be an autobiography, so to speak. My mixtapes are like mini-movies, I try to keep 'em exciting and innovative. But I think the album will be the best way for you to listen to my music and feel like you know me.

RG: As far as your career goes, are you looking to be more well-known for being on the mixtape circuit, or are you looking for mainstream success and radio play?

DT: I mean, of course I am (interested in mainstream success). You know, this is a music business and the only way to be successful is to go as far as you can go. So I plan on doing as much as I can possibly do, from radio to movies. Of course, I can’t act at the moment, but anything is possible.

RG: What type of a movie would you like to star in?

DT: I mean, anything except a movie about a rapper.

RG: I take it you didn’t enjoy 8 Mile then.

DT: I mean, I can do an 8 Mile, but I can’t do a movie about rapping. 8 Mile was about his (Eminem’s) life, and even at the end, when he won the battle, he still went back to work. It showed you that everything didn’t get resolved. Rap-wise, he conquered something, but in the real world, he still had to provide and still had to do other things.