Baseball has been missing something for what feels like forever. Something that makes the game entertaining. It’s been missing something that puts people in seats and draws newcomers into the game. It’s missing swagger, it’s missing flair, it’s missing personality. Right now, baseball is boring in more ways than one. But one Colorado rapper is trying to change all that by mixing baseball with hip hop.
One of the biggest issues with baseball’s brand power is that there is a lack of All-star caliber players with electric personalities to become household names. This is a well-documented, not-so-well-kept secret that Major League Baseball, the media, and this Colorado rapper has become privy to.
What is making baseball boring for so many and how can it be fixed?
There are some players, such as Fernando Tatis Jr. of the Padres, that are quite popular because of their swag and passion.
However, when you look at the grand scheme of baseball, the star power is weak. Not because the stars aren’t incredibly gifted. But because their personalities are a fraction of past baseball generations, they can’t compete with the strong personalities of athletes in other sports or music like hip-hop.
Something has to change for baseball to regain popularity; baseball needs more exciting influences like those in hip-hop. But perhaps a strong outside influence like a talented Colorado rapper would be just as beneficial in generating hype for America’s pastime. An influence to promote baseball and hip-hop together.
Big Trip, baseball and hip-hop’s savior?
Meet Big Trip. The Italian-American, New York-born, Colorado rapper who is a baseball fanatic. Trip has loved the game, played the game, and is now spreading his love of the game through his music. He may just be a beneficial outside influence that helps bring excitement back into baseball.
The Colorado rapper’s upcoming song “Baseball money rich” is an anthem tribute to the sport he knows and loves. It brings the confidence, the bravado, and swag to a sport that has had that depleted over the years, while simultaneously showcasing his rap skills.
The Colorado rapper’s upcoming album Going Postal is his first solo studio project. We were able to get a moment of his time to catch up with the Colorado rapper and talk about the album, his past experiences, and how he feels about baseball and hip-hop in 2021.
Trip’s inspiration
Kulture Hub: Alright Trip, first things first, what were your greatest inspirations for pursuing a music career?
Big Trip: Some of my biggest inspirations come from inside, and outside of music. I look up to a lot of authors that inspired me to think a different way. Alan Watts kind of taught me how to decode myself.
That taught me to come back to the most basic version of myself and from there I was able to build onto what I want. I grew up in Westchester, so Biggie’s influence had a big impact on me even though I only caught the tail end of his career. The impact that he had on the culture, and his vibe was just something I looked up to.
The Colorado rapper’s new album
KH: Your album Going Postal is dropping in the next few days. What has the process been like getting this album ready for release?
BT: For me, the easiest part is making the music. I have a tight group of producers in Dirty Harry and Stoney the antagonist, we make music every day. We record in Denver, we’ve recorder in Los Angeles, but most of it we recorded at my house in Denver. For us making music is nothing, we wake up and we make music.
KH: What can people expect from you in this project? What Kind of energy do you bring?
BT: It’s definitely something that’s not out right now man, it’s a new sound. With hip-hop evolving similar to rock in the 90s and 2000s, I’m kind of branching off and creating my own sound in hip-hop too. Like I said, I’m from New York so I have that kind of swag and influence. My main producer’s from San Francisco so he brings the California vibe.
I’m an old-school New York Italian dude, so there’s no one quite like me in the game with my experiences. Also what makes me different is my story, my story and experience make my music and sound different. I don’t gotta lie in my music because my experience does the talking. I got some stuff on the album for the club! You know I got some stuff for the ladies! I got some deep stuff, were I’m talking about my life. My music reflects the many different vibes in my life.
Future collaborations?
KH: Who are some artists that you would like to collaborate with in the future?
BT: Man, there’s a lot of people that I would like to work with. I think something for my New York people would be Benny the Butcher. That would go crazy. I know a lot of my people in New York rock with Benny and I love the whole movement they got going.
I’m gonna have to get my bars up man! Imma lock that one in for sure. Besides that, Isaiah Rashad makes real cool music I think it would be a lot of fun to collab with. Yeah, some west coast dudes that I mess with, I think YG would be crazy. G-Eazy would always be cool. He’s someone who I’m around a lot too, so it’s gonna be fun when I get one in with him. But there’s a lot of people, man.
Trip’s background
KH: Let’s talk about you for a minute. Born and raised in New York, but you’re based in Denver. With all due respect to Colorado, what caused you to relocate there of all places? Is there a music scene that you want people to know about?
BT: There’s definitely a music scene going on. There are a lot of guys in the city doing their thing. But honestly for me bro, it wasn’t really the music scene that brought me out here. I was at a point in my life where I just needed a change in scenery. The mountains really gave me a chance to open my mind. I took the risk to come out here and it helped me change my life and the music just came to me like a gift.
KH: I know your dad was a pro baseball player. Was he the main reason you developed a love for the game?
BT: Yeah, so he didn’t quite go pro, he was D-1 at Quinnipiac, he has a career-ending injury his senior year, but he was talking to some pro scouts. He was definitely the reason I got into it. I played every sport growing up, and since he was D-1 he gave me great guidance on how to go D-1 like him.
He sat me down in the 8th grade and asked me to decide “what sport do you want to pursue” and I told him baseball. Since my father was so good, you know we would go to the field after practice, we even built a batting cage. The work ethic came from that.
The story of baseball and hip-hop for the Colorado rapper
KH: You Played College Baseball at Elon, but I heard you had an accident while you were on scholarship, will you take me through what happened? Was it a humbling experience in any way?
BT: For sure, I committed to the school on a D-1 scholarship during my sophomore year of Highschool. At that time I hated school, and I didn’t know what I was doing with my life, so by the time I got there things became real. I was there even before I graduated, I had to fly back before my graduation. That whole time I was there I would be up at 6 am and wouldn’t get back to my room until 8 pm. It drove me crazy. I had to quit.
It was one of the biggest moments of my life where I called everyone I knew and told them “yo I can’t do this anymore.” Everyone I called told me not too let it go, but I just couldn’t go on playing anymore. I’m an all or nothing person, but at that point I didn’t know what I was gonna do next. But, I knew whatever I did, I would go 100%.
The only other thing for me at school and in the area was partying. so I decided to be the best partier I could be. Eventually I ended up in a coma in Myrtle Beach. I had a .62 BAC when I slipped into the coma (which is almost double what is required to fall into a coma), with weed, cocaine, xanax, and molly in my system.
They basically called my whole family in New York and told them to come say their goodbyes because they were sure I wouldn’t make it out alive. When I woke up my whole family was surrounding me and I felt fine. It gave me some perspective, I had to change. I have a bunch of homies from New York that passed away from opioids, so my situation kind of hit home.
It took a while for me to rebound, but that’s kind of what inspired me to get out to Colorado. I wear that experience on my back. I learned a lot about myself, and about the human mind, and I want to share these things, and my music reflects all of that.
Big Trip
Baseball and hip-hop’s convergence
KH: What is your favorite MLB team? Are you a Yankee fan being that you’re from New York and have been spotted in pinstripes? Or, are you more just a fan of the sport and don’t really have a favorite team?
BT: Yankees bro! Growing up I would always go to the games, I don’t even know how many I went to. They were always my favorite, you know Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, that era was a real fun era to be a Yankee fan. Pinstripes hit home. You know, my dad was a Yankee fan so I didn’t really have much choice.
KH: Obviously the MLB All-Star game and Homerun derby are fast approaching, but some may not know that it’s gonna be at Coors Field in Denver this year. Are you planning on attending? Do you think the All-Star game will be good for Denver?
BT: It’s gonna be huge for Denver. It was a blessing to have that happen this year. It’s a beautiful thing that it’s coming the same time my tape is coming out. I’m definitely going to be in attendance! I’m so excited about it. A lot of people are going to be coming to get a taste of Denver and they’re gonna get to see what’s up with the city.
Not only are people gonna get a taste of the city, the food, and the people, they’re also gonna hear my music on the radio! I’m at Coors field all the time, I’m actually going tonight! It’s actually my Birthday and I got some box seats waiting for me tonight!
Baseball money rich
KH: The video for your song “Baseball money rich” is dropping along with the album in a few days. It includes some jerseys and player references in there. But there are also some more typical rap video aspects, money, women, and lavish clothes.
To me, the song and visual are sort of symbolic of a bridge between baseball and hip-hop culture. Was this your intended result? Would being the face of this connection be something you’d be interested in?
BT: Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of sports that hip-hop talks about. You know, hip-hop and football and there are a whole bunch of references, but baseball is not really one that you hear.
To me, baseball is kind of missing that culture, they’ve got the class, but I feel like there’s some more swag that needs to be shown. I said “I wanna be the bridge. I wanna be the anthem of the MLB.”
I wanna be the representation of it too. I wanna make it cool, I think it’s losing a little bit of spice. I wanna bring some flavor back into it. Bridging music with it is the perfect way to do that. That’s the only thing I can do for it from off the field is try to influence it from a different perspective.
I think if I put some love and some music back into it, I can influence it in my own way.
Big Trip
Big Trip’s favorite players right now
KH: Finally, let’s just say money was no issue. You had to start a team with no restrictions. Who are the five guys in the league right now that you would want to start your team?
BT: Yeah, I gotta go with my guy Colin Moran on The Pirates because he’s a guy I grew up with. I watched him kind of pave the way for me. So I gotta go with my dude Colin Moran for sure. Aroldis Chapman on the Yankees, bro I just remember the day that they signed him I was so hyped for some reason.
Talk about flair, when he was throwing 106 mph coming up it was crazy bro. I love Gio Urshela on the Yankees right now. Then I feel like I gotta say Fernando Tatis Jr. He’s bringing back that swag.
Another person I think is bringing that swagger back is Shohei Ohtani bro. He’s like any MLB The Show create your own character. You know if you could make a player with all the best attributes it would be him.
KH: Is there anything else you want to say to the people that we didn’t talk about? Any last thoughts?
BT: Yeah, @iambigtrip on all social media platforms. The tape “Going postal” is coming out this Friday, July 2nd. We got Shoreline Mafia, Fenix Flexin on that, Mark E Bassey is also featured on that, and it’s a great tape.
Check out Trip’s Twitter, and Instagram. Look out for the Colorado rapper’s tape Going postal dropping this Friday, July 2nd on Spotify, and Apple Music. If you’re in the Denver area, be sure to tune into KS 107.5, where “Baseball money rich” will be making its debut.
Hip-hop is not what everyone thinks of when they think of baseball. But with Big Trip, look for the league to take a jump.
