Meet Andre Collins aka Trump Tight
Born Andre Collins, in Louisville, Ky, and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Trump Tight is hustling his multi-layered musical smorgasbord from his sophomore effort Eclectic Soul: I Just Make Music to the masses. The Eclectic Soul Productions recording artist is calling the shots on his refreshingly meat music stew.
Eclectic is a fresh, choose-your-own adventure like album – it carries fast moving jazz mixes with bumping dance beats, and even some slick pop offerings. He boasts Lionel Ritchie, Stevie Wonder, Jay Z and Eric B. & Rakim as major influences.
“With most of my songs, there’s usually a phrase or bar that I use that is attributed to some old school hip hop,” Trump Tight said. “That’s my way of acknowledging the past.”
Trump Tight, 41, a former college football player at University of Louisville, hated practice, but loved the games and stadium atmosphere. In the studio, he uses that same athletic discipline – even when isolated hours in the studio lag and drag.
”I have to create my own energy. I close my eyes and I let the music and the lyrics take me to a place,” the confident, collected rapper said.
This is a whole different America.
The lead single on Eclectic is the nearly six-and-a-half minute long song “Good Morning Amerikkka.” Since he recorded in 2015, the “Good Morning Amerikkka Reprise” now includes an astounding amount of examples and real-life headlines.
The emotional music video further illustrates the Black Lives Matter movement and modern American struggle with racism and police brutality – as Trump Tight flays the lyrics, real-life news cycle headlines project from his American flag t-shirt. The video concept and direction came naturally to the advertising major and Pan African Studies minor.
“I struggled to not make it as long as it could have been, there were so many stories, for a period of two years, it just became story after story,” he said.
Blunt lyrics like “Yes, we can, only if they let us” and “everyone is a gangsta behind a keyboard” are jarring words for such a positive musician.
“There is a lot of people that smile with you, you’re out at the bar, when you go get on Twitter, there’s nothing but hate. This is a whole different America.”
Of course the ‘Trump’ in his moniker is a great conversation starter.
“If you’ve ever played Spades, the person that is ‘trump tight’ dictates how the game goes,” he said. “I’ve had people that say you may want to change your name, but what’s hilarious is that in 2003 when I was working on one my original soul projects, I said wanted to be big enough to change my name.”
Music Is a Common Ground
Feeding off the energy in Music City and bringing his own confidence and charisma to Nashville, Trump Tight is focused on making music his way and spreading his message of love.
“I’ve learned from Nashville is that there’s room for all of it,” he said. “There’s a vast ocean of people creating music that are creating music that is different styles, but everyone tries to stuff hip hop into this one kind of box. It’s Migos or Cardi B, which they’re phenomenal, but there’s so much more than that.
My goal is to broaden horizons. I feel like I’m a door-to-door salesman, even if I have to do individual concerts. Just come check this out and you’ll walk away feeling different.”
For more information on Trump Tight, visit TrumpTightmusiconline.com. You can also catch him live in concert with his band every third Sunday at Venue 109 in Nashville, Tenn.