On the Scene: Trip G is living local and growing the game

For any young artist, it’s easy to believe that the goal is to break out beyond your community, to launch yourself onto a much larger, national stage and to leave behind the scene that spawned you, and that feels especially true of young upstarts breaking in Oklahoma. But if you ask any artist that’s grown and evolved from within our state’s creative scene, they’ll tell you just how important and rewarding it can be to put that same drive and energy into lifting up your local community rather than just trying to transcend it. Take OKC-based rapper, producer, and promoter Trip G, who spent the past half-decade organizing one of the city’s best-known rap showcases, helping to raise up new rap and hip-hop artists from across styles, and raising his own profile in the rap game at the same time. It’s a long way from the impulsive, recognition-hungry kid that first launched himself into the scene at just 15 years old. Trip G: I’ve been writing all my life. My dad was my biggest role model in that. He produced and he also rapped as well. So I would just watch him do it growing up, and I just caught...