It might be easy to get a local buzz going if you’re an artist in Atlanta, Georgia, but spreading your name around the country takes a lot of work.
Upcoming artist straight out of the Dirty South city, Scotty ATL, has gotten his buzz moving quickly, and it’s only growing as the months go by.
The Southern rapper is coming into the music game hard with a familiar old school sound, and still keeping his swag while working with some of today’s hottest artists.
After dropping his newest mixtape F.A.I.T.H. last month, Scotty has done plenty of videos for us and has even worked with Trinidad James and Big K.R.I.T.
With co-signs from some big names already, Scotty is having no problem setting up his seat amongst hip hop hit makers.
We got a chance to talk to Scotty ATL, where he introduced his movement to us, working with Trinidad and K.R.I.T, and what producers would capture his sound the best.
He even revealed what song he wants you to check out first to get a feel of his Scotty ATL vibe!
Check out our exclusive interview below.
Global Grind: A lot of our readers might be new to Scotty ATL and your music movement. Can you tell us a little bit about you as an artist?
Scotty ATL: Yea! Scotty ATL is a dope rap artist out of Atlanta, Georgia who makes classic, soulful music that kind of puts you in the feel of what rap is all about. It’s kind of hitting all the same normal stuff that everyone is used to like selling drugs and what not. It’s like that real, old ATL music.
When did you start making music?
I started when I was in grade school around 6th or 7th grade. A friend of mine kind of introduced me to it, so after school I would go to his house. He was rapping at the time and kind of got me involved and from there we started doing CD’s. We would sell them in the city and in school for like a dollar, and it kind of caught on from there back then before the internet was hot like that.
Was there like a single moment that inspired you and made you say, “Okay, I want to do this”?
Yeah! Around the time when Outkast came out with Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik and Da Brat came out with Funkdafied was when I felt it. I just remember being on field trips and having my CD player and listening to it, I saw what they were bringing to the South. That was kind of like a determining factor for me where I knew it was something I really wanted to do.
So you would say Outkast is one of your more bigger influences?
Yeah, I like Outkast. I like UGK. I like 8Ball & MJG. I definitely like a lot of new school cats too.
Such as who?
I like Big K.R.I.T. I like Kevin Gates. I listen to a lot of his stuff. I like Starlito. Of course I like Trinidad James. I’m a big fan of a lot of artists that are out of Atlanta, or just upcoming in general. Kendrick Lamar as well!
You just did a video with both Big K.R.I.T. and Trinidad James for your collab track “Game” and it looks like you all had a blast. Did you guys come up with that video concept together at all?
Nah, actually my close homie Joe put the whole treatment together. He came up with the idea awhile ago. When it came time to put it together and we knew we were going to work with Motion Family, I shot them the concept. They took it and kind of put it together the way they did. It just all came together. Myself, Trinidad, and K.R.I.T. didn’t have a whole lot of scenes together, but it was something style-wise I had input to say that it would be a good direction going off of the song itself.
What was it like working with Trinidad James and K.R.I.T? Have you known them for awhile or was it somehow you guys just linked up spontaneously?
Trindad and I did the song and video before All Gold Everything came out. We had 2 songs together, but the “Game” record had a third verse for awhile and I was doing my thing working on a project. I had went on tour, and linked up with the other artist on the tour. We built a good relationship, and I went to go support him before a show we had. That’s where K.R.I.T was, and I hollered at him. He said he was feeling the music, so I told DJ Burn One to send him the “Game” record. He sent it back to me in like 2-3 days.
So since you’ve known Trinidad for awhile, you’ve been able to progress beside him. Did K.R.I.T. give you any advice while working with him?
Oh yea! It was real crazy being on set with both Trinidad and K.R.I.T. It was almost like we weren’t shooting a video, but just having a good time. It’s especially obvious when you see us on the outside scene where you see us talking. We were really talking about some serious game where they told me about some serious things they’ve been going through or went through in the music industry. I got to share where I was at with it. We really ended up cool in the conversation where the videographers had to ask us if we were ready to start actually shooting. It was definitely a lot of game being spit at the video while we were shooting. It was like family almost.
You have your new mixtape out, F.A.I.T.H,. right now that’s been hot on the streets. If you could have your new listeners check out one particular song to get the Scotty ATL vibe, which would it be?
I’d probably have to say “Clarity”. It’s one of my favorite songs on the project. It kind of embodies the whole sound of what I was trying to do in that project. It’s #3 on the project.
Who are some producers that you aspire to work with in the future that would capture the Scotty ATL sound?
As far as production goes, I like my team. I’m not really into working with people just because of their name. I’m more like a vibe type of dude. If we can vibe together and come up with some good music, it works best. However, one producer I would like to get in the studio with would be Timbaland just to kind of see what we could cook up. Mike Will Made It is probably on my list too.
What can we expect from Scotty ATL for the rest of the summer as far as projects, touring, and videos go?
I’m working on a project right now that may drop before the end of the year. I got videos lined up. Curtis Williams and I are going to be working together. We’re going to shoot the video for “All The Hoes”. I really want to be seamless from the time the video drops to when the next project comes out. It should be no breaks.
Check out Scotty’s new video for “Game” featuring Big K.R.I.T & Trinidad James here!
