Tre Loaded

The Bluff City lyrical assassin has had an enviable start to his career, steadily building his fanbase with a number of effortlessly smooth, melodically-inclined projects. In 2022, he shared his debut, Made in Memphis, a quick 20 minute tape that established his proclivities for real and gritty narratives of life as an aspiring superstar; stuck between the streets in the studio, paradoxically living inside the game to one day escape it. Last year, he dropped his strongest and most celebrated effort to date, LOADED, which did so well he’s reupping the project with a deluxe edition set to drop soon. The spotlight is growing brighter for Tre, but his approach has remained the same: he’s never gonna be outworked on his way to the very top of the industry.

“The last year has really been insane,” Tre recalls with a chuckle. He’s pleasantly surprised, but knows the work has been of high enough quality to warrant the attention. Some of said attention? A million monthly listeners on Spotify, YouTube videos with over a million streams, with plenty more driving towards that total, too. Most impressive? LOADED is a cohesive project, a front-to-back defining statement from an artist far more mature than his years on this Earth might suggest. In this era of instant gratification and playlisting, Tre has stood apart thanks to his devotion to the full-length project.

He knows he’s got something to say, too. On LOADED, there’s only one guest verse. That Mexican OT comes through on “The Ticket,” but otherwise, Tre puts forth an entirely solo effort. On the deluxe edition, he recruited his recent tourmate, BigXthaPlug, for a remix of “Another Whip.” Alongside Texas’ favorite song, Tre more than holds his own, coming through with instantly quotable bars like, “Ayy, pop shit from Memphis to Cali/ We killing rats like them cats in the alley.”

Tre opted to limit the features for a number of reasons. First of all, he knew he had enough to say to fill an entire project, let alone a number of them. Secondly, he needs these guest verses to mean something, to have purpose. It’s a different POV from so much of the industry these days. “If I do a feature with somebody, I need to make sure this shit is really going on. It’s gotta hit. I have to bring it every time, especially when I’m trying to grow. Every time you hear me, it’s gotta be my best.”

A big part of Tre’s on-record growth has been due to his self-belief, which was validated during his tour dates with BigXthaPlug. “Numbers are different. It means something else when people show up at shows, rap your lyrics, and fuck with you,” he explains. While promoting dates, he noticed that each post on IG was getting flooded with requests. “‘You need to come to my city, you need to come here,’” he recalls them saying. “People really want to see me. That feels good.”

Another big reason for Tre’s rapid ascent? The dude never stops working. “When I first started dropping music, my mindset was, ‘I know a lot of folk want to do this.’” Tre had to figure out what made him different, how he stood out. “I used to drop two, three times a week, then drop a tape and a video. Everything I was doing, I was doing my own. That’s always been his mindset.” Much like a superstar basketball player, he enhances his undeniable talent with a superior work ethic. “I got to do more than what they’re trying to do. I got to be seen,” he adds.

Tre has also given some of the credit for his always-on mentality to his son. Bringing a child onto this planet has recontextualized the way he works, and why he makes music in the first place. “Everything I do, I got to do double. If I want 10, I got to get 20. I got to be straight for him,” he explains. Now three years old, everything Tre does is to make a better world for his son. 

Tre Loaded views this era as a stepping stone, a chance to parlay his devoted fanbase to even greater heights. Despite constantly releasing new music, he wouldn’t be dropping if they weren’t hits. He has a respect for the game that imbues every verse, every song, every album he releases. “I don’t want to just be making music, you know,” he asks, before adding: “I want it to be timeless.”