Rapper Trip Lee opens up about faith, staying married & making hip-hop realer

Dec 9, 2016

Rapper Trip Lee has a catchy name and rhymes to match, but nothing about him is conventional.

As a hip-hop artist, pastor, author and speaker, the Dallas native has built a huge following and topped Billboard charts, never once shying away from his faith.

The rapper stepped into #TheGrioLive to talk with Gerren Keith Gaynor and Natasha Alford about how he got into music and why he’s not fitting into any “Christian rap” label.

“I like to turn up, but I also like stuff that makes me think, that challenges stuff,” he says.

Through songs like “Money Up,” Trip Lee hopes to push people past the superficial.

“One of the things I’m challenging is the way hip-hop acts like as soon as we get some money, then all our problems are going to go away… And that’s just really not true,” he says. “So I want the music — I think everybody can listen to it and relate to it but I want to challenge things in it too.”

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Trip Lee was also candid about his decision to marry at 21 years old and why he has no regrets about settling down.

“One of the misconceptions about marriage is that its like the shut down of all your fun,” he says. “For me it was like, no. I found this woman who we’re like-minded, and we get along so well, and we want to spend our life together.”

He and his wife, Jessica, share two young children together and have now been married for seven years.

“There’s nothing that I’m dealing with or burdens that I have to bear on my own,” the rapper explains. “It’s a partner in everything that I’m doing. It’s been amazing.”

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Trip Lee’s latest mixtape, “The Waiting Room,” drops Friday, Dec. 9, and is available everywhere, including Spotify and Apple Music.