Latest / The Smallzy Show / Interview: Trey Songz

Transcript

Interview: Trey Songz · The Smallzy Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Small Z, now on KISS.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Are we ready to welcome to the show tonight's guest, please?
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: He's a legend in the business. He's been around for
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: more than 20 years. He's sold over 32 million albums worldwide.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Eight studio albums, seven mixtapes, collabed with Drake and Nicki
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Minaj and Justin Bieber and Chris Brown and even P.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: Diddy.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: He just wrapped up his 20 years of songs tour.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Please welcome, for the first time here at KISS at least,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Trey Songz in the building.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: What's up, y'all? This is Trey Songz on the Smarzy Show.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Hey, Trey Songz in the building. What's up, everybody?
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to the country. It's been a minute. It's
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: been a couple of years. Last we were here, I believe, 2024.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: But we were supposed to be here earlier this year,
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: so we got kind of prolonged.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: What happened? What happened? Just delays of the sort. Okay. No,
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: we won't go into that? We won't throw anybody under
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: the bus. Okay, don't. No, hey. I don't need a beef.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: I don't need a beef.
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: No beef.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Well, you're here. You just did the shows. Man, the
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: shows were amazing.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: And I want to send a special shout out to
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: everybody that made the shows. Being that they were rescheduled
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: and people drove miles and miles away.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: Some people even came from... One lady told me she
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: came from China, which was amazing. What?
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, she showed me proof too. Okay. Yeah. Wow.
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: Shout out to all the fans that, you know, made
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: sure that they could be there even with things changing
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: a bit.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: I appreciate it. It must... You must like.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Not proud is the wrong word, but you must enjoy
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: 20 years doing it and then people are still showing up, right?
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: Well, proud isn't really a bad word. You know what
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: I mean?
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I just didn't feel it was gangster enough.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: That was me.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: That felt like a very white boy word.
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: You could be a white boy.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: You look white to me. No, I know.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: That's why I was trying to find.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah. But, you know, like happy, you know?
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: No, it's definitely something to look back at and be
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: proud of what you accomplished. Just what you set out to.
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: Something that's a dream at the beginning.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: Something that is.
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: Like, really not attainable in your eyes at some point.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: Something that's that far away that becomes, like, the norm
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: of your life. And that you can look back and
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: have journeys with these people that have spent, like, countless
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: hours listening.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: To my music.
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: And, you know, we have relationships that I've been a
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: part of these people's lives for things that I don't
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: even know at some point. So to be able to
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: go and, you know, and when you're on the other
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: side of the world, sometimes it strains that relationship.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: But with the internet and with social media and everything,
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: when you come back, like you got these fans, but
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: some girl had a tattoo on her arm yesterday. Like
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: it's just, it's amazing to see all the love still
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: after 20 years.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: 20 plus years in the game. Um, was there ever
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: a moment where you were like, Hmm, maybe, maybe I
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: won't last 20 plus years where there's some like, you know,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: times there where you're like, I need a backup plan.
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: What, Not a backup plan, but with anything that, with
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: any success comes, you know, with anything that.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: You want to accomplish, it's a very hard thing.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: When you look and you're like, oh, I could do that.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: get into it and you're like, oh, I didn't know
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: about this or I didn't know about that.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: True.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: You know, and it's a lot of growing pains that
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: come with it. Yep.
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: But there never was a time where I wanted to,
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: you know, say, except for like in.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: The very beginning when you're like, oh, my God, like.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: Am I going to make it, period? That's what I mean.
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: 15 little mixtapes later, I've met like 30 fake producers.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Is there people like in the early days?
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: Oh, my God.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Is there like con artists promising you in the world
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: and then they don't deliver?
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: There's con artists all around, man.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: On every level. So especially in the beginning, man. So
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: speaking out to young artists that are willing to do,
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: I mean, putting themselves on the line.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: Just be careful with who you allow in your circle,
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: who you create with, who you grow your brand with
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: and things of that nature because that is very much
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: a thing. And in the beginning of my career, I
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: was fortunate to meet my producer, Troy Taylor, who walked
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: me through various fires and helped me to attain the
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: success and the knowledge that I have now.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: I was able to be mentored and then on the
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: business side, I had everybody from Kevin Lyles to my
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: partner now, Ro Williams, who's still with me. So, Uh,
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: there are times that in, in any, any path to success,
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: you're going to look and be like, is there light
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: at the end of the tunnel? And if you keep going,
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: you know, the next day may be the best day.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: That's cool. I like that.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: I like that. That's off the hip to freestyle.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: I like that.
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: I'll write that down.
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: Hang on.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: What was that?
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: Say that one more time. Next day, best day. Next day,
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: best day.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: I'm just taking that down.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Um, uh, you reckon it's easier to be an artist
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: today or like 20 years ago when you started?
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: Cause I feel like it.
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: I don't know if there's a fair answer to it
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: because each has its blessings and its problems. You know
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: what I mean?
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: I do think artistry was more the focus some time ago.
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: I think that artists of today are expected to be influencers.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: Consecrated marketing tools.
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: They're expected to be so many things, which at one
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: point there was a wheelhouse that helped you with those things.
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: But I also think it's more... accessibility is more, uh,
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: direct defense.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Well, there's no, there's no gatekeepers anymore, right? Like, cause
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, back in the day you had to like
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: get a record label to sign off on you and
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: then they'd probably put you in a box and it's like,
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: if you make that.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: Record, we're not going to make that record.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: And I, and, and it is, uh, everything's a double,
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: a double edged sword, right?
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: Cause some, some gatekeepers were necessary, like in some, in
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: some fashion, making sure that, uh.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: So you could even argue. wish there were more gatekeepers today.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Like there's sometimes there's.
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: You want to, you want to see real talent get
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: through and you want to see real talent get honed and, and, and, and, and, and, and, uh, crafted.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: Cause there's not a lot of like artists grooming. There's
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: a lot, a lot of, uh, uh, helping these people develop.
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: Like you get a, you get a smash on Tik TOK,
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: as you said, and then you're just thrown to the masses,
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: like without media training, without vocal training, without, you know
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: what I mean?
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: The things that kind of were.
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: Uh, before I put it this way, Before my first
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: album came out, I was signed for three years.
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: And before that, I was making demos for two years.
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: Not to say that that has to be the way
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: that it should be done, but it was a preparedness
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: that came.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: Well, you build that resilience, right? Because you make music,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: you make music. The first song you make isn't going
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: to be a number one, so you can handle that feedback.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: But there's some young artists today, their first song is
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: a TikTok smash, and then they release another one, then
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: no one's there, and they don't know how to handle
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: that high to low.
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: Even on a different scale, just not even for... a
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: song per se just entertainment within itself you have these
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: these influences that go and you go viral and then
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: you're chasing that high yeah and and you feel less
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: validated because more people are not watching and liking and
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: any of that and to that i say to anybody
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: aspiring to do anything with yourself with yourself uh where
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: other people are involved which most people will be uh
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: you got to believe in you more than anything else
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: you got to have a sense of confidence that's just
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: that is blinding to anybody that doesn't understand your vision.
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: I see it like a, it's like a dream when
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: you wake up from a dream and you're like, man,
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: I had this dream and you can't really tell people
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: what the dream was. And even if you can, they
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: can't see the dream. So that's a literal form of
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: you dreaming. When you go out and you're trying to
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: do something that no one's seen before, you have to
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: believe in it so wildly for yourself.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: That You have to be a little bit delusional. Yeah,
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: because everybody's not going to be like, man, you can't
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: do that.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: And why?
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: Because you never saw anyone do it. That's why you
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: think I can't do it. And you've got to have
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: that resilience, like you said.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: Totally.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Hey, what's a random fact about you that people– or
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: something that you like or something that you– People wouldn't know, like,
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: with your spare time.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Like, are you into, like, gardening?
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: Do you do... I do, actually. That's so weird that
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: you said that.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: I see, because I enjoy being out in the garden.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: I've just bought, like.
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: I'm not gardening yet because... Do you mow your own lawn?
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: I just.
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: put some new mulch down and dug up and pruned
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: my roses in the front wow I got like a
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: green thumb before I left I bought a couple new
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: plants couple new.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: Rubber plants okay good on you no I love I'll
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: show you my plants.
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: Show me afterwards I know it's so weird you said
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: that but like at home like when I go home
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: like the first thing I do cause I'm I have
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: these seasons where I'm home for away from home for
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: a long time so I have I've grown obsessed with
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: these easy plants where it's a filtration system within the
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: plant where you only have to water them like Like
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: monthly for some plants, biweekly for some.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: So I'll get in the house and start checking on
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: my plants.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I like that.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: I like to say, I don't know about you, but
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: for me, cause like we do, I do this and
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: it's always go, go, go. Like the garden is like,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: it stops and it's a different part. Like there's no,
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: there's no creative. It's just like, it's completely different sort
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: of like mind. That's why I like it.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: There you go.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Trey, big green thumb right there.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: Come on, man.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Hey, you know what? I can't have you here without
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: talking about one thing.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: What are we talking about? We're going to talk about
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: the meet and greet photos. Let's do it.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: For people who don't know, you do some meet and
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: greets sometimes backstage with the fans. Yeah.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: And they are.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: They have requests.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: They have interesting.
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: The fans have things they want to do in their
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: minds when they... Who am I to say? And you oblige.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: You're a respectful gentleman. I'm an open book. Open book.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: And you will take a photo however they would like
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: to have a photo.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: However.
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: Not however, but we've gone to some extent, I will say.
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: It's fun to meet in Greece because it's such a
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: short time. It's very much value time for myself. And
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: it's either... before or after the show so yeah it's
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: an emotional roller coaster for myself and the fans yeah
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: with myself either having to prepare for the show and
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: thinking of these things like i said earlier you you
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: have moments with these fans that you've shared with them
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: as an artist that you know nothing about yeah like
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: people will come and share either the funniest story or
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: the most heartfelt story and then uh, it's just, it's
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: just a reminder because sometimes when you're on stage and
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: you're performing for the people, you can see the love
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: and you can, you can tell that it's real. But
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: when you get to meet fans and, and, and hear
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: their voices and hear their stories, it's an incredible experience.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: And, Sometimes they might want to jump on you and
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: straddle you.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: What is the weirdest request in a meet and greet
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: photo situation that you reckon you've had?
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: Have you had to say no? Yeah, but no usually
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: comes from someone else.
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: My manager of security is like, okay, hold on now.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you put someone else in the middle there to go, yeah,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: you tell them what you're thinking.
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: I've had people that come with a Sharpie and I'll
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: sign them and then they'll come to the next meet
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: and greet with a tattoo there.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, wow. Okay, that's cool. No one's asked me to
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: do that, sadly. I mean, you don't want to be
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: out here labeling people. No, this is true.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Where are you going? Are you going home now? Because
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: you've done the two shows.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: You'd be good to be back here in Australia. Are
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: you going home or have you got more shows.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: On the road?
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: I wanted to do more shows here in Australia, which
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: would have been great. Shout out to everybody that came
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: to all of the shows, by the way. Planning to
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: come back to Australia, as always. I never leave for long.
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: The last time was the longest I've been away. I
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: think it was like five years.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: Ever since I first came.
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: First time I came, to anybody that doesn't know, I
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: think I came back in 2010.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: Was the first time here, and I've been coming back probably.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: About every three to four years. I, over the years,
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: I've even sent your fans to see you.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: Play shows in the U.S., yeah. You've been buying tickets?
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: No, well, your label back in the day gave it
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: to you.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: I thought it was you.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, no, it was the label. It was like, oh,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: we've got this flyaway thing we want to do. We
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: want to send it. Yeah, no, the fans were great. Yes,
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: but also the fans loved it. Australia's been loving you
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: for years.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: No, I love Australia, man. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, as I
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: said in my song before.
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah, after this, you know, I'm going to head back.
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: I believe I'll be in New York for a while.
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: I love to take my son trick-or-treating.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: Oh, shit, what are you dressing up as? It's a secret.
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: I can't tell the world. You're going to dress up
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: as yourself?
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: No.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: No, it doesn't really work. Pumpkin? I'm going to do
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: a blowout pumpkin this year. That's what you're doing? Yeah.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: How do y'all get through doors? It sort of comes in.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: It's $ 50 on Amazon.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: It was a blowout pumpkin. I can show you if
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: you want. You want to see me?
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: Let me see.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: Wait a second. Hang on, hang on, hang on. I
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: usually have two little, uh, costumes. Like usually one for
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: like when I take my son. Yeah. And then it's
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: another one for when we do like events and stuff.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: I don't have anything going this year. I'm going to,
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: I'm going to, as of now. Okay. Well then maybe
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: you could do the blow up pumpkin. I'm going to
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: do that. No, no, no. You got that.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: I reckon it's good. That's for you. That's me. That's
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: for you. Happy Halloween.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: It's going to be me.
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: I like it.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: I like it too.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: Oh, you're going low maintenance.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: It's got a fan in it and everything.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: It does it. Double A batteries. Okay, coolant system. You'll
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: hear me coming.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: You'll hear me coming. Wonderful to see you.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: I appreciate you, Smallzy. Much love, brother. Good to see you.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Trey Songz, everybody.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: Smallzy, now on KISS.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Head to Chemist Warehouse and save more money every year
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: on your
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: Regular medication with discounted prescriptions in every store, every day.