T-Dubb-O

T-Dubb O has been pushing hard for St. Louis, but he has a new movement that will push past the notion that Nelly is all the city has to offer from Hip-Hop. - ALLHIPHOP

St. Louis rapper and political activist T-Dubb-O is prepared to fight. And as one of the artists who faced down guns and tanks during the Ferguson protests, and who was even invited to the White House to speak on the matter, he knows exactly what that requires. - Riverfront Times

Artist, Revolutionary, & Gangster T-Dubb-O is set to release his debut album entitled, “The Drop that Spilled the Cup”. “The Drop” is lyrical, street, revolutionary, powerful, and just flat out HARD! This is Dubb’s first time releasing an album, and nothing but greatness is to be expected. Dubb made a name for himself internationally on the battle-rap scene. From there, he released a couple mixtapes that destroyed the stereotype that battle MC’s could not make good music and became cult classics on the underground scene. Dubb has collaborated with legends like Freeway, Crooked I, Project Pat, Pastor Troy, & Young Noble from 2 pac’s group The Outlawz. Dubb has been featured on 106 & Park, Rollingstone, Revolt TV, etc. He has also been featured in some of Urban America’s top publications such as The Source and Ebony Magazine. What separates Dubb from all of the rappers of today’s time is not just his aggressive and extraordinary flow, but the work he does in the community. T-Dubb-O is not just the average rapper talking about his trials and tribulations of his past street life. Dubb and his grass roots organization, Hands Up United, have been labeled America’s New Black Radicals. So whether he is reading to children at their monthly Books and Breakfast program, talking with the students at their Tech Impact program where they are teaching Black kids how to build websites, dropping off food to people in need, or throwing back tear gas at police Dubb truly stands with the community that he raps about. The work he does in black and poor communities have taken him all around the world to educated people on the harsh realities of Black people in America. Dubb was even granted the opportunity to sit with President Obama in the Oval Office to discuss racial issues and systemic problems here in America. This meeting coined his phrase on the album, “I shook Obama hand with the same hand I sold crack with”. The title of this project comes from a Mexican proverb Dubb learned while marching in the streets of Guerrero, Mexico where 43 students were kidnapped by the government and never found. Dubb uses this phrase as a double entendre to describe this album. Not only is this a social breaking point with Black youth in this country, but after this release “drops” in his city no more cliche’ and garbage music will be respected. “The Drop” will be released January 15th, 2016 and is nothing short of classic. - C-Note Hot 104.1

St. Louis rapper T-Dubb-O was a front-line activist at events in Ferguson following the 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown. For him, that involved multiple arrests, being tear-gassed more than he can remember and visiting the White House to share his views on problems in the St. Louis area.

But despite all that, he says, he didn’t feel the need to make a record addressing all he’d experienced.

T-Dubb-O, whose new album on Delmar Records is “The Drop,” says he’d always been talking about the conditions that led to Brown’s death.

“My music always reflected that,” he says. “Everything we’ve gone through as a people has always been there.”

He says he didn’t want to specifically make a Ferguson album. “I didn’t want to use it to propel my music,” he says.

Before making “The Drop,” T-Dubb-O was knee-deep in his ongoing “Mobstar Maniac” mixtape series. He says “Mobstar Maniac 3” was a success. “I got a lot of downloads — 80,000 with no radio play, no club play, just strictly the support of battle rap fans worldwide.”

He also collaborated with St. Louis rapper Bo Dean for an album titled “Bruce Vs. Bane,” which is nominated for a S.L.U.M. Fest Hip Hop Award.

“A lot of good things were happening, and I was about to start ‘Mobstar Maniac 4’ when Mike Brown occurred,” T-Dubb-O says.

“My focus got off of music, my being a victim myself and being heavily targeted,” says T-Dubb-O (also known as Antoine White). “My focus was on trying to change the system.

“If you’re not a part of the solution, you’re a part of the problem. So I took a six-month break from music, though everyone was pressuring me to get back on it — get back into the studio.”


Advertisement (1 of 1): 0:13
Instead, he went to Guerrero, Mexico, in early 2015 to stand in solidarity with other activists in response to 43 students who had been kidnapped. “They stood with us in solidarity in Ferguson, so we went down there to form a bond and show our solidarity. We’re all fighting the same fight.”

When T-Dubb-O returned to the studio, a phrase from his time in Mexico stuck with him: “the drop that spilled the cup” similar to “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

The finished project includes “The Drop That Spilled the Cup,” which he describes as one of the most radical songs on the project. “It highlights every political issue we’ve faced from Reagan to Ferguson,” he says.

On “Dust to a Mountain,” he challenges “these so-called black conscious leaders and artists. I’m calling out all the hypocrites within the movement.”

The single “No Chill” is a “triumphant-sounding record that talks about what I’m going through and my dreams, not letting up off of fighting the system. It’s about striving and winning and being successful.”

Though he’s hitting on issues and pushing buttons, he says the album is also a challenge to the St. Louis hip-hop scene.

“There’s so much talent here, but the gatekeepers only highlight the same sound and the same bull(crap),” he says. “The radio plays the same songs, the DJs play the same songs, the same promoters put the same people in the spotlight. There’s so much more to offer. My challenge is that once this drops, enough is enough. No more can the bull(crap) flourish.”

But he’s looking inward as well.

“Have I grown? Yes. I’ve learned a lot seeing what I’ve seen and talking who I talked to. I’ve grown politically and as an artist.”

“The Drop,” which features Tef Poe, Indiana Rome, Gthesinger and the Knuckles, is available on iTunes beginning Friday. - Kevin C. Johnson of St. Louis Post Dispatch

This is exactly what’s needed right now. With no hyperbole, this is an early album of the year candidate, if not the frontrunner. - Dirty Glove Bastard

T Dubb-O is a Hip Hop artist out of St. Louis, Missouri signed to the Delmar Records Label. A one time dealer and current gang member the events of August 9th transformed what some may view as a street thug into a leader in the new school of Social Activist. This new path would take him everywhere even to the White House. I do not know anyone that has met the President of the United States let alone have a sit down with him in the Oval office, but when I tell you that T-Dubb-O has done just that, you may think he would have been happy to have that distinction and you would be wrong. I will tell you more about that later. Aside from his former occupation and current affiliations, T Dubb O has another position. Dubb as his friends call him is now a Director for Hands Up United- a grass roots organization building towards liberation of oppressed Black, Brown and Poor people through education, art, civil disobedience, advocacy and agriculture. It was this work which compelled me to know more about Dubb. The melding of the two personalities that intrigued me most about him. I have heard past projects, seen him perform at Slumfest shows, have had his name brought up to me by influencers like Adam Murphy of Midwest Mixtapes, and even shot pictures of him; but to see activism ignite in someone of his background made me very curious. I never questioned if it was genuine or not, I knew better. I wanted to understand the depth and intelligence of the man. I wanted to know the purpose of his actions so I called up label president Finsta and asked for an interview.

dubbandpres


“Everything from music to my personal life has changed in a drastic way, it still takes some getting used to but we are going to continue to do what we are doing”, he tells me and what they are doing among other things is bringing the community together. Through programs like the Tech program with the Roy Clay Sr. Tech Institute. HUU provides 21st century skills to persons in Ferguson and the Greater St. Louis Metropolitan area. Each month they also host a Books and Breakfast event which gives away free books to attendees and discuss topics or themes. I attended a session with my own kids that covered the birth of Hip Hop and its current place and influence in society. Both the Tech Program and Books and Breakfast events are well attended and supported by the community but this is only a portion of what HUU does.


Dubb and others have traveled the world now helping to organize and protest oppression and class warfare. Dubb says, “It’s well overdue just seeing the community involvement in this type of fight. People are starting to open their eyes and wake up to no longer accept what the system decides to place in route for them as their fate and to take their destiny into their own hands. It’s beautiful”. Dubb describes the work of HUU as a more radical or revolutionary in fact, “This is not yo mama’s Civil Rights movement,” may have come from this group. He tells me that locally the support from other agencies or organizations has not been there and essentially for security reasons interaction with them is not sought out. Their work is also on the national and international level they have marched alongside protestors in Mexico for the Ayotzinapa 43, the 43 college students murdered for protesting a local Mayor’s spouse as well as Get out the Vote campaigns and more. All of this work is being done by kids essentially; persons who woke up one very hot summer day on August 9th,August 10, and the days that followed became something more.


On January 15th all will be able to bear witness to T Dubb O’s latest musical release, The Drop that Spilled the Cup. In the late summer of 2015 he released the 1st single from the project, “State of Emergency” in response to the SOE called by Gov. Nixon after the unrest during the one year anniversary of the death of Michael Brown. The track and lyrics are equally jarring as Dubb recounts many other emergencies that the Governor and even President Obama should be more aware of and apply policy towards. I am certain that each song on the album will follow suit. Speaking of President Obama and the Oval office meeting; it came about as Presidential staff person Ashley Allison heard from Dubb, accounts of what happened to him and others in Ferguson in their encounters with militarized police. Obama’s office reached out to meet and Dubb accepted, in part because he knew no one else could tell the story but also as he put it, “The last gangster to probably be in the White House was Eazy E.” He went on to say that overall the meeting was a disappointment. He felt it was a chess move on Obama’s part to say that he met with Ferguson protestors. “The only thing I really remember is I could see the fear in the President’s eyes. He told me that he was proud of us. He knows that there is a problem in this country. I just don’t understand why he just won’t stand up and do as he needs to do as a black man…his taskforce has done nothing to stop the police from killing people, done nothing to stop the system from oppressing people and since that meeting 11 other people here in St. Louis have been killed by police officers, so yeah, it was just a meeting.” It is this type of radical thought and honesty that inhabits Dubb and is seen not only in action but now his artistry.

Be sure to pick up his latest project The Drop that Spilled the Cup, January 15th and checkout the work of Hands Up United online at handsupnited.org You can get #TheDrop on Itunes now!!!! - Delux Magazine

That level of commitment becomes particularly apparent when T-Dubb-O launches into an impassioned rant on the subject of black celebrities who, he believes, are standing by silent. "We got all these black athletes, black rappers, all these one-percents, record label owners, CEOs that's not saying nothing, that's not bringing nothing to the community. You're bleeding the community dry," he says. "The shoes we buy, the clothes we buy, the music we play, the videos we watch. You glorify being from the hood but do nothing for it. You glorify being from the trenches but do nothing for it. When they killing us, you stand by silent. When you have this platform...we don't have a Rolling Stone in St. Louis we can go to. You get invited to these interviews daily, and you quiet. You quiet. You still on your tours, you still dropping your bullshit records that nobody believe. The streets don't believe you."

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/videos/ferguson-activists-call-out-black-celebrities-for-saying-nothing-20141222#ixzz41gjNrje1
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook - Rollingstone

T-Dubb-O deems himself an artist, revolutionary and a gangster. That is a serious concoction inside one being. And the St. Louis representative’s newly released album The Drop that Spilled the Cup exemplifies this mantra. The album is hood consciousness at its rawest. Like an unexpected punch to the gut, T-Dubb strikes without a filter and minus the beige-colored Hip-Hop that has people thinking the genre is on life support. Some may know Dubb from the battle-rap scene or his local rap scene, but others got familiar in the aftermath of Mike Brown’s brutal slaying at the hands of officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson Police Department. His activism even got him to meet President Obama. Quite a feat.

On the rap side, T-Dubb-O has already worked with Freeway, Crooked I, Tef Poe, Project Pat, Pastor Troy, The Outlawz and others. AllHipHop got the drop on the rugged emcee and got his take on set state of affairs, meeting Obama and the meaning of this album.

AllHipHop: After Mike Brown was slain in the streets by Ferguson police officer you hit the streets and also the national platform too. How do activism and St. Louis intersect on your album?

T Dubb-O: St. Louis is where all my trials and tribulations occurred. It’s the city I was born and raised in. I’ve had influences from Memphis and L.A. since I have family from those places, but St. Louis made me. St. Louis is where I’ve spent my life so in some sort of way St. Louis helped to make this album. As far as activism I really hate that word. I think what we did in St. Louis/Ferguson was more revolutionary. But this isn’t something new to us here. The dope artist here have been using their obstacles as motivation in their music. My songs have always reflected the struggles of the ghetto and always will. I’m telling the stories of our pain, oppression, anger, and our rebellion to say I’m not going to be nothing I’m going to do whatever I have to do even if it means breaking the law to take care of my family and be great.

Talk about your album and what’s the meaning of the title?
The title of this project comes from a Mexican proverb I learned while marching in the streets of Guerrero, Mexico where 43 students were kidnapped by the government and never found. It basically means enough is enough. We are fed up and we coming for everything. You pushed me to this point and now you must deal with the consequences. I’m using this phrase as a double entendre to describe my album though. Not only is this a social breaking point with Black youth in this country, but after this release “drops” in my city no more cliché’ and garbage music will be respected.

In the aftermath of Mike Brown’s death, you and other activists met with President Obama. How do you feel about that experience now that we are in his last year?

I shook Obama hand with the same palm I sold crack with. That says a lot. That wasn’t my first time at the White House. My first time was when that meeting was actually set up. But the first time I went I noticed how fucked up America really is. Right outside the White House gates there is a little park open to the public. There were homeless black people all over that park. Right outside the White House gates where a Black president resides that is supposed to signify that we “made it”. The meeting with Obama was history. The first time all black people sat in the Oval Office. That’s all it was though. History. Besides that it was a meeting with another politician trained to give political answers and won’t admit to the reality of the conditions of this oppressive, imperialist, capitalistic government. He admitted there was a huge issue with racism in this country, but gave us band-aid style solutions. I hope he has the balls to do and say what needs to be said and done as a Black man in the White House in his last year, but I doubt it. - AllHipHop

Shout out to Delmar Records and T-Dubb-O on a job well done, definitely a gem to add to your music collection.

Table of content

1. The Uprising (skit)
2. The Drop That Spilled The Cup (Produced by Tech Supreme)
3. No Chill (Produced by Paul Judge)
4. The Water (Produced by Kilo Beats)
5. Word (Produced by Beau Willie)
6. Ultraverse feat. Indiana Rome (Produced by King Cash Beatz)
7. My Turn (Produced by Beau Willie)
8. Better Go (Produced by Paul Judge)
9. Where’s God/The Affirmation (Produced by Paul Judge)
10. For My Niggaz feat. Kizzle & Tef Poe (Produced by Kilo Beats)
11. Fearful Eyes (Produced by Paul Judge)
12. Never Change (Produced by Trifeckta)
13. Don’t Flinch feat. Tef Poe (Produced by Paul Judge)
14. Blow Out feat. The Knuckles (Produced by Beau Willie)
15. Wings feat. G the Singer (Produced by King Cash Beatz)
16. Dust to a Mountain (Produced by Dre Martie of Drum City Hits)
T-Dubb-O - Hot 104.1

The Drop (That Spilled the Cup) / Delmar Records


“Ronald Reagan was the first American crack dealer / Fuck a black president, the hood badder than ever / Fuck a trap queen / Me? I’d rather have a Coretta…” STL’s own T-Dubb O is a bull in a china shop, a cyclone in a soda can, and definitely not for the faint of heart. On his debut album, Dubb delves into serious societal ills and why those ills happen. Subjects range from why drugs are sold in poor neighborhoods to what goes into violence, police brutality, and corrupt politics on all levels. This is a man who boasts, “I shook Obama’s hand with the same hand I sold crack with.”
“The Water” discusses learning about the harsh realities of life at an early age, and in it Dubb challenges the music industry just as he challenges systematic racism. This song talks about the vicious cycle people face of getting locked up then not finding a job as a result of those crimes. It is a must listen.

“Ultraverse” has Dubb trading eloquent rhymes with Delmar Record labelmate Indiana Rome. “A crown means nothing to guillotine, n****s looking sour til they see the lemon squeeze,” spits Dubb on the song’s second verse about pursuing one’s goals at all costs. The Drop also features St. Louis hip-hop titans Tef Poe and The Knuckles (Aloha Mi’sho and Rockwell Knuckles), so this album is for those who love descriptive rhymes, complex wordplay, and aggression over detailed soundscapes.

Ducky Hines - Eleven Music Mag

St. Louis rapper T-Dubb-O has quickly responded to this week’s shooting deaths by police officers of African-American men Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, deaths both caught on video, with his new song “Enough.”

He says he created the song Wednesday night in response to the "bull(crap)," and that tired and angry aren’t enough to describe how he feels.
T-Dubb-O, who met with President Obama in the wake of Ferguson, was working on another project last night when he felt compelled to switch gears and address what was happening.

Pause
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration Time 0:00
Loaded: 0%Progress: 0%0:00
Fullscreen
00:00
Mute
Click here to listen to the unrelenting “Enough,” which is available to stream on his Soundcloud. (Warning, the song includes very graphic language).

Earlier this year, T-Dubb-O released his album “The Drop,” which includes his take on the conditions leading to Michael Brown's death in 2014, conditions that always infused his music.

He was named Best Local Rapper by the Post-Dispatch’s Go! List in April. - St. Louis Post Dispatch

T-Dubb-O
More info T-Dubb-O.com

St. Louis rapper T-Dubb-O had no reason to focus on the events following the 2014 death of Michael Brown in Ferguson on his new CD “The Drop.” His music, even before that incident, has always focused on the conditions leading to that unrest. But after Ferguson, T-Dubb-O (aka Antoine White) became a front-line activist, being arrested multiple times and getting tear-gassed; he also visited the White House to share his views on problems back home. “My music always reflected that,” he says. “Everything we’ve gone through as a people has always been there.” KCJ - St. Louis Post Dispatch

Hip-Hop is mounting and offensive against police brutality. T-Dubb drops a lyrical bomb in response to the murder of two Black men, on camera right after a weekend celebrating the nation’s independence. The song does not mince words. “The Feds, fk em, all the plainclothes, fk ‘em, the DEA, fk em, The CIA, fk em/ Bch ain’t no love, we don’t trust em / Fk Hillary, fk the government, fk the Senator, f**k the governor.” T-Dubb-O is far from new to activism. Listen up. - AllHipHop.com

Today we’d like to introduce you to T-Dubb-O White. Them and their team share their story with us below: - Voyage LA