Following two attempts on his life within a seven month span and an ongoing legal case in which he faces 20 years in prison, the Brooklyn rapper is seeing life through a lens. “The reality of it is, I could have been dead,” he told REVOLT days after the release of his latest project, Dope Boy Troy.
At nine tracks, Dope Boy Troy is driven by the paranoia and adrenaline-ridden journey that has shadowed him in recent months. Songs like “Amazing Grace,” “Mafia,” and “Why” find the rapper swallowing the distress in his rearview and exhaling a sanctified release. To hear him tell it, despite the hectic run-ins with the law and brushes with death, things could have been worse.
“I sat down for two months, no nothing, I had to come home and still go through it,” he said before adding, “I just look at the silver lining.”
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“Since I’m here, god got me here for a reason,” he affirmed. In welcoming the fruits in front of him, the rapper has hit the reset button. After his release from jail last year, Troy fired former manager Hovain Hylton and cleaned out his BSB Records roster. “BSB Records is me and Avon Blocksdale, that’s it,” he confirmed. “I cut out a lot of muthaf–kas off. I should’ve been did shit like that, but I was blinded,” he continued. “Like they say, love is blind. When you really have genuine love for people you overlook certain shit. You overlook muthaf–kas taking your shit for granted.”
Loyalty is valuable to the rapper. In explaining how much, Troy issued the following requirements for those associated with him: “If you can’t do two out of the three, then I can’t f–k with you. If you wouldn’t pray for me, if you wouldn’t pay for me and if you wouldn’t spray for me, then you don’t have nothing to do with me.”
With the tumultuous past behind him, the Brooklyn rapper has a new look, perspective, and a daily motto: “I’m Troy Ave, it’s Dope Boy Troy and I don’t give a f—k.”
Troy Ave speaks on brush with death, rebuilding BSB and ‘Dope Boy Troy’