Hey man, welcome to Nefarious Supply! How are you doing?
Hey family! I’m really good. Feeling inspired. Blessed to be able to be featured on your platform!
First things first, would you mind introducing yourself? Tell us a little about you and where you’re from.
I am ILY Truly, some call me Tru or Trinidad. I’m an independent artist from this small city called Kenosha, Wisconsin, not too far outside of Chicago. Keno is a very slept on city musically. I moved around a lot from home to home and a bunch of different state growing up but when I moved to Kenosha in my teenage years, I found music and myself honestly and now I’m here today.
Now that’s out the way, would you mind telling us how ‘ILY Truly’ came to be? What inspired you to progress in the music business?
The name “ILY Truly” came from the heart. One thing about me and my music is that it’s positive. At least most songs. My name was “Tuesdayy” at first but it was lame. When I say I love you I mean that, truly. I want my name to be a light in the industry. My dad did music before he died. He always wanted to do what I do today. When I quit football in High School I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life. I tried Youtube but I wasn’t feeling it and then one day I decided try rapping and singing. I saved my first paycheck from Culver’s and bought a blue yeti and audacity and started creating on our family computer that nobody used. I felt free and like I escaped from all of my problems when I sang or rapped about something on my mind and it changed everything. I started recording everyday since then and It really inspired me to use my voice and pursue music. I want others to feel the freedom I do with creating music or their own personal art.
We see that you have a large following, with over 11.2k followers on Instagram! Can you tell us how that came to be? And what’s it like being with Death Rose Records?
I have been promoting my music for 5 strong years. There were days I had no followers or got no love and then one day to another it just went up. I just try my best to share my music with every soul out there no matter who they are. Posting as much as I can and just being creative and consistent really brought me to where I am today.
Death Rose Records is the most beautiful music movement I have ever been a part of. It started as a group of friends just making music and doing shows together in 2017. We called ourselves Death Rose and after a doing something in our city we made it something special. I founded the official independent record label in 2020 and it has been a great music venture and learning experience ever since! We work as a team and we are a family. When one of us makes it we all make it and every artist and creative in the camp truly believes that teamwork makes the dreamwork and from my personal experience, it does. We support one another no matter what. Death Rose will change the world and hopefully the industry for the better one day.
Your first released project was your self titled ‘ILY Truly’ in 2019. Can you describe the album to those who might not have listened to it yet? Maybe what they can expect from you?
ILY Truly was my first mixtape. I guess you could call it an album. The project was my first work of art I released as myself outside of the Death Rose collective. As Death Rose we never released with our names on the titles so “ILY Truly” was just an artist in the camp or someone performing at the DR shows and I wanted to be recognized.. So I released my debut project and sang and rapped my heart out on it. The whole thing was about this huge heartbreak I went through so it was more personal.
So far in 2021, you have released two singles. Could this possibly lead to a new project coming soon or is this just the normal release rotation?
I just released my 3rd and final single for the year called “Young Forever” . I released it on my 21st birthday. The song is a totally different from both “Baby I” and “No Way Girl” and has a more pop/ edm vibe. The other 2 songs are more R&B, Emo Rap type vibes. My vault is full and I always have surprises for my fans so I could drop at any moment. I have an album done too just being picky with the songs and waiting on the right time haha.
One of your latest singles, ‘Baby I’ features well known R&B star Ne-Yo! Could you tell us how that happened and what was the process like?
Crazy story. I had came across someone from a major label that had offered a collab opportunity for some forgotten “Work For Hire” vocals they had from Ne-Yo in the early 2000’s. The person I had managing me at the time had brought the vocals to me and we decided to make a song on them. At the time I did not know Ne-Yo didn’t know about the song being worked on and I found this out later down the line. I had this song and I had no official contact with Ne-Yo so I reached out to “LÜM” this app that I had been dropping music on since the day it released. Ne-Yo had recently signed a deal with LÜM as all this was going on with the song “Baby I” which I felt was pretty ironic with the timing of things. LÜM actually put me in contact with Ne-Yo’s management team and they had informed me that they did not give me permission to work on the song.
I was bummed out and I didn’t know what to do so I explained the situation and told them I would speak with my legal team. Later on Ne-Yo’s team still wouldn’t give me the green light to release the song so I did the one thing you are not to do in this industry. I proceeded to work on the song and tease the release without the ok. Months go by and I have this finalized song with grammy producers that I had gotten together with to finish the audio side and then I had this amazing cover. I officially announced the snippet on Instagram of the song saying it would come soon tagging Ne-Yo and out of nowhere the man himself sends me a DM saying he liked it and he wanted to help me push the song. Days later he posted it officially on his Instagram with a video of him in the studio vibing to it. The rest was history.
When it comes to your next project, what can we expect to hear from you? Is there experimentation or are you maintaining the stamina from your last album?
The next song or body of work I drop will be completely new and different from the previous. I don’t want to be an artist put into a box so I like to stay versatile. I think I’ll be dropping an 80’s vibe next in January or maybe even the album.
Lastly, is there anyone else you know that we should feature here at Nefarious Supply? Perhaps anyone else on Death Rose Records?
Yes!! I would love for you guys to check out my producer “Lost Boi” . He has produced all of my recent records since “No Way Girl” and all of the songs from my album. He will be the next big producer to do it I’m telling you, super versatile! 🙏🏽 Some more talent from the camp would be my artist “Willing Wanna” from Ghana or even Kid Asher, another artist I work very closely with. Yung Sum and Yung Trench are also some FIRE artists from my city.
Any last words?
2022 needs to be focused on love and inspiring! Thank you guys again for having me on your platform. 💙