What the hell is TrapScat, Masego? This what I want to ask the fearsome young musician with a capital “M” when he appears somewhere down signal. I don’t, though. If you’re hip to game, then you know Masego’s got next. He’s got the swagger of Anderson .Paak, the musical chops of Terrance Martin and the new-jack-funk of a guy so far ahead of his time, he’s about to pass you twice. You’ve maybe heard “Melanin Man,” which will be right up there on our end of the year list as one of the best tunes of 2016. Or maybe you’ve gotten a whiff of him trap-scatting, which is like serving up jazz riffs with ratchet tendencies, on bangers like the video we’re premiering here, right now, “Small Talk.”

He’s fly with the assists too, stomping around tracklists on Goldlink’s criminally underrated And After That, We Didn’t Talk, Jay IDK’s Empty Bank, and Brasstracks’ Good Love. Think sax with a Metro Boomin twist. You can sleep if you want to, but we wouldn’t recommend it.

Premiere: “Small Talk (TrapScat TO Cali)”

Blavity: Has the tour with Ta-Ku been a whirlwind?

Masego: [Laughs] I dropped out of school man, but I feel like I’m still learning every day. All of these shows are like a presentation. It’s like, okay, I have a thousand people to present to tonight so I’m here. And like in school I don’t prepare and it always seems to work out.

I love how [in] every city, it’s a different version of my show. And this is gonna sound jank, but I love how music is the dopest passport. Like, that joint can travel farther than any of us can. We’re not so different as we’re lead to believe. Whether it’s people from Toronto, London or Japan.

Blavity: How did you hook up with Ta-Ku?

Masego: I’ve been following this dude forever. I’m a fan of the entire brand. So, three people put a bug in his ear about me. First, it was Jazzy Jeff because he had his playlist retreat that Ta-Ku attended and Jeff was just bragging about me and being an awesome person.

The second was a DJ Day. He DM’d both of us like, “Yo, did Ta-Ku get with Masego, yet?”

The third was his cameraman, JayNumberFive who was playing my music on his last tour in Australia. Then when my booking agent reached out to Ta-Ku to try and get me on the tour Ta-Ku was like, “Oh, Masego? I’ve been hearing this dude for months!” So it just made perfect sense.

Blavity: Ta-Ku values instrumentation as much as you do, it seems. How did you come to learn all those instruments?

Masego: The story is, man, that every instrument has a woman I’m trying to impress behind it. It started in middle school. This shorty had a saxophone on her bike, and that was my only research. It was like, “Okay, I’m gonna learn how to play the saxophone now.” It was as simple as that and then I just fell in love with the instrument.

In high school, this girl had Jamie Foxx playing piano on her locker. It was like, “Word? Funny man and keys? We’re gonna get these jokes in and we’re gonna play that piano. Drums are in there with a different shorty. Then it becomes about falling in love with these instruments. I’m a hoarder now, too. I’ve got all this gear I never want to get rid of. But there’s the inspiration of a woman behind all that.

Are we in another golden musical age?

Blavity: Do you think we’re in another golden age for music right now?

Masego: I think so. You can get away with anything in the name of art right now. Like Chance just came out with a music video shot on his iPhone and we let him do it. Women are not wearing makeup and making their album cover and we’re embracing it. You can do whatever you want and there is an audience that will encourage you.

Like, I recorded most of these things on a beat up interface and my cell phone. That’s a golden age, man. Creativity is at an all-time high.

Blavity: So how do you match the art and the commerce?

Masego: I think you have to reevaluate what value is. I think that people [still] think that if people aren’t buying my physical cd then I’m losing. But if you embrace the change you can see there’re some ways to get that commerce. A lot of artists win in the live show market. There’s merchandise. Artists are basically brands these days. It’s not about bars, as you were saying, it’s about the whole world you bring somebody in.

Blavity: Speaking of worlds, I can’t believe Vine is dead!

Masego: Man! I’ve spent all day on Twitter going through my like section. I had my favorites. Those people where it felt like they only made me and like three other people laugh. Then there was the singer-Vine, where musicians would play around. So low-key singers and all those little kids in middle school that went viral, those were my joints.

Partnering with brands

Blavity: Do you feel weird about or worry about your music just disappearing behind these networks you don’t control?

Masego: I’m a technology buff, so I spend time thinking about how I can get out in front of that curve. I know the tweets and snapchats and social media stuff doesn’t last forever. It’s about making those real connections. I’m the type of guy where I can just be walking around and a song from 40 years ago will pop up in my head and I’ll go look up that artist. I want to be that to a lot of people.

So whether or not I update my Twitter or if Twitter even exists, I want to know that I impacted people’s lives. I want to know that no matter how I get it out that I’ve got a show that people will show up.

Blavity: The music industry seems like it’s back, but not the way it used to be. Have you considered sticking with a large brand like Apple and Spotify as a port in the storm?

Masego: Well, I think partnerships are very necessary nowadays because if you take your leverage and use that to do something that’s equally beneficial to both parties, then it makes sense. These people have money and resources, so it’s definitely something you have to consider. But oftentimes, you can end up seeing a bunch of numbers as your fans and it can be air. At the end of the day, are you really catering to the audience that loves you?

So I have to be careful with who I partner with that are bigger names. You can sit there and say, “I’m about to be in front of a million people,” but you have to ask yourself what that really means. I’d rather be in front of a thousand people that are down for this parade I’m going to be in rather than a million people that make me look poppin’. I’m always down to talk, though.

Do it for the music, not for the fame

Blavity: How’d you get yourself to stick with music when the activity around you wasn’t there?

Masego: I looked at my first video on Instagram and my first tweet and followed it up. And I was like, “Dag, for a long time I was doing some good things but it just wasn’t working.” A lot of people would stop, but I was so stubborn with it. I was consistent. And at the end of the day, for myself, it was rooted in the work. The music.

The market will come and go, but consistency works for everything. So I think becoming a specialist in your craft is necessary across the board. That’s who we all seek out. We don’t seek out the person that kind-of-knows, we search for the one that leaves and breathes graphic design or music or whatever they’re doing.

So you have to have that passion, and you’ll become dope at what you’re doing because you’re in your room for 20 hours just going at it. Those are the principles I follow.

Blavity: What are you a specialist at?

Masego: I’m not the dopest sax player nor do I flaunt that. I’m the dopest at this sound I’ve created. No one else is singing, playing sax, looping, and doing just whatever they want like that. So now people are coming to me like “that’s the specialist for what he does.”

What the hell is TrapScat?

Blavity: What’s next for Masego?

Masego: Early next year I’m going to be dropping something that lets people get to know me a little bit more. I wanna slow down and make sure everyone knows the beginning and let’s move together into this new stuff.

Blavity: So, man, what the hell is TrapScat? What’s your definition?

Masego: [Laughs] Trap was defined to me as just an energy. I feel like you’re scatting on top of this different energy. So you’re not bound to the jazz syllables that people with. You can scat on every single word.

[Laughs] I wish I was more famous than Young Thug because, honestly, he be trap-scattin’. If he wanted to brand it, it’s his. He’s so melodic.

Premiere: “Small Talk (TrapScat TO Cali)”

Are we in another golden musical age?

Partnering with brands

Do it for the music, not for the fame

What the hell is TrapScat?

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