It was just last fall that Six One Trïbe truly got rolling as Nashville’s largest hip-hop collective, with all 16 members, plus a host of their peers, contributing verses, hooks and production to a jam-packed and fervent group album, Trïbe Over Everything. They’ve only picked up momentum since, saturating the city with loosies, EPs and full-lengths that reflect the urgency of its members’ desire to flex their creativity, be heard and be heard as speaking for Nashville, where many of them have spent the bulks of their lives.
Trïbe’s IG account proclaims it the “Wu-Tang of the South,” a reference that actually has something to it, since the Middle Tennessee collective is made up of writers and performers proud of their individuality, disinclined to burnish their images or conceal their vulnerabilities and devoted to unruly, familial solidarity. Among them are muscular dirty south emcees, serious technicians, mischievous backpack rappers, conscious storytellers, drill specialists, emo rappers whose melodic flows have molten, bluesy anguish and a whole lot else besides. When they come together for free-flowing studio sessions, notes Trïbe co-founder Gee Slab, they get each other so fired up with ideas that they’ll sometimes veer away from their standard styles into more daring territory. “Everybody knows their role, but we’re all willing to try something,” he says.
Slab and his Trïbe co-founder Aaron Dethrage, who presides over the Eastside Manor studio that serves as the group’s home base, prepared a playlist showcasing its many voices and vibes. “The playlist reflects the complexity of TRÏBE by giving you a mix of group records with styles that usually would clash,” they write, “but form a new sonic experience never heard before. And the solo songs shows the uniqueness of each artist’s sound and story.”