Trippie Redd’s A Love Letter to You 3 shows the rapper dealing with love and loss

Trippie Redd unexpectedly released his third installment to the mixtape series A Love Letter to You 3 just a few months after his debut album of 2018, Life’s a Trip. In A Love Letter to You 3, the Ohio-based rapper talks about the struggles of love through 16 tracks featuring Kodie Shane, NBA Youngboy, Juice Wrld, Tory Lanez and many more. Notable tracks include “Topanga” which was released a week before the album was dropped and “Love Scars 3” which show off Trippie’s mix of singing and rapping to make this album have a great impact on the years releases.

In “Topanga,” Trippie Redd sings an upbeat melody over a sample of gospel singer Maurette Brown Clark’s 2007 song, “It ain’t over.” But he is not sing-rapping about the Lord; instead, it’s about carrying and firing machine guns. He refers to him and his crew “toting” weapons stating that he will “hit you in your stomach” easily ending your life. The song masks the topic of wielding guns with its feel-good sound which is ironic because getting shot in the stomach probably doesn’t feel that great.    

In the song “Negative Energy,” Trippie takes shots at rapper 6ix9ine as their ongoing dispute continues. When Trippie Redd found out that Tekashi 6ix9ine committed an underage sexual assault back in late 2015, Trippie declared he would have no part in 6ix9ine’s life and said that he would never again make music with the sex offender. The pair had previously appeared together on a track called “Poles 1469.” The lyric “I might just turn into my enemy” may refer to any number of enemies that have attempted to bring him down but it is very clear that 6ix9ine is his one true foe. Throughout his fame, 6ix9ine has made himself just as much an internet troll as a musical artist, in august 6ix9ine used the “Poles 1469” plaque as a floor matt in his bathroom while being recorded sitting on the toilet. Trippie then made a response of him on the toilet with 6ix9ine’s “GUMMO” plaque. The ruined friendship of these two rappers has disappointed many fans who enjoyed the tracks they made together.

His beef with 6ix9ine shows ups elsewhere in the album as well. On “Can’t Love,” Trippie speaks on his ex girlfriend Ayleks (aka Angvish) who later got together with 6ix9ine. From the very beginning of the song you can hear from the sadness in Trippie’s voice that he has mourned over his relationship, asking “How could you do this to me?” She has posted pictures of herself with 6ix9ine and multiple posts on her Instagram show gratitude to him including a video of her twerking to his hit song “STOOPID.” Trippie derides her in the lyric: “All you did was just show yo ass.” This is a cynical song–typical for rap which often depicts woman as only interested in money–in which Redd says that he only got appreciated because of his physical features and of course the wealth that he has, but he has no time to be sad about this break up. In the following line, he confidently sings, “Leave you in the past, in this car, I’m moving real fast,” showing how he is forgetting about his past problems because the fame is building him up like a king.

Trippie Redd is known for hitting high notes and having a silky smooth voice. This is best shown on the song, “I Tried Loving,” where Trippie utilises his singing ability while comparing love to the painkiller Percocet. The artist explains further in the lyric, “pain killer in disguise, I can’t feel a thing off the perc”–love can numb you like a pain killer but too much can be harmful for you. There are at least four songs that come back to relationship endings in this album. They are some of the most relatable tracks here.

A Love Letter to You 3 is a truly stunning mixtape with five songs in the Billboard’s Hot 100. Trippie is one of the best rappers to come out of Soundcloud and he is in no threat of failing anytime soon if he continues to release outstanding albums one after another as quickly as he has been. Trippie has amassed over a billion plays on Spotify, 5.8 million followers on Instagram, 874,000 followers on Soundcloud, and sold 72,000 first week copies of his debut album, Life’s A Trip, which debuted at #4 on Billboard’s “Top 200.” He has a massive follower base that will keep him up as one of the top rappers of this generation.