| Houston rap legend Trae Tha Truth is a fifteen-year veteran in the Texas music scene, but he is quickly developing into a multimedia star with his animated Youtube series TRAE. Today, Trae aims to take over your smartphone with Screwed Up Texas, a new set of custom emojis celebrating the City of Syrup, developed in partnership with premier celebrity emoji app Emoji Fame. Featuring H-Town inspired iconography, including emojis for the region’s gang signs, the Lone Star flag, grills, characters from TRAE, and Cadillacs with swangers (Texas-sized wire rims), the new set contains over 150 new emojis exclusively available for purchase through the app. Recently featured in Complex, Billboard and Noisey, Emoji Fame has developed custom emoji sets for other artists such as Hopsin, Hieroglyphics, Dizzy Wright, and Zakk Wylde. “When Trae mentioned to us that he wanted to do an emoji set, we jumped at the chance” said Emoji Fame co-founder Gavin Rhodes. “Trae’s a legend in both Houston and Texas and his set speaks to the unique hip-hop and street culture that he’s helped define. Trae was deeply involved in the creative process and it shows.”
“I wanted to get into the emoji game” explains Trae to the Houston Chronicle, who debuted an exclusive first look at theScrewed Up Texas set earlier this week. “I have a creative side and I stay in tune with what’s current. I noticed what some other artists were doing, but Texas didn’t have any representation so I wanted to be the first to do it.”
With an influence that expands beyond music, Trae Tha Truth has never stopped putting on for his community–he was the first rapper in Texas to be given an official holiday by the city, and is the only to receive proclamations from two different mayors. Today’s release of the new custom emoji set marks the ninth annual Trae Day, a festival commemorating Trae for his role as a civic leader. Trae hopes to use the new emoji pack both to educate his fans about his Houston lifestyle and provide Texas natives with an unprecedented regional spin on emojis. Though this is Trae’s first set of customized emojis, he is no stranger to the emoji game: “I use the praying hands, 100 sign, big eyes emoji face and the angry face emojis a lot. With my set we have all of those, but stepped up a notch: we have a ‘keep it 1000’ emoji, and myself with the big eyes. Those are some stand out ones, but to be honest I’m excited about all of the ones in my set.”
Trae’s set is available in the Emoji Fame store on iTunes: itunes.emojifame.com
The Houston Chronicle article is out now: http://www.chron.com/entertainment/music/article/First-look-at-rapper-Trae-Tha-Truth-s-emoji-set-8390988.php#photo-10582671 |
