Meet Strick, the YSL Rapper Who Ditched His Nine-to-Five to Grind With Atlanta’s Finest

Who the F*ck Is Strick may be a confrontational tour title, but the rapper born Tauren Strickland is ready for his pseudonym to permeate beyond the prominent hip-hop circles he’s a part of. Before signing to Young Thug’s Young Stoner Life Records in 2018, he was a branding liaison to Atlanta’s hottest acts and a songwriter as well, earning a credit on the platinum Travis Scott album Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight. After touring with Kid Cudi as an opener last fall, he’s hitting the road as a headliner.

His upcoming release, Shark Attack, is slated to be YSL Records’ latest body of work since Thug and label affiliates Lil Duke, Yak Gotti, and Unfoonk were among the 28 people indicted in a sweeping RICO case in May 2022. Georgia prosecutors allege that YSL isn’t merely the Young Stoner Life record label but a gang called Young Slime Life with ties to the Bloods — and Thug is at the helm of it. Still, Strick isn’t really looking at himself to be a sort of torchbearer. “We all are creatives, so it’s not really carrying on a particular name or anything like that,” he says. “Right now, I’m making music. I’m trying to create awareness of who Strick is as an artist and as a songwriter and what I bring to the industry.” Shark Attack drops on June 14 via LiveMixtapes and will be available on all platforms on June 19.

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He opts not to comment on the ongoing case in Atlanta’s Fulton County, especially since he doesn’t live there (there is also no Atlanta date on his tour, though he says he’ll add more stops). “In general, when anyone close to you is going through anything, you feel it,” he says. “And the closer that you are the people, it’s just never a good thing.”

Strick spends most of his time in Los Angeles, where he made some of the music he plans to release this year, including an incredible, lovelorn collaboration with James Blake and Young Thug on his forthcoming sophomore album. “First time either one of them have done a song together also,” Strick says of the two-year-old track. Blake has long been a vocal Thug fan, saying in 2020 that he hoped to produce an album for the rapper (“Barter 6 made me rethink production. It was so satisfying and minimal. It’s fucking amazing,” he gushed.)  On it, Strick reminisces about the mundanities missed when a significant other leaves. “This morning, I woke up, didn’t smell no coffee. You wasn’t making breakfast downstairs,” he says.

Though Strick planted his stake in the Atlanta rap scene seven years ago, he was raised between North Carolina and Germany. He was born in Lumberton, North Carolina, where he “grew up running up and down a dirt road, barefoot.” A family of women helped his single mother out. “My grandma and my aunt were always kind of having parties, barbecues, taking me with them wherever they went. Anytime the music came on, it was like, ‘Hey Tauren, come do a dance for us, sing that song you’ve been singing.’ They were allowing me to be open and be as charismatic as I could be.” When he was nine, he and his mom moved to Mannheim, Germany, where she worked as a civilian for the U.S. military.

“I remember when we first landed in Germany,” he recalls. “Being from North Carolina, we never see snow. So as soon as I landed, I was tiny and the snow was coming up to my waist. I’m like, ‘Mom, I want to go back home. It’s too cold.’” Strick eventually acclimated, growing into his love of hip-hop there.

Upon their return to the U.S. when he was 12 years old, Stick and his mom settled in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, because his favorite cousin had enrolled at the university there. “I mean, Lumberton is in Robeson County. It’s one of the poorest counties in North Carolina. I was born to a single parent when she was 17. My biological father was in and out of jail literally my whole life. He basically just got free a few years ago. So to get me away from that environment, she made the decision to go to Chapel Hill.” Strick went on to live a seemingly comfortable and conventional life — graduating with an English degree from High Point University, joining the Air Force, earning all but three credits toward a Master of Business Administration degree, and running a couple of businesses — but when he moved to Atlanta, he met the people who would crystalize the city as a modern rap mecca. Here, Strick dives into his family ties to Tupac Shakur, his unique path, and what lay ahead.

You mentioned that your dad spent a lot of your life incarcerated. Are you and your father in touch now? Are y’all building a relationship?
Yeah, we just recently got in touch, back and forth. It is weird ’cause it’s definitely some movie-type shit, you know what I’m saying? Because I’m taking my career to the next level. I’m having a lot of success. And then out of nowhere in a way, he shows up and he is trying to rebuild. I’m like, “Damn, it’s crazy. I’m turning into a superstar now. And now he want to come around.” It’s weird, but it’s cool.

What was music like for you then when you were in Germany? Were you listening to hip-hop?
Yeah. The first album I told my mom to get me was Bone Thugs-n-Harmony’s [E. 1999 Eternal]. I just loved Bone Thugs and I was like, “Mom, if you don’t get me this CD …” I was obviously listening to Bone Thugs, listening to Tupac, listening to a lot of stuff like Biggie, a lot of Jay-Z, Outkast. We’re actually related to Tupac through marriage in a way. Unfortunately, when he passed, my cousin was studying abroad in London and came to visit us in Germany. That’s how I even found out that we were related to Tupac — they sent a flight for her to come back to North Carolina and come to the funeral and because her father was actually basically Tupac’s uncle, which is crazy.

So when did you move towards making music yourself?
There was a picture of me — 6 years old with a mic and a guitar — which I relate to my destiny. I didn’t start really taking music seriously until around 2016, but I had been making music since high school, in college, one foot in, one foot out.

What pushed you to really move into it as a career at that time?
I had already did a lot of living for other people. I went to the military ’cause my grandma was like, “It’d make a man out of you.” After I graduated college, I joined the Air Force and they had paid for my MBA. I’m basically three credits away from finishing my MBA, and I already have a pretty good backup plan. I have a bachelor’s in English literature that I got from High Point. My mom did health care administration at a very high level, so when I moved to Atlanta, I had my own primary care center. I had physicians working for me, medical assistants. I was already making six figures a year. It was a dream job for some people, but to me it wasn’t.

My mom would always tell me, “Tauren, it doesn’t matter how much money you make — it’s all about what you’re passionate about and what you love, no matter what job you get.” That’s what also helped me be like, “let me take a risk on myself.” I also owned a business, a branding solutions company called Foundation 86. We developed apps, websites, and during that time we were basically an independent firm that was helping a lot of people in Atlanta. And so between 2011 and 2016, I had already helped a lot of people and I was like, “Man, I should just try doing this for myself.” I’m sure it’ll take off. At that time too, a lot of my friends started to have a lot of success in the music industry as well. So it was a calculated risk.

Who were you friends with that started seeing success?
When I got into the music scene completely, it was like 808 Mafia, TM88, working with Metro Boomin’, obviously met Young Thug early on in his career, met Future early on in his career, met Travis Scott early on in his career. Atlanta’s got a very close-knit type of thing going on. I was just really blessed to be able to have skills and knowledge that I could provide and not really be a deterrent to them, but actually help benefit them in their journeys. I was able to become part of that culture that put the producer in front of people. Pi’erre Bourne started out with me and was at my crib and stuff like that too. I was able to get around them very quickly [through Foundation 86]. That’s how there’s just a bunch of old pictures of me, TM, Metro in the studio, old pictures of me and Future during the Honest album release party and shit like that.

Around 2016, I remember getting a call from TM88 and my boy T-Shyne and they were just like, “Hey, bro, we’re with Travis and we’re working on Rihanna’s album, and you’re at your desk right now.” They’re like, “Yo, it’s all on you. You’re the one that’s not coming to California.” Because at that point I was really focused on my career. I was like, “OK, I’m 28. I want to stay focused on that white picket fence,” trying to head towards that lifestyle.

How were you honing your skills as an artist while working more traditional jobs?
All my friends always laugh about it. Pi’erre, when he was at my crib, he would record me. He would make the beats, and I would be at work. Since I was the boss — I mean, thank God I don’t have this job anymore — I would take a pretty long lunch break, maybe an hour, an hour and a half. When I was on that break, I would record, we’d make a few songs, I’d go back to work.

As soon as I got off work, I’d come back home, record again. Every night, I was usually in the studio with some of the people that I just named.

So, you start to move through the Atlanta hip-hop scene. That’s such a crazy time to be coming up, 2016. So many incredible albums and mixtapes came out around that time. How did you become a part of YSL?
I basically didn’t sign to Young Stoner Life Records until October 2018; 2019 was basically my first year releasing records, as far as being an artist. Around that time when I first signed my record deal with Jeff [Young Thug, born Jeffery Williams], I had already been co-writing and writing for a lot of people at that time. I had already went platinum. He was just looking at me one day, “Bro, why are you writing for so many people? You’re a superstar. You really got it.”

Jeff showed a lot of adamancy in making sure that I became a superstar. I really respected him for that. He could have picked anyone. He could have went to the hottest artists in Tampa or Milwaukee or somewhere and been like, “Yo, I’m going to sign you because you got a Number One record out right now.” But he believed in me. That’s one thing that I always cherished.

Shoutout to Southside from 808 Mafia, along with a bunch of my other friends. Southside was very adamant too. I remember one day I asked him, “How come no one’s listening to my music?” He’s like, “Bro, you don’t put your music out.” He’s like, “Everybody knows you’re dope and that you write.” He’s like, “But you don’t release any of your music.” I think that helped.

What made you decide to tour now, drop an album this year, and a project before it? How did you create this timeline for yourself? 
Even last year I was building up to this, doing the tour with Kid Cudi, having these really incredible songs that I’ve been waiting to let the world hear. I kind of have an internal clock that kind of makes me feel like, “Hey, it’s about time.”

Tour prep is really crazy because it’s my first headlining tour, so obviously, there’s a lot of logistical things that have to be handled and a lot of meetings. But also getting back in the gym, working with my trainer, making sure we got that right, getting rehearsals, getting my set list together. I’m excited to get out and give my fans an incredible show. I think I’m super energetic. Obviously, I feed off the crowd, but I’m already just so hyped about just performing the songs, just being in front of them, that I just kind of go crazy regardless.

What is it like to be able to be getting ready to put out this incredible song featuring Young Thug, and he right now is not able to be a part of it? How is that going for you?
Well, first, it’s an incredibly unfortunate situation. We’re praying for Thug, staying positive, keeping him in our prayers. And I miss him of course, but he’ll be home soon, and we just want to continue just pushing the legacy in a positive way.

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