Royal'T staking out place among new Memphis hip-hop crop

Memphis rapper Royal'T Top MC (Timothy Love) has been active on the local rap scene for three years. "I always went against the grain," he says of his hip-hop style.

Timothy Love, aka Memphis rapper Royal'T Top MC, deliberately planned the release party for his new record 4 All Seasonz on Saturday at the Hi-Tone to coincide with his 20th birthday.

"This is like my coming-out party," says Love, who actually has been active on the local rap scene for three years. "This is my first actual big record that I've put out. I put out two records before, but I never had a release party for it or pushed it like I'm going to push this new album."

With the release of 4 All Seasonz, Love is staking his place among a new, young generation of alternative emcees — Cities Aviv, Knowledge Nic, and Love's Saturday opener, Preauxx, among them — who are redefining Memphis rap.

"It's not typical Memphis hip-hop. It doesn't sound like Three 6 Mafia or anything like that," says Daniel Drinkard, who with his partner Daniel Craig is releasing 4 All Seasonz on their Memphis-based Fat Sandwich label. "Royal'T is more of a throwback, '90s old-school hip-hop that there's not that much of going on in this city."

If Love sounds apart from typical Bluff City rapper it may be because he was raised apart. Growing up in South Memphis, Love was home-schooled, an experience that gave him a different set of influences than a lot of local emcees. He says he began singing and playing piano at age 6, imitating the Temptations, Michael Jackson and Prince at first. A year later at a "sock hop," he discovered hip-hop through the song "Hay" by the Chicago group Crucial Conflict, and he knew from that moment he wanted to rap.

"I've always thought I was an outsider because I would listen to Wu-Tang Clan instead of Three 6 Mafia," Love recalls. "I always went against the grain. If I saw somebody rocking red then I would want to rock blue. I always wanted to be separated."

After making a pair of little-heard home tapes, Love made his commercial recording debut at age 17 with Raw Gospel Muzik, an effort the rapper says was more of a statement of his roots than anything.

"It really wasn't gospel. It was kind of more grimy and gutter," says Love. "I took the essence of the '90s and I got a lot of the Memphis hip-hop legends of the period like Fathom 9 and Jason Da Hater from Iron Mic Coalition and I collaborate with them to let people know that these are the people I'm around. That was me saying this is who I am and I can keep up with these old heads."

Raw Gospel Muzik was followed last year by I.D.K., a much darker, "sinister" record that featured guest shots by his contemporaries Cities Aviv, Preauxx, and his cousin, A Quest, among others.

"It's a movement, not just here but everywhere," Love of says of the new hip-hop crop. "The young heads, I think now are taking over. In this era, hip-hop is going to a better place. I think people are tired of the same old thing, and they want something different."

Different is what fans can expect from 4 All Seasonz, which was largely produced by Fathom 9. In contrast to I.D.K., Love says the new record is an exploration of his "party side," with upbeat grooves counterpointed with gritty rhymes about life in South Memphis.

Fat Sandwich's Craig says the album is an exciting evolution of Love's sound.

"It's always fun to watch these new kids who've got this new sound they're experimenting with come up and come into their own," he says. "All these other rappers are either doing the same old thing, or they're just recycling something that somebody else has already done. But with (Cities Aviv) and Tim, they're really throwing caution to the wind with some of the beats that they make, some of the rhymes they throw out there. It's really exciting, and I think that's what draws people to them."

With his Hi-Tone coming-out — which will feature a rare solo performance by Love as well as a night-closing dubstep set — soon to be behind him, the rapper is already looking toward the future.

"People who like this album are going to love the next album that I'm dropping," says Love, who plans to issue an EP with DJ Hush before putting out his next full-length work in the spring.

"I'm almost done with it. I'm like 10 songs in, and I think I'm going to do 14. I'm really hyped about it. I'm working with different producers. This is gonna be the one."

Royal’T record release with special guests Preauxx, A Quest, and DJ Hush

Saturday at the Hi-Tone Café, 1913 Poplar Ave. Doors open at 9 p.m. Admission: $5. Advance tickets available at hitonememphis.com. For more information, call

(901) 278-8663.

© 2011 Go Memphis. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.