Dallas, Texas Legend Tum Tum Talks About His New, “350 Tape” Project!

Tum Tum has been holding Texas down for a long time. The OG doesn’t disappoint with his new, “350 Tape,” release!

The history of the hip-hop scene runs deep. From The Ghetto Boys, UGK, Slim Thug, J-Dawg, Mike Jones, Paul Wall, Yella Beezy… the list is endless. Perhaps one of the most consistent from the Dallas area is, Tum Tum. You can’t speak about the Dallas rap scene without including “Zillaman.” With endless albums, features and written material for other artist under his belt, Tum plans to go even harder in 2020. Expecting to release 3 to 4 projects, including a joint project with fellow legend, Lil Flip. His recently released, “350 Tape” provides 11-hard-hitting tracks with features ranging from, Fat B, Jakk Jo, Quint Foxx, Lil Tony, Lil Flip, Lil Norby, and MO3.

I caught up with the, Dallas Shagg rocking, Tum Tum to discuss the new project, why he collaborates with legends as well as new generation artists and he shares his thoughts on the fight game.

You came with it on that, “350 Tape.” Tell us about the new project, man.

Tum Tum: Basically, one of my potnas came to me with an idea, his name, TicketMaster Tapes. He came to me with an idea and we just ran with it.

Did this come together overnight when he hit you with the idea, or had you been working on some music already?

Tum Tum: Oh nah, nah, nah… I’m in the studio 3-4 days a week. I basically live in there; you know what I’m saying. I’m in there all the time; writing songs for people. You know, just hustling, baby (laughing).

What are your thoughts on the Dallas music scene right now?

Tum Tum: Oh, I love it, bruh. I like, Yella, I like, 3, Trap. To tell you the truth, I like the female rappers right now. They going off. And then there is a bunch of young cats out here going off, like 7. It’s a bunch of dudes out here. Even the Fort Worth scene hard. DFDub look good right now.

You have OG’S on the “350 Tape,” and some new cats on there as well. Was that by design or just the way it came together?

Tum Tum: That’s just me. I have always… even if you go all the way back to, “O-Tumma,” I got cats on there that’s just now poppin right now. I always mess with young cats. I gave, Fat Pimp his first shot. I just always put young cats on my tapes. I’m in the circle like that. I shine, baby (laughing).

Do you have a favorite joint off the, “350 Tape?”

Tum Tum: I ain’t gon lie, for me, it’s probably, “U Wasn’t There,” but my favorite-favorite song of the tape is, “Ride Wit Me,” with, Jakk Jo. My potna called me up there to do a song with him and I walked in and it was, Jakk Jo, Mia X son. I was like, “Damn! I was just watching this nigga on YouTube.” So, that was crazy. So, I got him on a track. Mia X was my favorite female rapper coming up, so that’s hard to me, you know what I’m saying.

You already know I was going to ask you about that Louisiana connect and how that came about.

Tum Tum: (Laughing)! Yeah-yeah! He cool with my potna and then I found out, we got our haircut at the same place. He just go on Wednesday’s and I go on Friday’s. That’s my potna, Soto shop in Desoto. That was crazy than a mug. He was like, “Yeah, I cut his hair every Wednesday.” I’m a fan of, bro.

You got the legend, Lil Flip on it too. How did that collaboration come to fruition?

Tum Tum: To tell you the truth, I just got off the phone with, Flip. We doing a whole tape together. We bout 5-songs in. I always mess with, Flip. That’s one of my smoking potnas (laughing). It don’t matter where we at, I run into, Flip, we gonna smoke a couple together. That’s been my dawg for a minute doe.

Sounds like you plan on putting a lot of material out this year.

Tum Tum: Oh yeah! I’m coming this year with that work. I only put out one project last year, and I wanted to drop more, but I got caught up doing some other shit. But this year, I’m gonna probably put out about 3 or 4 projects.

Your sound is never the same. I can’t listen to whatever wave is in and expect your music to sound like that wave. That’s a rare thing and a good thing as well.

Tum Tum: I always tell people, when they style switch up, then where you gon be? Migos style got swallowed up so much, when they come back, they gonna have to come back with a new sound. That’s probably why they ain’t dropped in a minute too. They trying to create something new because when everybody on one wave… man, everything just sound the same. It’s kind of whack to tell you the truth (laughing). I don’t even know where dudes from anymore, you know what I’m saying. Back in the day, you turned on a record, I heard, “Whoadie,” I know he from there, I here, “Shawty,” I know he from Atlanta, you hear certain words and I know he from Florida, hear, “Thiz” and I know he from The Bay, Cali. Now, even New York niggaz doing, “Drill” music. I don’t know where nobody from, you know what I’m saying (laughing).

Damn, that’s real. I didn’t even think of it like that.

Tum Tum: Yeah! You hear something kind of hard and be like, “Damn, where he from? Atlanta?” “Nah, he from Cali.” It’s like, “How?” It just be crazy, but you know they grew up in the internet era, so they grew up… I don’t know, man. It’s just different for me.

At the end of the day, we all have to adjust to this internet era. How different was it for you to see the change coming and then maneuver differently?

Tum Tum: That’s one reason why I took a year off. I had sat back and studied and seen what was going on. I seen most of the people had to make an ass out of themselves to get poppin. I ain’t really with that, so I just had to take the stairs rather than the elevator and just try to outwork niggaz.

Not only do we share a passion for music, but we also share a passion for the fight game as well. What are your thoughts on some of the recent things that has happened in the fight world?

Tum Tum: Man… the only thing I don’t be liking, you know all I’m gonna say about boxing, bruh (laughing). I hate that the best don’t fight the best, bruh. I hate it, bruh. We should be getting a round robin with these heavyweights, Fury vs. Wilder, Wilder vs. Ruiz, Joshua vs. Fury, Wilder vs. Joshua. We ain’t getting none of that. Even in Errol Spence weight class, we ain’t getting none of that. I be looking at some of these fights like, “Why is this nigga even fighting this nigga, man?” It’s like, bruh come on. I know, Danny [Garcia] was supposed to fight, Errol and then the accident happened, but even his last fight, I was like, “Man, who is this dude, man?” and I’m a Danny fan. I like, Danny, but these last couple of fights, I been like, “Who is this dude? Who is he fighting?” That being said, it does feel good to have someone like, Errol putting on. We got a lot of young Mexican cats coming up too doe. Mo Hooker been putting on. We looking good, man. Then in the UFC, we got, Kamara Usman is the champ right now. I’m digging it.

I saw you tweet about the, Jon “Bones” Jones fight the other day. The word “robbery” doesn’t sit well with you in these close fights and it shouldn’t.

Tum Tum: Bruh… I can’t believe they doing, “Bones” like that. I know it was a close fight, but Jesus Christ. They throwing him under the gate like he got knocked down a hundred times (laughing). He remind me of, Floyd. He’ll go back and fight this dude again and finish him or dominate him like, Floyd did Maidana. Everybody thought the first one was close or Maidana edged it. He came back and fought him again and it wasn’t even close. I think that’s how it’s going to be the second time around with, “Bones.”

I always appreciate the time, OG. Everybody, go get that, “350 Tape.” Is there anything else before I let you go?

Tum Tum: Everybody be on the lookout for that, Tum Tum and Lil Flip, baby! Texas baby!