Who is Flow $tro?
From a home studio in the backroads of Petersburg, Va., Flow $tro — or $tro for short — fuses layers of trap, poetry and soul into his music. He delivers a brand new visual to his latest single “Remember”, off his most recent full length project, Stroetry.
“The universe behind my face on the $troetry cover represents how we are more than what people see on the outside.” — $tro
The youngest of 5 children with roots in the deep south, $tro developed his sound in Petersburg, by way of nearby Hopewell, where he was born, and his mom and dad’s home states of North Carolina and Mississippi. His transparency and flow, paired with trap production, shine through on $troetry. Lines like “I know I ain’t perfect baby, this is how I am” over body-moving beats make songs like “Slam” repeat-worthy.
Hype: Where you from and when did you first fall in love with hip-hop?
Flow $tro: I’m from Hopewell but raised in Petersburg. I fell In love with hip hop at an early age, can’t really tell you what particular age but I can tell you that it was the No limit and Hot boy era. I wanted to be just like them from raping they lyrics to rocking bandannas how they was rockin’ them.
Hype: Who are your musical influences and inspirations?
Flow $tro: To many to name fr so i’ll just say my musical influences and inspirations come from all the pioneers before me from every era.
Hype: What’s music like growing up in the DMV?
Flow $tro: I don’t even know if our part of Virginia is even part of the DMV convo lol but it’s cool out here I feel like we slowly forming an identity cause for a while I feel like we didn’t have one not really enough influences here so we take from other places.
Hype: How did artists like Trey Songz, Chris Brown, and Pharrell pioneer the music scene for VA?
Flow $tro: It’s Always good when you have people from your state make it out and be successful cause it show you that you can do it too especially being some of the first ones to make it I feel like they opened the door for the rest of us now we just gotta kick it down. Its different when it’s somebody like Trey tho cause he from right here. Chris and Pharrell from VA so it’s still inspiration but when you see somebody blow from the same city you in it’s different you just feel like you can obtain it more.
Hype: When did you first decide to pursue hip-hop as your craft?
Flow $tro: I been Playing around with music for a while but it wasn’t until a couple years ago when I said I was gonna take it serious like actually putting out songs, going to the studio recording and making a project to put out.
Hype: How’d you get your name?
Flow $tro: Really just something I came up with, I Started off as Ca$htro then just started going by $tro or Flow $tro I might change it to something more personal later down the line.
Hype: What separates you from your peers in the music business?
Flow $tro: I think my voice separates me from my peers and I feel like I’m more reserved and laid back than a lot of them.
Hype: You just released your new project, Stroetry, what inspired the title of this project?
Flow $tro: My homeboy $amp helped me come up with the name. We was chillin in his studio brainstorming tryna figure out what I was gone call it and after bouncing ideas off each other I believe he said “Stroetry” and it stuck and it made since this is my version of poetry.
Hype: You released a video “Remember” from the project recently, what do you remember about your past to your present?
Flow $tro: I remember a lot about my past probably more then I give myself credit for but every I said in that song was true from having to boil water to take wash ups out the sink, my brother Cadillac getting stolen to waking up out my sleep from having dreams about my uncle Who died when i was Younger that was one of the first funerals I ever went to as a child.
Hype: What’s your definition of success as an artist in the industry?
Flow $tro: My definition of success as an artist would be to make it out of where I’m at and If i could Change the people around me lives off my craft I’ll feel like I’m successful.
Hype: What advice would you give the next artist from Petersburg, Va?
Flow $tro: Try to stay focus which is always easier said than done but it’s a lot of distractions out here so my advice would be to try to just stay focused and patient.
Hype: Who would you like to work with in the upcoming quarter of 2021?
Flow $tro: Lil Baby, Young thug, Gunna, Gucci Mane, Drake, or Trigga. it’s too many to name forreal but that’s just a few names of the people I was watching coming into this that I feel like we’ll mesh well on a song together. But I’m just working until I can get one of them on a song.
Hype: What’s next for you?
Flow $tro: Dropping a couple more videos for this project. I’m Working on another project which is untitled at the moment. I just been recording tryna build my catalog and tryna perfect my craft.
Stay connected with Flow $tro for upcoming announcements and releases here.
