Bringing You Up To Speed: Travis Porter

In just over a year, Travis Porter has accomplished more than most emerging artists with record deals.  The group of 19-year old Atlanta natives have had over 20 million Youtube views, performed live on the Monique show, released a major single on the Billboard charts.  Also, they have a music video in rotation on MTV Jams and are preparing for an upcoming tour in Germany.  With all that going on, it’s no wonder that the major labels are currently in a bidding war to acquire MySpace’s #1 unsigned group!

With Travis Porter’s fifth official mixtape, Proud 2 Be A Problem, hosted by DJ Teknikz, dropping in two weeks, now’s a good time to catch up on what the group’s accomplished.  The four previous projects that have already been released include Who is Travis Porter?, I’m a Differenter, I’m a Differenter 2, and Streets R US.

The success of those releases landed the boys with co-signs from major music forces such as Fader Magazine and Young Money’s Drake.  I’ve personally seen major label artists such as XXL Freshman Big Sean mention the group in my interviews.  The funniest testimony of Travis Porter’s music’s influence came in my interview with Diamond, when her “Go Shorty” ring-tone kept going off, ha!

Travis Porter – “Go Shorty” (Produced by @spinzhoodrich & @_TERRYREESE_)

Download “Go Shorty Go.”

I broke down the lyrics of “Go Shorty Go” in a previous post, where we took a close look at the high-energy club track that’s currently #40 on urban radio Billboard charts.

Before Travis Porter had the clubs screaming “Go Shorty Go,” the group added verses to Roscoe Dash’s hook on “All The Way Turnt Up,” transforming the song into a street hit.  However, feeling like he wasn’t getting enough recognition from the hit record, Roscoe took the mixtape track to Soulja Boy and legally re-released a new version to mainstream radio and MTV.  Having said that, I still feel that the original version is better than Soulja Boy’s.  Travis Porter explained the whole Roscoe Dash situation in this recent interview with DJ Drama.

Aside from hit singles, Travis Porter’s rapid rise in popularity can largely be attributed to their impressive use of social media.  One of the group’s standout Twitter campaigns utilized a well designed landing page, asking fans to “tweet to watch” their new music video.  After fans shared the following tweet with their friends, they were able to enjoy an early viewing of “Get Naked.”  This viral tweet campaign encouraged Travis Porter’s fans to help spread the word about the group’s music and rewarded them with an early look at the video.  Major label artists should do more promotions like this!

Travis Porter – “Get Naked”

Download “Get Naked”

Shout out to McKinley Directs for the visuals!

“Get Naked,” released in February, served as a very sensual Valentine’s Day gift to the group’s female fans.  The song played at the beginning of the video, “Secondary Girl,” will appear on the upcoming mixtape.  Another anticipated track, “Let Me Take You Out,” will serve as the debut single for Def Jam’s Bryan J.  Rarely do unsigned artists debut major label singles on mixtapes, crazy!

Other interesting marketing campaigns surrounding the upcoming mixtape included Travis Porter tweeting ɯʍop ǝpısdn in support of their street single, “Upside Down,” and asking fans for crazy voicemails to be used as skits on the mixtape.  I can’t wait to hear what fans come up with for that!

Travis Porter – “Hotel”

DOWNLOAD: “HOTEL”

“Hotel,” produced by DJ Spinz, is an early leak off of Proud 2 Be A Problem, and features a number of hilarious quotes where the boys go in on groupies with lines such as, “all my hoes nasty, like gum under the bleachers,” and “assassinate the pussy, John F. Kennedy.”  I’ve been seeing those lines a lot in various tweets lately, ha!

As if the music wasn’t enough, the mixtape is going to be released in conjunction with the group’s movie, Unbelievable.  After showing a preview for it in the final episode of Travis Porter’s OnSmash.com webseries, the movie was premiered in Atlanta on March 6th, along with an accompanying concert that saw a special guest appearance from Lil Jon.  The King of Crunk performed his “All The Way Crunk’d Up” track with the boys.

Here’s a quick look at the short film:

Proud 2 Be A Problem has already seen over 40,000 views on Livemixtapes.com, and drops on May 18th.  Keep an eye out for more creative marketing from Travis Porter!

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE TRAVIS PORTER SONG?