Happy Birthday, Don Trip!

Today, Aug. 20, is the birthday of Memphis' own Don Trip, a talented wordsmith who was named a XXL Freshman in 2012. The rapper is now 33.

Raised in Memphis, Don, born Christopher Don Wallace, began rapping at the age of 15. From the outset, Don Trip's bars have been rugged ones about the dimensions of street life, and they continue to be to this day.

After dropping off several mixtapes in the late 2000s, Don Trip jumped into a little bit of auto-biographical detail to release "Letter to My Son," an emotional track about a strained father-son relationship he believed was brought on by his vindictive baby's mother. Using some potent rhyme structures to carry his heartfelt message, Don Trip struck a chord with fans when he dropped off the track back in 2009.

"And your mama's low-down/She's just doing everything to hurt me right now/Why? Cause I don't love her like I used to/So to get back at me, she knows she's gotta use you/And I don't know what else to do/She don't understand that this shit will bruise you too/And now I gotta take the bitch to court, so either way, it's a lose-lose," Trip spits on the track.

Riding the buzz of "Letter to My Son," Trip eventually ended up being signing to Interscope. Around that same time, Don Trip teamed up with fellow Memphis rapper, Starlito, to deliver their first joint project, Step Brothers. Pairing both of their talents for lyricism, the tape was the first in a series that is still going strong to this day. The pair dropped off Step Brothers Three last spring.

In 2012, Trip, along with acts like Machine Gun Kelly, Iggy Azalea, Future and more as a XXL Freshman, and he's only continued killing it since. With more than 15 solo projects and all the rhyme skill in the world, Don Trip continues to be one of the very best artists Memphis has to offer. Today, we wish him a happy birthday.

Happy Birthday, Don Trip! Take some time to listen to any one of the Step Brothers projects when you get the chance, and when you're done with that, peep his latest album, Christopher, which dropped this past April.

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