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Tremaine “Tree” Johnson has been popping up all over the place since he landed on the Reader‘s B Side cover in August. At the end of the month MTV Hive premiered “God Listens,” a track Tree cut with North Carolina rapper Deniro Farrar; that same week Mishka released Supreme Cuts’ collaborative mixtape with Barbadian rapper Haleek Maul, Chrome Lips, which includes some great guest verses from Tree; and in September Tree announced that the full-length he’s been working on with producer Frank Dukes (Ghostface Killah, Danny Brown) will hit iTunes in November. Tree was supposed to drop a new EP called Trillin in September, but given how many plates he has in the air, it’s hardly a surprise that it’s been delayed. Fortunately it looks like the EP will come out soon, and Johnson has finally released its first single, “Karl Malone.” Johnson has billed Trillin as his take on drill and trap music—the EP’s producer, 110% Pure, has been making trap beats for some time—but the rapid-fire synth squeals and sharp, lean drum patterns have more in common with Johnson’s “soul trap” sound than drill music.
