Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker has teamed with Lil Wayne and Rick Ross for a big and brash new track, “Gimme Brain,” that marks the first release from Barker’s new label, DTA Records.
Barker produced “Gimme Brain,” which boasts a speaker-shaking mix of drums and bass peppered with twisty synth lines and pushed forward with the occasional horn-like fanfare. It’s an ideal beat for Lil Wayne and Ross, who are at their ridiculous best as they spit an array of raunchy puns and over-the-top boasts.
“The beat/song has been around for a while now,” Barker tells Rolling Stone of “Gimme Brain.” “I made this beat and Wayne was the first person I called almost six years ago. I’ve known Wayne and Ross both for over a decade and I consider them family.”
As for his new venture, Barker teamed with Elektra to launch DTA, and the drummer says the label will start out as an outlet for his own music. Over the past few years, Barker’s balanced his Blink-182 workload with a steady stream of collaborations with rappers like Lil Nas X, Lil Peep, Pharrell, 03 Greedo. But the drummer plans to expand the label in the future and focus on nurturing up-and-coming artists as well.
“I had a lot of young new talent coming to the studio for the last couple years,” Barker says. “DTA felt like it could be an opportunity to sign some of these artist myself and help them grow.”
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As for the label’s sonic direction, Barker says, “I want DTA to be as ‘all over the place’ as I am. Good music is good music, no genre. It’s 2020!”