Lil Ghost: Memorial’s In-House Rapper

Trey Evans (pictured) performing his largest show to date at Last Concert Cafe. (Photo courtesy of Trey Evans) 

 

If you’ve never heard of Lil Ghost aka White Boy Illest aka Trey Evans, you will soon. A 2017 Memorial High School graduate, Trey picked up rapping his sophomore year of high school and has since had some success with his song Little Einsteins, which was released in 2015, among other songs. I recently had the opportunity to talk with Trey about how his rap career got started, his inspiration and his future in music. 

When asked about how his rap career got started, Trey cites the bad rap music that was being released his sophomore year of high school: “Wow, these rappers are bad,” he thought - “I can do this {better!}” What started out as a joke turned into something real when Trey realized that he enjoyed messing around with GarageBand and other studio programs to create songs. His first song got over 5,000 plays on SoundCloud and inspired him to turn rapping into a regular hobby. 

In 2015, Trey took the theme song from the children’s TV show Little Einstein’s, and remixed it. He picked this song because the song was already fairly popular, and he wanted his remix to have name value. It became wildly popular, and has been played over 700,000 times on SoundCloud. It has been featured on popular YouTube and Instagram videos for accounts with millions of followers, including @white_coffee_cat. With help from his good friend Jacob Lackey (also a graduate of Memorial High School), Trey was able to make a music video for the song and eventually was booked to play a show at Last Concert Cafe in downtown Houston on Feb. 12, 2017, where he performed 15 songs in front of about 270 people. He says it was one of the most exciting points in his rap career, and gives most of the credit to Jacob for helping him with this milestone. 

Pictured (from left) are friends Sofia Antillon, Trey Evans and Melanie Shaw displaying their Stoked Designs brand shirts. The design brand, also started by MHS grad Isabella Davidson, did a design collaboration with Trey relating to his music. (Photo courtesy of Trey Evans) 

After releasing the video for Little Einsteins, Trey enjoyed some of the perks of fame: At the end of high school, he started to be recognized by people who would ask to take pictures with him. He was also able to do a design collaboration with Stoked Designs, a t-shirt company also run by a Memorial High School grad, Isabella Davidson. Although Trey performed two small shows at Super Happy Fun Land for smaller crowds, he was able to perform at bigger venue Last Concert Cafe after Little Einsteins took off. As his music career started to become more public, Trey upgraded his equipment (including microphones, music production systems, etc.), and more to sound more professional so he could be taken more seriously as a musician. Although he released Little Einsteins under the name “White Boy Illest,” Trey changed his rap name to “Lil Ghost” after he decided to become a more serious rapper. 

Trey says Weird Al Yankovic and Lil Dicky are his inspirations, noting that he likes to keep his raps lighthearted and fun, especially since his career initially started as more of a joke. Although Trey is now working to improve the quality of his songs so that they can be more commercial, he enjoys the satirical and funny parts of rap and tries to include elements of that in each of his songs. 

Trey is currently a freshman at St. Edward’s University studying communications, and sees Austin (a known live music hotspot) as a huge opportunity to play lots of live shows and get his music out. He’s currently trying to connect with big names in the Austin music industry, having recently met with a producer and a promoter in order to expand his network. Despite the added pressure of college, Trey still makes music all the time and says it is one of his favorite things to do. It doesn’t hurt that he gets paid to play shows, too!  Although he doesn’t really plan on pursuing music full time in the future, he is currently having fun gaining recognition for his talent. 

Trey’s family, who still lives in the Memorial area, is extremely supportive of him. Trey’s dad went to his concert at the Last Concert Café, which meant a lot to Trey. 

Today, most of Trey’s songs are being released on SoundCloud, where users can listen to music from aspiring artists for free. Be sure to listen to Little Einsteins, which is streaming under all music platforms under the rap name “White Boy Illest.” 

Support live music, and support a Buzz resident! Shows in Austin should be announced soon.