June 6, 2025 • 10 mins
Torre Lott is a rising voice in hip-hop, known for his raw honesty and boundary-pushing sound. Hailing from the west side of Cleveland, he brings together street-level storytelling and real emotional depth—no gimmicks, just truth. His breakout track Reflections caught the attention of Kevin Abstract (of BROCKHAMPTON), and it’s easy to see why: the beat hits hard, but it’s Torre’s vulnerability that really leaves a mark.
Classically trained from a young age, Torre approaches music with a rare mix of discipline and creativity. He draws from hip-hop, metal, classical, and more, crafting songs that feel intentional and alive. His EP Reason One: The Rising Sun, made with longtime collaborator Rex Schirra, is a standout—moody, thoughtful, and made for people who actually want to listen, not just scroll.
Torre isn’t chasing trends or clout. He’s been steadily building behind the scenes, forming real connections and letting the music speak for itself. As 2025 unfolds, he’s dropping new singles, visuals, and at least one full project—but don’t expect a formula. Every release is its own world, designed to hit deeper than just surface-level.
For Torre, it’s all about connection. “The music’s one thing,” he says, “but what I care about most is that people feel it—like it speaks to something inside them.” With talent, vision, and a relentless work ethic, Torre Lott is carving out his own space in the culture—one track at a time.Highlights from Toby Gribben's Friday afternoon show on Shout Radio. Featuring chat with top showbiz guests. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Classically trained from a young age, Torre approaches music with a rare mix of discipline and creativity. He draws from hip-hop, metal, classical, and more, crafting songs that feel intentional and alive. His EP Reason One: The Rising Sun, made with longtime collaborator Rex Schirra, is a standout—moody, thoughtful, and made for people who actually want to listen, not just scroll.
Torre isn’t chasing trends or clout. He’s been steadily building behind the scenes, forming real connections and letting the music speak for itself. As 2025 unfolds, he’s dropping new singles, visuals, and at least one full project—but don’t expect a formula. Every release is its own world, designed to hit deeper than just surface-level.
For Torre, it’s all about connection. “The music’s one thing,” he says, “but what I care about most is that people feel it—like it speaks to something inside them.” With talent, vision, and a relentless work ethic, Torre Lott is carving out his own space in the culture—one track at a time.Highlights from Toby Gribben's Friday afternoon show on Shout Radio. Featuring chat with top showbiz guests. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Thank God. It's Toby Highlights, the podcast version
of my radio show. We've got a cracking interview coming
up for you. And remember, if you want the full
unfeltered chaos, you can catch Thank God. It's Toby Live
every Friday afternoon from three on Shout Radio. But enough
(00:22):
of the plugging. Let's get on with the interview stand weekend, right,
thank God it's Toby.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hey there.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Looking for car insurance that's simple, fast and comes with
a little extra.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
That's red Click.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
You can save an average of two hundred and forty
five year O and you quote online. That's two hundred
and forty five yuro o in your back pocket insurance.
That's easy insurance. That's quick visit red click dot I
discam based on new private car policies from first November
twenty four to first February twenty five. Max discent three
hundred JERO applied the for optional covers subject to minimum
premium acceptance criteria. Terms of editions apply generality Coursey Race,
of course, sau trading is red click in generally is
(00:56):
authorized by the General Dictor's Inshirts and Pincherhood and Spain
and his regulated by the center blank of Ireland for
conduct to business rules.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Love at first sight is something we see every day
at Curries, from a new fridge that fits your family's
needs to a bigger washing machine that gets more done.
Once you see it, you'll wonder how you ever lived
without it. With a huge range and the latest spects
across home appliances, TVs, laptops, phones and more, and with
(01:23):
amazing offers in store and at Curries, dot Ie, you
know it's meant to be Curries for the tech you love.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Tory Lot is a boundary pushing hip hop artist from
Cleveland who is emotionally raw storytelling and genre defying. Sound
are redefining what it means to keep it real and
Tory is Weather's here.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Good afternoon, Good afternoon.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
So for people who are maybe just discovering you, who
is Tory Lot and what do you stand for as
an artist?
Speaker 5 (01:57):
As an artist, I'm a man of the people, personal
and foremost, I do this to bridge that gap of
the connection that we've been missing within music. Man, it's
the matter of feeling that we've lost and that's something
that I want to re revive.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
And musically, your sound pools from a wide spectrum from metal, classical,
and hip hop. What were some of the early influences
that influenced that sound.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
My earliest influence is probably fall Out Boy and Pending
at the Disco. My first live performance I ever saw
was mushroom Head. They're a Cleveland local band and they're
legendary around here.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
It was wild, dude.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
I got to go backstage at like twelve years old
and meet these guys. They told me that as long
as you keep to it and you stay true to this,
bro'll you'll do exactly what we're doing now and you'll
be right here with us. And it came true, honestly.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, And it's quite an ecollectic mix of genres you
were influenced by. I mean, is there any particular reason
that it was so varied, because I suppose a lot
of people just kind of have one genre that they
do and we're influenced by that genre only.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
You're very, very very on pointed with that question.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
The reason that it is so varied is because I
feel that once you put yourself into a specific genre
or a specific type of branding as an artist, you
put yourself in a box and you lose the genuine connection.
I don't lay my options on whether or not as
relevant to the cultural sound right now, I weigh my
options on connection and whether or not this is going
to affect the people in a way that I need
(03:24):
it to. And you can do that within any genre.
It's just a matter of conveying the message.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Now, you're classically trained as well, which is rare in hippop.
So what do you think classical music has taught you
that most artists never.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Learned the music will always be bigger than you. As
an artist, I've learned that I will never be satisfied
with my creations and I have to rely on the
outside opinion in order to realize if it's ready or not.
Because as a classically trained musician, I'm so deeply intertwined
with music theory and the perfection of an arrangement that
I'll never release anything if I don't get an outside
(04:01):
opinion on it.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, your breakout track, which is called Reflections, that one
really hits emotionally. So what was the creative headspace you
were in when you were writing that.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
Reflections was written in the midst of a Deep, Deep,
Deep Cocaine edition. I was at the tail end of
like a three or four day bender. When I wrote
this song and I made my way to my Homeboys studio,
he let me set up my home recording setup in
his main recording location and he was like, go ahead,
do your thing, dog.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
I believe in you, I trust you. And I poured
my heart out. Man. It's that song is about real life.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
It's about the feelings I was feeling at the moment,
the fact I was afraid to look at myself and
look back at the things that I needed to fix.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
I didn't know how.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
To do it, and I was so terrified to do
it that I felt that just kind of ending my
life was a more feasible option for me at the time.
But thank god I wrote that song, dude. Thank god
I wrote that song and I put it out without
it at the day.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
And they find that music has been a bit of
a savior for you and your life.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
Jen, It's more so a medium for me to show
that we can all relate on some level, regardless of
the things that we deal with on a day to
day basis, the things that we ruminate in our minds,
that we build these echo chambers around the things that
we view as important and that affect us on a
day to day basis, the emotions that come from these
things and the experiences we have due to these situations.
(05:21):
Regardless of how different they are, we all experience the
same five emotions and it's something that we really need
to take a moment to realize that everybody else deals
with because without that, we'll never be able to come
to a common ground.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
And when you release the song Reflections, did you get
a lot of feedback maybe from people who had gone
through similar things to what you did?
Speaker 5 (05:43):
Without a doubt, I received random Instagram messages and Twitter messages,
Facebook messages, all of the media platforms. I got messages
for like the first two or three months if that
song was released. It was honestly like life changing. It
let me know that I was here for a reason
and something much much bigger than myself was in play here.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
When you first start a new project, what is your
starting point? I mean as a general concept, as a
particular lyric or a feeling.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
I try not to keep myself in a specific lane
when it comes to the creation of something, the start
of something, I kind of want my emotions flow and
my mood at the moment dictates where I go with
the project or the song in general. At that very
moment in time, I have countless songs like demos recorded
and ready to go for multiple genres of music, alternative, metal,
(06:31):
hip hop, trap, metal, trap music, all of these things.
Like it's just what hits me at the moment, and
it's just a matter of cherry picking and getting together
a decent project for the people in order to make
it cohesive and relatable.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
And do you write more for yourself or for your
audience or is there maybe even a metal ground?
Speaker 4 (06:50):
I would say it's definitely more of the middle ground.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
It is definitely for myself, but also for the people
just as much because if I weren't experiencing these feelings,
I wouldn't be able to share them the way that
I do. I do this for the people first and foremost.
Music has saved my life countless times. But my position
now is to do the same for those that I've experienced.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
What do you think the success will look like to
you five years from now? I mean, do you dream
of like stadium shows or maybe starting a label or
something like that.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
Success for me boils down to something very simple, and
that is a leverage and capability as a classically trained musician.
I've done this and this has been my passion since
the moment I've been able to decipher something that I
wanted to do with my life. You know, It's always
meant so much more than me to what the career
aspect has to offer. And I feel that I'm here
to teach in a sense. I want to make my
(07:40):
living and create comfort for my family in a sense
with my career. But after that, I want to fall
back into the shadows. I want to travel abroad. I
want to teach English, I want to teach poetry, and
I want to teach classical music all my continents.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
That's my dream right there.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
To ensure that the youth has a reason to keep
this creativity alive, because that's the one thing that's been
taken from us.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Like over these years, I've seen myself grow up as
an adult.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
It's getting harder and harder to find a resource that
lets you tap into that creative aspect of your life,
you know, especially and in.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
The more short term, Are there any particular musical projects
that you're working on at the moment.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
Yes, I am currently finalizing my EP. Don't panic, It's
going to be generally a multi genre. I don't want
to box it in, so I will call it a
genre project. It's going to be about five to six
songs ranging from metal to alternative rock, to acoustic to
hip hop to trap, and it will encompass everything and
be cohesive. And it's going to be something that I've
(08:39):
been working over the past two years that I really
think that people deserve to hear because everybody that has
consumed a general like major project or something that has
been given to them or paid it to them, it's
one specific type of thing and it molds their tastes
in a way to where they become avoidant of other things.
And that's the one thing I wanted to change in
(08:59):
this music industry is the fact that our tension spans
are very short. Our opinions are molded through what's fed
to us, and in order to present something different and
something that's actually reactive to.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
The people would be completely like incredible for me.
Speaker 5 (09:14):
That would be my main goal, and I think that
I've accomplished that behind the scenes.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
It's just a matter of getting into the people now
absolutely well.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
In the meantime, where are we able to find all
your music that you've came out with so far.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
So you can find me on any of the streaming sites,
literally any of them, just my personal fory lot. You'll
find quite a few singles there. I do have a
website that has quite a few exclusive demos on it,
which is my first and last name. If you just
want to type that in tory loot dot com, that'll
get you there. It's got about three or four unreleased
tracks on there right now, some demos that will be
(09:46):
on this upcoming project. I left that as a teaser
for my diehard fans that pay very attention.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Well it's real simple, just my first and.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Last brilliant Well, many thanks for Johnny, it has been
great having you on the show today.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Many thanks for having me. Brother.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Fridays for celebration, good times and relaxation.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
So turn the radio up and just listen.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Listen.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
If you've got that Fridday feeling, you soon beat that's
in on the ceiling. And I'll because of your host.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Tommy, Grandma, I guess some brilliant out.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Of music's fantastic. Tommy is terrific and the speatures a classic.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
So m it's reached our our heights.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
It's not though, we can right, thank God. It's Toby
Welcome to Thank God. It's Toby Highlights, the podcast version
of my radio show. We've got a cracking interview coming
up for you. And remember, if you want the full
unfeltered chaos, you can catch Thank God. It's Toby Live
every Friday afternoon from three on Shout Radio. But enough
(00:22):
of the plugging. Let's get on with the interview stand weekend, right,
thank God it's Toby.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hey there.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Looking for car insurance that's simple, fast and comes with
a little extra.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
That's red Click.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
You can save an average of two hundred and forty
five year O and you quote online. That's two hundred
and forty five yuro o in your back pocket insurance.
That's easy insurance. That's quick visit red click dot I
discam based on new private car policies from first November
twenty four to first February twenty five. Max discent three
hundred JERO applied the for optional covers subject to minimum
premium acceptance criteria. Terms of editions apply generality Coursey Race,
of course, sau trading is red click in generally is
(00:56):
authorized by the General Dictor's Inshirts and Pincherhood and Spain
and his regulated by the center blank of Ireland for
conduct to business rules.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Love at first sight is something we see every day
at Curries, from a new fridge that fits your family's
needs to a bigger washing machine that gets more done.
Once you see it, you'll wonder how you ever lived
without it. With a huge range and the latest spects
across home appliances, TVs, laptops, phones and more, and with
(01:23):
amazing offers in store and at Curries, dot Ie, you
know it's meant to be Curries for the tech you love.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Tory Lot is a boundary pushing hip hop artist from
Cleveland who is emotionally raw storytelling and genre defying. Sound
are redefining what it means to keep it real and
Tory is Weather's here.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Good afternoon, Good afternoon.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
So for people who are maybe just discovering you, who
is Tory Lot and what do you stand for as
an artist?
Speaker 5 (01:57):
As an artist, I'm a man of the people, personal
and foremost, I do this to bridge that gap of
the connection that we've been missing within music. Man, it's
the matter of feeling that we've lost and that's something
that I want to re revive.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
And musically, your sound pools from a wide spectrum from metal, classical,
and hip hop. What were some of the early influences
that influenced that sound.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
My earliest influence is probably fall Out Boy and Pending
at the Disco. My first live performance I ever saw
was mushroom Head. They're a Cleveland local band and they're
legendary around here.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
It was wild, dude.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
I got to go backstage at like twelve years old
and meet these guys. They told me that as long
as you keep to it and you stay true to this,
bro'll you'll do exactly what we're doing now and you'll
be right here with us. And it came true, honestly.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, And it's quite an ecollectic mix of genres you
were influenced by. I mean, is there any particular reason
that it was so varied, because I suppose a lot
of people just kind of have one genre that they
do and we're influenced by that genre only.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
You're very, very very on pointed with that question.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
The reason that it is so varied is because I
feel that once you put yourself into a specific genre
or a specific type of branding as an artist, you
put yourself in a box and you lose the genuine connection.
I don't lay my options on whether or not as
relevant to the cultural sound right now, I weigh my
options on connection and whether or not this is going
to affect the people in a way that I need
(03:24):
it to. And you can do that within any genre.
It's just a matter of conveying the message.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Now, you're classically trained as well, which is rare in hippop.
So what do you think classical music has taught you
that most artists never.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Learned the music will always be bigger than you. As
an artist, I've learned that I will never be satisfied
with my creations and I have to rely on the
outside opinion in order to realize if it's ready or not.
Because as a classically trained musician, I'm so deeply intertwined
with music theory and the perfection of an arrangement that
I'll never release anything if I don't get an outside
(04:01):
opinion on it.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, your breakout track, which is called Reflections, that one
really hits emotionally. So what was the creative headspace you
were in when you were writing that.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
Reflections was written in the midst of a Deep, Deep,
Deep Cocaine edition. I was at the tail end of
like a three or four day bender. When I wrote
this song and I made my way to my Homeboys studio,
he let me set up my home recording setup in
his main recording location and he was like, go ahead,
do your thing, dog.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
I believe in you, I trust you. And I poured
my heart out. Man. It's that song is about real life.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
It's about the feelings I was feeling at the moment,
the fact I was afraid to look at myself and
look back at the things that I needed to fix.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
I didn't know how.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
To do it, and I was so terrified to do
it that I felt that just kind of ending my
life was a more feasible option for me at the time.
But thank god I wrote that song, dude. Thank god
I wrote that song and I put it out without
it at the day.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
And they find that music has been a bit of
a savior for you and your life.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
Jen, It's more so a medium for me to show
that we can all relate on some level, regardless of
the things that we deal with on a day to
day basis, the things that we ruminate in our minds,
that we build these echo chambers around the things that
we view as important and that affect us on a
day to day basis, the emotions that come from these
things and the experiences we have due to these situations.
(05:21):
Regardless of how different they are, we all experience the
same five emotions and it's something that we really need
to take a moment to realize that everybody else deals
with because without that, we'll never be able to come
to a common ground.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
And when you release the song Reflections, did you get
a lot of feedback maybe from people who had gone
through similar things to what you did?
Speaker 5 (05:43):
Without a doubt, I received random Instagram messages and Twitter messages,
Facebook messages, all of the media platforms. I got messages
for like the first two or three months if that
song was released. It was honestly like life changing. It
let me know that I was here for a reason
and something much much bigger than myself was in play here.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
When you first start a new project, what is your
starting point? I mean as a general concept, as a
particular lyric or a feeling.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
I try not to keep myself in a specific lane
when it comes to the creation of something, the start
of something, I kind of want my emotions flow and
my mood at the moment dictates where I go with
the project or the song in general. At that very
moment in time, I have countless songs like demos recorded
and ready to go for multiple genres of music, alternative, metal,
(06:31):
hip hop, trap, metal, trap music, all of these things.
Like it's just what hits me at the moment, and
it's just a matter of cherry picking and getting together
a decent project for the people in order to make
it cohesive and relatable.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
And do you write more for yourself or for your
audience or is there maybe even a metal ground?
Speaker 4 (06:50):
I would say it's definitely more of the middle ground.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
It is definitely for myself, but also for the people
just as much because if I weren't experiencing these feelings,
I wouldn't be able to share them the way that
I do. I do this for the people first and foremost.
Music has saved my life countless times. But my position
now is to do the same for those that I've experienced.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
What do you think the success will look like to
you five years from now? I mean, do you dream
of like stadium shows or maybe starting a label or
something like that.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
Success for me boils down to something very simple, and
that is a leverage and capability as a classically trained musician.
I've done this and this has been my passion since
the moment I've been able to decipher something that I
wanted to do with my life. You know, It's always
meant so much more than me to what the career
aspect has to offer. And I feel that I'm here
to teach in a sense. I want to make my
(07:40):
living and create comfort for my family in a sense
with my career. But after that, I want to fall
back into the shadows. I want to travel abroad. I
want to teach English, I want to teach poetry, and
I want to teach classical music all my continents.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
That's my dream right there.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
To ensure that the youth has a reason to keep
this creativity alive, because that's the one thing that's been
taken from us.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Like over these years, I've seen myself grow up as
an adult.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
It's getting harder and harder to find a resource that
lets you tap into that creative aspect of your life,
you know, especially and in.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
The more short term, Are there any particular musical projects
that you're working on at the moment.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
Yes, I am currently finalizing my EP. Don't panic, It's
going to be generally a multi genre. I don't want
to box it in, so I will call it a
genre project. It's going to be about five to six
songs ranging from metal to alternative rock, to acoustic to
hip hop to trap, and it will encompass everything and
be cohesive. And it's going to be something that I've
(08:39):
been working over the past two years that I really
think that people deserve to hear because everybody that has
consumed a general like major project or something that has
been given to them or paid it to them, it's
one specific type of thing and it molds their tastes
in a way to where they become avoidant of other things.
And that's the one thing I wanted to change in
(08:59):
this music industry is the fact that our tension spans
are very short. Our opinions are molded through what's fed
to us, and in order to present something different and
something that's actually reactive to.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
The people would be completely like incredible for me.
Speaker 5 (09:14):
That would be my main goal, and I think that
I've accomplished that behind the scenes.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
It's just a matter of getting into the people now
absolutely well.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
In the meantime, where are we able to find all
your music that you've came out with so far.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
So you can find me on any of the streaming sites,
literally any of them, just my personal fory lot. You'll
find quite a few singles there. I do have a
website that has quite a few exclusive demos on it,
which is my first and last name. If you just
want to type that in tory loot dot com, that'll
get you there. It's got about three or four unreleased
tracks on there right now, some demos that will be
(09:46):
on this upcoming project. I left that as a teaser
for my diehard fans that pay very attention.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Well it's real simple, just my first and.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Last brilliant Well, many thanks for Johnny, it has been
great having you on the show today.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Many thanks for having me. Brother.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Fridays for celebration, good times and relaxation.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
So turn the radio up and just listen.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Listen.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
If you've got that Fridday feeling, you soon beat that's
in on the ceiling. And I'll because of your host.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Tommy, Grandma, I guess some brilliant out.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Of music's fantastic. Tommy is terrific and the speatures a classic.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
So m it's reached our our heights.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
It's not though, we can right, thank God. It's Toby
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
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