30-year-old emcee Michael Trudell Miller aims to bare his soul through his music. The Chicago native tells the good and bad in his rhymes, not only about his surroundings but also about his own inner struggle and the over-arching struggle of the interplay. Having grown up in a single parent household like many kids Trudell (or Tru for short) has seen a lot and that translates to his art. Raised by his dad after his parents divorced, Tru could have followed the path of his older brothers who were both heavily involved in gangs are currently incarcerated (one for murder and the other for an armed robbery). But instead he chose to put his passion into writing, education and music.
Listeners will feel the realism upon the first listen to Tru’s recently released mixtape A Dream Turned Reality. The eight-song project –already at 100,000 downloads – gives listeners the opportunity to walk in the artists’ shoes and see the world through his mind’s eye. He touches on a variety of personal topics including growing up in poverty (“Da Tops Betta than Da Bottom”), fake friends (“I Remember”), dealings with women (“Let a Chaser Know”) and his hometown (“Welcome to the Chi”).
When Tru isn’t in the booth, he is touching lives in the classroom. The Columbia College of Chicago graduate is also a teacher. “I felt like outside of music it would be the best and easiest way to touch the youth,” says Trudell. “Young black males need to see a black person who is successful in life instead just seeing D boys because when I was coming up that’s who I wanted to be because they were the only ones doing it big.”
Tru has seen both sides of the game his music proves that. You can add him to the already legendary Chicago hip-hop scene as one of the next artists to hit it big. After all there is no substitute for real and you can’t get any more real than what is already Tru.

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