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– Hip-hop artist Topher has hit the Billboard charts and continues to see success with his music, and now, Topher is moving in another direction when it comes to his health.
Topher sits down with to discuss his health journey with his new book, Beyond The Weight, and being labeled a “conservative hip-hop artist.”
Welcome to Celebrating Black Excellence. So, let’s get started with your beginnings. How did you get involved with music?
Since I was ten years old, man. You know, my dad is a regionally known blues musician, so he’s been playing with people like B.B. King and others back in Mississippi. So, I feel like I inherited that music gene. I realized that early age I couldn’t sing, but I still wanted to be in the entertainment industry. I realized that there was a such thing as rap. So, I got involved with the rhythm and poetry side of music and pursued it ever since. Man, it’s been a joy of my life. It has been a way for me to kind of vet some of your frustrations and to deal with those emotional adversities that we go through as men and as youth. It’s given me the ladder that I needed to climb to the success I’ve experience.
What are some of your influences or inspirations when it comes to doing music?
Oh, man. I would say number one… Eminem. When I listened to other artists back then, you typically didn’t hear Black men really grill their momma. It was almost taboo to talk bad about your momma, even though she was not the greatest mom. I felt like my mom could’ve did better. When Eminem expressed his discontent with his mom, I was like, “Oh, I didn’t know we can do this with music.” So that inspired me to kind of let it be an outlet for me to express things emotionally. So, I would say Eminem. I got to go with Kanye West. Who else? I would say Tech N9ne; Tech N9ne is a legend. Who else? Lupe Fiasco. I like him. I would say on the Christian side… I got influenced a lot by Andy Mineo, Lecrae, the whole 116 crew, and a big shout out to NF for doing it on a mass level like that, you know, with keeping it positive and keeping it clean.
Now, how would you describe your music?
I would say it’s something that the whole family can listen to and something that’s going to be on the positive side. As a veteran, my music lean towards patriotism. Also, as a Christian, my music leans towards those values so as not to be promoting degeneracy, but not everything that’s secular is bad let me put it like that; however, it’s not going to promote degeneracy. So, I would say if you just like something that you can play for your grandma and your grandkids, then you put my music on.
Now, you have been described as a conservative hip hop artist. So, can you please elaborate a little bit more on that?
Well, it’s a title that was given to us. It was not a self-described title. I just consider myself a hip-hop artist, but for purposes of distinction, because given what hip hop is predominately known for, we have some people who like to call us conservative hip hop artists, which is fine, right? At least, you know what you get. So obviously, you know, as a conservative, I just believe in some of the fundamental stuff like two parent household, pride in country, Christianity, limited government, and those type of things. So, that evolves in my music as well, but not everything that I write about or perform about is going to be specifically about those principles. It may be something dealing with mental health that I’m talking about, or it may be something dealing with finances, but it’s just different ways I talk about it instead of just bragging about things. I’m trying to teach you on how you can do the same thing. So, it’s kind of like more of the lesson in my music then it compared to other stuff that’s just for any reason.
You have faced your controversy with different things that you have posted on social media. How do you handle the criticism?
Wait it out. Because usually give it a 2 to 3 weeks, people move on to something else. On top of that, I rather go to bed at peace at night for being authentic and true to what I’m standing for, then to put up a façade and succumb to people’s wants for me. One thing I heard Lecrae say, “If you live for their acceptance, you’ll die from their rejection.” I know people who do this all the time, and I see what that leads them because then you start doing stuff that completely don’t align with what your morals are just to be accepted. I’m like, “I’m not doing that.” So, it took a while to kind of weed out the people that was just there because sometimes you build relationships that’s not even relative to what you want to do. Sometimes, we build relationships around pain. Then, when that pain is gone, the relationship is gone because some people don’t want you to move on because it’s the only thing that you have in common. That’s why I want to build relationships on things that are true to how I want to be and where I’m trying to go because as long as I’m facing that, I know that person will still be around based on those principles.
So, you’ve had some very big moments in music: billboard charted – The Patriot #1 in rap digital song sales. First of all, can you talk about the meaning of The Patriot?
So, the true definition of patriotism is a person that fervently love this country and will die to protect and defend it from both foreign and domestic enemies. That’s it. So, when I made the song, I was simply on the the emotion of what it means to be a patriot. This was doing the 2020 election/2021 year. So, to me, I saw a lot of people standing up. It could have been on either side, but my idea was people that was doing this in order to protect the country. So, I just wanted to say it’s okay. You know, a lot of people, especially Black people, I’ma be real with you, like when it comes to us and the American flag or something else, it’s like we feel like we can’t support it because of our history. Then again, we look back at the first ever Juneteenth, and they had an American flag with them. You know, a lot of Black people, whether we believe it or not, fought for the same freedoms and to uphold the US Constitution to those freedoms they promised. So, I want to honor those people as well, as well as honor my service to this country. So, I was trying to put out a song that was positive and do it in a time where the American flag was seen as a symbol of oppression to people that look like me. But it’s like, “No, it’s actually freedom here. A lot of times our view is microscopic because we don’t travel the world, you know?” But it’s the reason why a lot of people are breaking their necks and crossing the border to get here because there’s something here. It might not be everything, but you can turn into everything with the right mindset.
Now, how did you feel when it charted number one for rap digital song?
After it got banned, and to get it to chart as an independent artist talking about what I was talking about, this was nothing you would hear on the radio because we got zero radio play. Mainstream media wasn’t covering the story or our success, and we didn’t have any cosign from anybody in the industry. So, for us to do this with a clean song on the topic that we were talking about, to me, it set a precedent. It was like, “This is possible.” We don’t have to have the major labels, and just for people to know, I was in Augusta for a long time dealing with a lot of independent artists. We had the Create Augusta going on for a while, just trying to get people into the mindset that it’s 80% business and 20% music. I still want to remind people of that. You can make it. You don’t have to change who you are to get where you want to go. By changing, I mean in a way that’s negative. Obviously, it takes growth to get to the next level, but if you changing unwillingly to something that you don’t want to become, that’s negative in a sense. So, I want to make sure that people understand that it’s possible just being who you are, and when that happened, it just solidified everything that we did. It solidified the movement and solidified my message, and it showed that there is success outside of what they have proposed when it comes to artistry. So, I’m hoping people take that message and run with it. I hope we see more independent artists standing on what they want to talk about and making great content.
And then, you charted again on the billboard with “I Left My Home” at #7 on the rap digital song sales. So, congratulations on that as well. So, now we have to talk about your book, Beyond The Weight. Let’s talk about your weight loss journey. So, what pushed you to move into that direction?
It was really the conviction I received I want to say around May of last year. So, I already knew according to the Bible, that the Holy Spirit dwells within us. Now, our bodies are living temple of the Holy, living God. So, since it was bought with a price, we should honor Him with our bodies. So, that’s 1 Corinthians 6:19-29. So, I was like, “I already knew that.” But it wasn’t who I bought my first home that I realized how much we were willing to spend to live comfortably, but don’t want to spend and invest in God’s house? This conviction was further emphasized for me in Haggai 1:4, when it says, during that time, Haggai was a prophet, and he was sent by God to tell the people of Israel, “Listen, you have been living comfortably in your homes, yet my temple remains in ruin. How long are you just going to enjoy your homes while mine remains neglected?” And I was like, “Man, I got to do something better,” especially looking at the statistics, when it comes to overweight people, it’s predominately in the Christian faith for some reason. It’s like, “I get it. We live in abundance and everything else.” However, if I want to be the person such as a master communicator or artist, and I want to live for an extended amount of time, one of the easiest things for prevention is to stay healthy. That’s something that we can control. I might can’t control getting into a car accident, or something falling out of the sky hitting and hitting me upside the head, but I definitely can control what can go into my mouth and how much I move. So, I decided to focus on that.
Could you please talk about the contents of the book, Beyond The Weight?
So, one of the things that helped me lose the weight – I think I’m down 105 pounds now – and also keeping me from gaining it back was changing my mentality. So, I wanted to remind people it takes beyond the weight thinking and actions for you to maintain it because a lot of people will lose it, but they won’t be able to keep it off. So, I had to transform my mind and transform my thinking. One of the things that really helped me out when it came to losing the weight was I noticed I took a “survivors mentality” and was holding on to it in a season of abundance. That mentality was because when I grew up growing up single parent household, my mom was on disability, so there was very limited income in Mississippi. It wasn’t much going on. So, we didn’t know if were going to eat the next day. So, we were taught one, not to waste money, so you ate everything you saw and two, you ate everything you saw because you didn’t know if you were going to have some for tomorrow. That becomes dangerous when you get into the season of abundance, which I was because of my success at music, where you can order bigger portion sizes and you can always order more food. So, now you’re just consume and consuming with no end. So, I had break that mentality, and say, “Listen, I’m no longer struggling like that. I’m now successful. I got to let that mindset go.” When I let that mindset go, it freed me from that bondage, and now, I’m able to just eat ‘til I feel like I’m done, and I’m not looking it as I wasted money. It’s like, “No, I’m just fool.” I’m not thinking about the starving kids in Africa no more being used to manipulate me into finishing my food. It’s my reward. I feel good, and I know will help me, so I know it will help somebody else.
For people who want to read the book, how can they get it?
Go to tophertown.com. Just click on “Tell Me How,” and then, it will take you to the page where I have my eBook listed. They can read it from there. I’m just glad to have the title author, and the reason I wrote the book was because so many people saw the progress, and everybody was asking the same questions. Instead of just ignoring everybody, I said, “Listen, if you really want to know, just go grab the eBook.” Because it’s one thing to just give you instruction, but there’s nothing to teach you something. I could just tell you, “Eat less, move more.” That’s how you do it, but people like that, right? It’s got to be more to it. Well, if you want more detail, then go read the book because obviously it’s more things I’ve done. So yeah, I’ve said you could try it out: Beyond The Weight at tophertown.com.
Are there any words of inspiration or encouragement you can give someone?
I’m going to take it from my man, Frederick Douglass. He said, “I prayed for freedom for 20 years, but I didn’t receive it until I prayed with my legs.” So, that means, no matter what you’re going to try to achieve, if you’re not going to put in the work, it’s probably not going to be realized. So, get busy, whatever you’re doing. You got this, but it’s going to start with you, and it’s going to end with you. So, if you’re waiting for the right time… it says, “He who regards to win when he sows will never sow,” you’re not going to sow. It’s never going to be “the right opportunity,” and it’s never going to be “the perfect time.” So, it is just: get busy, and eventually, you’ll get to where you want to go. That’s it.
If people want more information about you, your music, your book, and everything, how can they get that information?
Tophertown.com! You can find me on all of my socials as @tophertownmusic – Tik Tok, Instagram, and Facebook. You’ll see the guy, and most of the time, I’m wearing a beanie – a red beanie with a big T on it. I’m super easy to find and just look it up. I’m doing a lot of amazing things, and one of my favorite things is to quiz people about the Bible so most people know me for that.
