Big Tree #4Real: East Side Austin, Built to Last

Some artists are passing through the scene. Big Tree #4Real is the scene. The Austin emcee reps the East Side, "eastside ATX through and through", and he has been putting in the work long enough to have helped build the room he now stands in. His is a real-life pen: family, the grind, the neighborhood, and the long game of staying in it.

When the College of Hip Hop Knowledge (CHHK), the Austin hip-hop label and collective, opened its doors, Big Tree #4Real was its first signee in 2019. That detail tells you something about how the city sees him: not as a new face chasing a wave, but as a cornerstone other artists build around.

One Half of the Gardner Road Gs

Big Tree calls himself "1/2 of the Gardner Road Gs", a nod to where he comes from and who he runs with. The music carries that same rootedness. Tracks like "Highsman," "I Got Friends," "Maab Style," "East Side Celebration," and "I Don't Think So" sit somewhere between street narrative and block-party energy: lived-in, unbothered, and built for the people who already know the references.

It is rap that doesn't perform authenticity because it doesn't have to. The stories are the resume.

Still Active, Still Building

This is not a catalog frozen in the past. In 2025, Big Tree showed up across the CHHK family's releases, featuring on "Night Sky" alongside Evita and Mic Trey, and on "Never Let You Down" with Big Mic, Jsun The Prophesor, and DJ Berlin. He has kept the live presence going too, taking the stage at Austin's Flamingo Cantina for CHHK-hosted shows.

That collective spirit, artists showing up on each other's records and each other's stages, is exactly the energy Rhythm & Rise Live was built to amplify.

Why Rhythm & Rise Live

Rhythm & Rise Live was built for artists like Big Tree #4Real, independent, deeply local, and grinding without a major-label safety net. The 12-hour live event put 33 of Austin's R&B and Hip-Hop artists on one unified stage and streamed it free to the world from a private production studio in Austin. No paywall. No ticket. Just the music, the platform, and the community that made it.

For an East Side veteran who helped lay the groundwork, it is the right room: a stage that honors the people who have been holding the culture down. The mission of the event is the same as the mission of the music, elevate independent voices, honor the craft, build something that lasts.

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The Topic Is: Big Tree #4Real

Big Tree #4Real sits down with Mr. Durite on The Topic Is, the Rhythm & Rise Live interview series. Press play to watch the full conversation.

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The Topic Is · with Mr. Durite  ·  All interviews →