Tigra and Bunny were high school friends. They regularly attended Skylight Express, a teen dance night in Kendall that featured hip-hop and Miami Bass music, which resulted in their desire to become rappers. Like most young aspiring rappers, they had no understanding of the industry, and their rapping was seen only as a hobby. However, their friend (in fact, their ride home from school) was local rapper Mighty Rock of the group Double Duce. One afternoon, on a drive home from school, Mighty Rock needed to stop by the Hot Productions office/studios. During the meeting, Tigra and Bunny bumbled their way into a recording booth and began rapping for fun. Paul Klein of Hot Productions caught the girls, and instead of being angry, decided a good-looking teen girl rap group would have significant cross-over appeal. He employed Larry Davis to quickly construct some hook-oriented tracks and get the girls into the studio. The group took their name from a then-popular designer brand of blue jeans (“Trim”), and added the L’ prefix to give it a French feel. After a little coaching for a few of the A-side singles, the girls were allowed to use raps they had previously written for the rest of the album cuts. Within a very short time, the girls heard a song of theirs on local radio. Shocked, they called Hot Productions to express their surprise, which led to Klein exclaiming “what do you think we did all this for?!”, before hanging up on them. Stage performances quickly followed, and it was well into the venture before the girls even realized they had just become signed recording artists with a mild local hit on their hands (“Grab It”). “Cars With the Boom”, essentially an ode to subwoofers, became a top 40 hit and a national tour followed. Atlantic Records signed a deal to distribute L’Trimm’s second album, Drop That Bottom, which included a remix of “Grab It” and was a minor success. Eventually, the girls realized that they did not have the type of representation needed to protect their financial and creative interests. This came about just as many Miami indie-labels began to speculate that the Miami Bass sound would never truly break through to mainstream national audiences. As Hot Productions began to look for new creative inspiration, the girls hired representation in the form of managers and lawyers. The new direction by the company conflicted with the girls’ vision, and their representation stepped in. A stalemate was reached, and the girls abandoned the sessions for their third album, Groovy. With plenty of vocal outtakes left in the studio from previous sessions, Hot Productions continued creating the album without the girls’ input. The resulting album, which had more of a house music sound, sold poorly, failing to find the new market it was aiming for. Unable to score another hit and with their youthful pop-rap style waning in popularity, L’Trimm disbanded. Tigra moved to New York City where she became an assistant general manager at the night club Spa/Plaid, and Bunny moved to Indiana where she married and had several children. In the early 2000’s, one of the DJs of Spa/Plaid was an aspiring music producer named Fancy (not the same as the 1980’s Italo Disco artist). Fancy, along with Matt Goias, later created the Miami Bass revival group Fannypack which features three young female rappers and has often been compared to L’Trimm. Typically, L’Trimm is not seen as a “serious” Miami Bass group. Compared to other groups on the Bass circuit, their music was more dance-pop oriented and directed towards top 40 radio. Their lone hit single, “Cars With the Boom”, classifies them as a one-hit wonder. The song has been referenced by many hip-hop artists, including Proof of D12 in his song “Gurls Wit Da Boom”. On file-sharing networks, they are often confused with feminist-punk group Le Tigre. |
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