01.20.26
Phone call
Conversation with Danya Gerasimova
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Trixie Le'Ray is a St. Louis based artist who starred in a music video filmed at Cementland in 2011.

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Danya Gerasimova:

Could you say a few words about yourself for folks who might not be familiar with your music? 

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Trixie Le'Ray:

I first started making a little bit of a wave in St. Louis in 2010, my freshman year of undergrad. I started recording what was popular at the time. I put out a mixtape, and some of those songs caught traction on 100.3 The Beat and 104.1 FM. People kept talking, and I ended up with a meeting with the vice president of Nelly's label, Derrty Entertainment. It went really well, and I got a text from Nelly inviting me to the studio. I was a part of Derrty Entertainment for years, and we ended up doing a reality show in LA. 

I had a song called “LYIN” that went viral and gave me access to almost every major label. But I realized the music business doesn't work the way I thought it did. My main objective was to retain ownership, and I didn’t know it was very uncommon to own your music. So I'm an advocate for ownership, and we are trying to find the most optimal ways for artists to reap the benefits of their music directly. And once we figure out the best route for me, then we are releasing an album. So that's the big thing for 2026. 

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Danya Gerasimova:

I've heard someone say they found out about Cementland from your 2011 All Eyes on Green video.

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Trixie Le'Ray:

All Eyes on Green was not even my song; it was a song from the Jamaican American artist Shotta G, a really good friend of mine. I think the video’s director lived near Cementland. So he knew of this really cool place from driving by a lot. Like I said, Shotta G is Jamaican, so he doesn't know a ton about St. Louis in general. He just said, “Hey, we found this place for a video.” He didn't even know if it was operational or what. The director knew how to get in, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, this place is amazing!”

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Danya Gerasimova:

And that was around the summer of 2011?

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Trixie Le'Ray:

Yep, I wasn't even 21 yet. So I was just going with the flow whenever somebody had a good idea. I was doing as many videos and songs as I could at that time with anyone I could. 

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Danya Gerasimova:

It seems like you recorded that video not long before Bob Cassilly passed away. Did you see anyone working on site while you were filming or were you the only ones there?

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Trixie Le'Ray:

I do not remember seeing any other person that whole time. From the equipment that was around, you could see that some people had been there before and were doing some kind of work, but I never saw a person. It was spooky. It felt almost like an abandoned city.

We weren't even sure of the status of the place. We didn't know if it was legal or illegal to be there. We just knew that people were obviously getting in. It wasn't hard to get in, and we just started filming.

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Danya Gerasimova:

Did you get to explore much? 

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Trixie Le'Ray

Yeah, it was overwhelming actually. It was a great, amazing space. I’ve never seen anything like it to this day. I really wanted to come back there, but never did because I found out it was for sure trespassing. So I was like, I'm not messing with that.

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