Los Angeles native and longtime LA Galaxy fan ATM Danny checked off two major boxes for any artist and sports enthusiast. Not only did he create a Galaxy-inspired anthem in “Trophie’d Up,” but he also had a chance to perform it live at halftime during the team’s recent playoff match. We sit down with him to discuss his moment in the spotlight, and how it came into fruition.
Los Angeles has a lot going for it right now: Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” is Grammy-nominated, the Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series, and both LAFC and the LA Galaxy are on to the MLS Western Conference semifinals after finishing atop the standings in the regular season.
The Galaxy are flying particularly high, having their best season in a decade. The team cruised through the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs, outscoring the Colorado Rapids 9-1 over two games, and will now look to advance to their first Western Conference finals since 2014, the last year they won an MLS Cup.
Along with the on-pitch success, the Galaxy have collaborated up with a handful of LA-based clothing brands to release special edition capsule collections. From Fhue to Sworn To Us, Gs fans have had plenty of choices when it comes to merch this season.
As part of the Sworn To Us collection release, LA-based artist ATM Danny released a Galaxy anthem “Trophie’d Up,” which celebrates the club’s history while also weaving in some of Danny’s Salvadoran heritage.
“What I’d say? Para siempre Gs running this,” the San Fernando Valley native boasts on the track.
ATM Danny follows the footsteps of Murs, Azjah, and Cousin Feo, among others, as musicians that have incorporated their Galaxy fandom into their creative ventures.
ATM Danny also got an opportunity to shoot the “Trophie’d Up” visualizer at Dignity Health Sports Park, with a hanging mic and the ghosts of iconic matches lingering in the background. It’s a move we’ve seen from the likes of Ed Sheeran and Central Cee, who filmed videos for “F64” and “Straight Back To It” respectively at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge.
DHSP and its various previous names has been home to a litter of legendary players and moments throughout its history, from Mauricio Cienfuegos and Cobi Jones in the ’90s to David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the modern era.
As the Galaxy make their run to a sixth MLS Cup title, ATM Danny has big hopes that “Trophie’d Up” will be a part of the journey. And it already has. He performed at halftime of the club’s dominant 5-0 win to open the playoffs in a moment he is still pinching himself about.
Urban Pitch got to chat with ATM Danny about how the stars aligned for “Trophie’d Up,” what the moment means as a lifelong Galaxy fan, and how he keeps fans engaged with his other music.
Interview edited for length and clarity.
Urban Pitch: How did the opportunity to do “Trophie’d Up” for the Galaxy and Sworn To Us come about?
ATM Danny: I had met one of the owners of Sworn To Us, Jerry Avila, and we kicked it off and everything was just good vibes. A little down the line, he was talking about the Galaxy, but I was already brewing that idea up. But when I found out that he was doing something, I’m like oh, man, I gotta be a part of this.
It was really quick. It might have even been a month ago or a month-and-a-half ago, where I had to really just get on it. We didn’t even have a connect yet, we were just gonna present him the song and then see if he could shoot it over to one of the guys over at the Galaxy. And that’s exactly what he did after I made the song. It kept going around through the office, I guess.
So when they finally did a little launch party in Burbank like two, three weeks ago, some guys from the Galaxy, like the social media guy, the creative designer, were like, “Oh, aye, we heard the song. It’s cool! It sounds nice.”
So that’s when we just acted on it and told the distribution, “Let’s just get this going. Let’s see if we can drop this in two days.” Usually that’s not how it works. It usually takes two weeks, a week max. Two days is crazy, but they made it happen and boom, we put it out and I did the video and it was dope. It was amazing.
So you even wrote the song in that month window too?
I already had those lyrics on another beat. When me and Edgar (Medina, his manager), were driving around, when we’re going to these places together, we just put on beats and try to figure out what’s the next song.
That’s when the idea came about five, six months ago. It was not the official beat but I already had those lyrics done. I hit up my boy Fortwoe, he’s from the Inland Empire. I’m like, “Bro, I need you to make this beat. I need this bouncy, this jiggy beat, West Coast feel, something that’ll get the people going.” And he gave me like eight beats. I picked the one I ended up picking. The lyrics fell perfectly in it. They just slotted right in there. I didn’t have to alter nothing. All I had to do is maybe put 10 more bars, which is 10 more lines, and that was it. It’s a short beat. It’s something that’s straight to it.
It’s so cool how everything aligned.
Yeah, everything about this aligned. That’s why it was kinda crazy. It was meant to be like that. Everything aligned perfectly, like wow.
@atmdanny__ man this was a dope moment right here fr, shoutout Lechero for bringing me out & good dub to top the night @LA Galaxy 🏆 #fyp #rap #soccer #mls #playoffs #lagalaxy #losangeles #cali #westcoast
Lechero brought you out to perform at the halftime show of the Galaxy’s first playoff match. What was that like?
Yeah, that’s another thing for sure. Shoutout Lechero for giving me the opportunity to perform that. It was a moment. Me being in the stands, that’s when I say that things aligned. My brother is a big social media guy, so the Galaxy invited him out to a suite and also gave him a free shirt and all that.
He had a plus-one, and I’m like, “I’m rolling. I think they might play my song. Who knows?” So I went with him. And before that, I find out that the homie Lechero is deejaying, so I sent him the song.
Nelson Arriaza, one of the marketing people, gave me two free tickets, too. He gave me an on-field pass even though we were gonna get on-field passes in the suite. I just felt like a somebody. Everybody’s up there, I’m with top dogs in that suite and everybody’s super creative. I told the person who let us into the suite, “I’m gonna perform, trust.” I was just playing around.
That’s when I went on the field. I see Lechero, and he’s like, “Aye I’m gonna bring this guy out.” Man, my breath dropped from my stomach. I was like, “What?” I’m like, “Ah, I’m not ready for this. I am not ready.”
I thought I was ready, but I wasn’t. I thought they were just gonna play my song, you know? He was like, “No, I’m gonna bring you out.” Brings me out at halftime and man, people were sending me videos just vibing out. They didn’t even know I was there.
They put me on the screen and everybody was looking at me and Lechero for like two minutes, just vibing out to the song. And everybody was up! Even the guys were there, Nelson was in the stands, everybody that I met that works in the front office was there and they gave me congrats.
Even Jerry from Sworn To Us, he texted me like, “Bro, just seeing you up there with the song, shouting us out all that and with the shirt” — I was wearing his shirt — “was nuts.” And I’m like, “Man, ‘preciate you. You’re the one, you were the first step.” It was dope. I’m truly grateful for him for real. It was gonna get done somehow, but he made it way easier. Shout out Jerry, man. So much love to him for real. That’s one of the dopest people I’ve met so far in this journey of being an artist.
What was it like shooting the hanging mic video inside Dignity Health Sports Park? How did it feel knowing what that game day energy is?
It was great just being there by myself, just owning the stadium for like two hours. Fire. It was a flex for real. I don’t like flexing, but I had to flex that. I’ve seen that stadium change too much. It looks the same still, but I still remember it as the Home Depot Center. I’ve been there so many times.
And just being there by myself, everybody that was there with me doesn’t know how I felt. That one really felt cool. That was like, I’m really doing this. I feel like this is the only way. I pretty much walked in like this gotta be the anthem. This gotta be the song. This is gonna be the song for like however long, whoever out-beats me. This is gonna be the song. So just stepping in there and doing the song and just vibing out and making a little cool video. The quality is so good that it looked fake straight up. Man, it’s a dope feeling. It’s like surreal. I don’t know if I’d match it to the halftime performance, that was crazy. But damn near there.
What does everything mean to you as a lifelong Galaxy fan?
That’s literally the first team I know that I was ever around in the house. That’s all that was in my childhood house like just boom Galaxy, Galaxy, Galaxy. My brother played in the local kid leagues, but they were Galaxy.
My dad would tell us that he used to take us to the Rose Bowl when I was a baby to watch those first MLS games when the league barely started. I wish I had pictures. I do have a picture of me and my brothers with the Galaxy gear when we used to play at the local park. I do have one of those.
Do you have any memories that stand out from your childhood watching the Galaxy?
Cobi Jones, that’s the guy. Cienfuegos, I’m Salvadoran, so Cienfuegos is somebody that my dad, the men in the family, they loved. That’s the guy. That’s like Messi. They loved him. Cobi Jones man, ‘cause his names Cobi and he was a great player.
Then Landon Donovan came and he pretty much just did it up in LA. That was the guy, that was number one. He was on the cover of FIFA. And then Beckham came and boom, we won back-to-back. Everybody had Beckham gear. I think I still have a sweater with Beckham on it. There’s even a thing called the Beckham Rule ‘cause of him. So for sure, he was very influential when he came.
Have you been able to connect with Murs or Azjah or any other musicians who are Galaxy fans?
Recently, the game right before the playoffs, the last home game of the regular season, I tapped in with Murs. Cool guy, like a legend. And also, we presented him with the idea of a collab. We’re still working on that, but the song’s there. All I gotta do is edit that out, give him a little opening, but it’s there. Once we hit him up, we can definitely make that happen with the song.
And then I do have, man, I don’t even know if I wanna say it yet, but I do got a crazy artist that already jumped on the beat, so it’s brewing up right now. I’m ready. I’m waiting on him to send me his verse. But that one is crazy. Besides them, I haven’t really tapped in with nobody else. I know them two right there are big Galaxy fans. They’re through and through LA Galaxy.
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You’re Salvadorian and Sworn To Us is a Latino brand. Even in the “Trophie’d Up” lyrics, you sprinkle in some Spanish. Why is it important to you to represent your heritage?
A lot of people think I don’t represent it enough. So I always gotta sprinkle something in. A lot of people don’t even know I am Latino ‘cause usually my music is spread out through social media like through a reel or something like that, not my face. So a lot of people get a different impression from just hearing my voice.
So when I do sprinkle in stuff like that, they’ll notice, oh this guy, they probably just say, “He’s Mexican.” That’s like the first thing people say. But I’m Salvadoran. I still gotta sprinkle in some Salvi bars in there for sure, a little pupusa, a little curtido, something like that. So I gotta make that known. But I definitely been working on that. I’ve been working with AFJA, shoutout Edgar and shoutout Steven (Levy Cruz, founder of AFJA), they put me in those doors to just represent it at these events that they throw, so that’s a cool thing too.
You just dropped the Mr. Up To Something EP. What was the story behind that? What did you want to accomplish with that project?
I had a grip of songs, like a lot, and I was like man, I gotta put em up. I gotta put em together somehow, something quick. I wanted to do something, cause I say “I trip out” a lot, that’s like my thing. But I didn’t want to say “Mr. I Trip Out.” First of all, I wanted this EP, ‘cause I never had a picture of just me on the cover.
I’ve always had a picture of me but animated or something like that, something cool-looking, but I never had a picture of me. I wanted to showcase that and then do something with “Mr.” It was either gonna be “Mr. Make It Happen” or “Mr. Up To Something.” When I had told Edgar that, he was like, “‘Mr. Up To Something’ sound hard” and I’m like yep, I think that’s the one.
Dreebo is on there and he’s so talented.
Yep, shoutout Dreebo. He was cool, man, cool guy. Just dope artist all around.
And you have Cypress Moreno on there too. What does it mean to have his support?
Cypress, man, he always shows support, always keeps it 100 with me. He’s big. He’s one of the producers, he don’t rap, sing, nothing like that, he just puts out the music that he produces and you can tell by his numbers that he’s going crazy. He’s one of the top producers that you’ve got out here.
Those numbers don’t lie. He be going crazy. But him just showing love and all that man, I feel honored for real. And he’s Central American as well — Guatemalan and Salvi. So that too, just even having that support too and seeing him at these other events where it’s like Salvi nights and stuff like that is also cool, something we can relate to besides the music.
I know this is a soccer publication, but the Dodgers just won the World Series. What’s the vibe in Los Angeles right now?
Right now is nuts. It is nuts. Even in the Valley. I try to stay away from places like that. All my friends live in these intersections where they just take over. They’re doing donuts and fireworks. Thankfully for me, I live on an important street, so if you block it off, it’s a no-go. You’re getting arrested. I’m a real chill dude, so when it comes to that type of stuff, I got very good intuition, so I like to keep away from stuff like that.
But the celebration all around is great. People didn’t get to celebrate, I mean they didn’t celebrate like this in 2020. But just celebrating with the team is historic.
Now everybody’s outside, everybody’s together. Everybody’s there for one thing, Dodgers blue. Everybody from everywhere, people are coming from the IE. I’ve got a friend that came all the way from San Diego. There’s people driving all the way out here just to watch the parade, so it’s dope. I was watching the parade on the little treadmill screen, it was dope for sure. And then the way they won it was nuts. So congrats to them for sure.
