RL Grime
Rustie, Jackmaster, Sinden, and more recently Lunice, Jacques Greene and MPC whiz Araabmuzik. But over the last year, trap gained a much-hyped interest in the electronic music world and blogosphere. It’s since evolved into a different beast, one that has a few opposed faces.
electronic expansion Trap’s expansion in the UK in 2012 was kicked off to a
new level by production duo TNGHT (aka Mohawke and Lunice), whose infectiously trippy instrumental tracks like ‘Higher Ground’ and ‘Bugg’n’ became veritable trap anthems in the UK scene. Breakout producers like RL Grime and Bauuer also came to light with a UK club-geared sound. Trap was suddenly dropped in sets across different scenes, and piqued the interest of some of electronic music’s dons, including Kode9, Amon Tobin and the Brainfeeder family. Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, a few North American producers also began giving trap a new sheen, but added a completely different texture. Merging dubstep, rap’s playful swagger and the energy of electro, “EDM trap” prototypes started to emerge from the likes of Flosstradamus and UZ (who even released a chronological series called ‘Trap Shit’), among others. Mad Decent certainly played a part through trap’s EDM
Baauer
explosion, if not being one of the main driving forces. Paul Devro, DJ/producer and creative director at Mad Decent, explains when he first felt the switch. “I remember the day Flosstradamus posted ‘Total Recall’
on their Facebook. I thought, ‘Whoa, they did it. They took what Araabmuzik was doing but made it really accessible to more than just bedroom beat-heads. I showed Diplo the video and we were tripping out.” Flosstradamus passed five or six more demo beats on to Devro and Diplo, and soon after the ‘Total Recall’ EP was released on Mad Decent’s sister label Jeffrees. Mad Decent and Jeffrees went on to curate what became some of the biggest noise in the sub-genre, which included hits from Baauer, UZ and Dillon Francis’ trap remixes.
hipsters and stadiums These days, EDM trap is demanded by massive glow-
Flosstradamus
sticked arenas in North America in equal measure to the hipster circuit; so much so, it’s now deemed in the same league as dubstep and moombahton. There’s even been a documentary series about trap’s diffusion, created by Mad Decent and
ClubTapes.com, called ‘Certified Trap, Vol. 1.’ In some people’s eyes, the late-coming hype is considered the genre’s ambush, a thorn-laced booby trap that caught the sound into a cycle of ignorant re- appropriation and over-dilution. On the other side of the coin, some consider trap’s EDM crossover to be the very thing that set it free and wildly untamed into a world far beyond its US stronghold. Trap has been given an entirely new lease of life, with less rap and more chest- rattling bass, taking over dancefloors around the globe. DJ/producer/Grizzly label owner Sinden has been a strong trap supporter since day dot. In 2011, he curated the official mixtape ‘Free Gucci: The Burrtish Edition’ with Gucci Mane, featuring a heap of UK heads (Wiley, Hudson Mohawke, Rustie, Tinchy Stryder, Duke Dumont, Mosca etc). “The rise of EDM trap and the new breed of dance music trap producers have been steadily bubbling under the surface for quite a while,” Sinden explains. “Rap music is in the DNA of all the kids that go out to dance to
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