techno, house and dubstep in America. Pair that with the growing momentum of dance music, and particularly with dubstep moving into the mainstream, and it was inevitable that EDM trap would find its voice on the same dancefloors.”
Yet despite its explosion and implosion, many confused fans still seem to be poised with similar confusion: what exactly is trap music? Drumma Boy, a multi-platinum Grammy-nominated producer, stops to consider his response in his current home of Los Angeles. “Trap is just a culture that we created in the South,” he tells. Growing up in Memphis and launching a production career in Atlanta as a teenager in the early 2000s, Drumma went from working with Southern heroes like Yo Gotti, Jeezy and UGK’s Bun B, to working with international stars such as Busta Rhymes, Kanye
West and Lil Wayne. “New York had its sound, the West Coast had its sound, and we didn’t really have anything to stand for other than gospel, R&B and blues. Coming out of my city [Memphis], the biggest music influence is blues. And back in the Marvin Gaye days, we were known for Stax and the funk. Coming out of Nashville, the biggest influence is country. As far as Alabama goes, we’re a music state but we weren’t known for hip-hop. So for trap to come, it was a whole new movement.” As for the music itself, he continues, “The trap just feels dirty; it’s that dirty, grimey 808 snare clap. There are only eight or nine instruments that make the trap sound, and then the music comes in with this gangsta, club feel. And the music hypnotizes. Trap is a lot like trance music, but it’s Southern trance music. And most trap has scary music or some type of ambience. Sometimes it makes me think of The Twilight Zone.” He sings the eerie four-note melody. “It makes you feel like you’re in a dark dungeon, like you’re in the trap itself.”
rap to instrumental DJ and mixtape maestro Trap-A-Holics contemplates
the question whilst driving through his hometown in New Jersey. As a seminal member of Gucci Mane’s 1017 Brick Squad Records crew, he was one of the first artists outside of the South to be embraced as part of the trap movement. Creating history-making mixtapes since 2007, he’s responsible for giving trap music some of its most catchy ad-libs, including “real trap shit”. “I think of trap more in terms of artists than I do an actual sound,” he says. “It’s about the trap itself, whatever your definition may be. Some people say the trap’s a certain neighborhood, some say it’s a dope house. At the end of the day it’s just street music. It’s almost like how Dr Dre and Snoop were considered gangster music back in the day: it tells stories from the ‘hood.” Drumma agrees. “Everyone wants to know what the trap’s like. That’s why Gucci is your favorite rapper, or Jeezy, or Jay Z or Nas. These are people that come from these poverty areas and tell you the realest, most fucked- up shit. They give it to you in a story form, or in a format that makes you intrigued.” The format for trap music has
changed significantly over the last two years, and the audience and DJ culture around it has grown exponentially. And, of course, that can only mean one thing: haters. Critics and cynics accuse the genre of devolving into a primal, lowest-common-denominator formula. EDM trap is often branded a parody of the original trap sound, on a par with dubstep’s riotous, over-the-top cousin, “brostep”. The incessant hype and the genre’s change in sound have caused some electronic producers to try to avoid being branded with it. Though it’s hard to say for sure, it certainly proved a challenge to get any to commit to an interview for this article. Paul Devro shrugs it off. “I don’t really pay attention to negative stuff, it doesn’t affect anything we do. We just put out music that we love and hope that it gives the artists exposure to go far.” When speaking about the meteoric rise of Flosstradamus, he continues, “Right when their tunes started buzzing on the internet, Josh [Young] from Flosstradamus told me how excited he was that people were so responsive to their new stuff, and that just a few months prior he’d almost quit DJing/producing to settle down and get a labour job. He’d said, ‘I hope this trap stuff we’re doing works out’. And now a year
Top 3 trap tracks TRAP-A-HOLICS
1. GUCCI MANE ‘In The Trap House’
“That’s trap #1 right there. If you listen to trap music, you’ve heard that. It’s a classic that I start off [with] at all my shows.”
2. T.I. ’24s’ “That record really drew my attention back in the
day. I still remember the first time I heard it.”
3. WAKA FLOCKA O Let’s Do It’
Top 3 trap tracks DRUMMA BOY
1 YOUNG JEEZY ‘Standing Ovation’ “‘These are more than words, this is more than rap.
This is the streets and I am the trap’. That’s a motivating trap record, you gotta hear that one.”
2 TONY MONTANA ‘Future’ “This is the trap sound right now. It’s just stupid!”
3 GUCCI MANE ‘Crazy’ “I had to include something from ‘trap god.’ Him and Waka, the
chemistry is just undeniable. Anytime I can get Gucci and Waka on a track, I always feel special. Dudes did a lot for each other, I was able to assist the whole movement between those two, and they’re both good friends of mine. Those two are a hell of a one-two combo. It’s like Method and Redman, you want BOTH of them.”
“Of course I had to include my brother Waka. He started a whole new revolution for the younger, reckless generation. Waka’s the king of that.”
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