On the occasion of the fifty years of hip-hop, we look back at the major musical trends that have made its history. Today: trap.
Hip-hop may have turned fifty years old in August 2023, but if you already listened to rap in the 2010s, you obviously know trap. This musical genre straight from Atlanta not only put the southern city of the United States on the map, but it also had the luxury of upsetting the supremacy of New York and Los Angeles on the map. American rap.
To find the answer, let’s look at the different criteria that forge the identity of this essential branch of rap. Originally, the name “trap” had nothing to do with music and was primarily used to designate places where drug trafficking took place. It wasn’t until southern rappers began to address this theme in their music that trap became a style of rap in its own right.
What is trap?
Beyond music, the first trappers did not just rap about their daily life as two-hustler hustlers in the ghettos on vibes intended for clubs. At the same time, they claim a very specific lifestyle. Like the Thug Life movement initiated by Tupac, trap speaks unequivocally of gangsterism, advocating street life, weapons, drug sales, and pimping. In other words, although a little popular, the trap way of life is a bit like the gangsta rap of Los Angeles.
Musically, trap was also able to find its own codes quickly, all while exploring sounds never before seen in rap: beats between 120 and 160 bpm, saturated productions made up of noisy bass drums, hi-hats, dynamic cymbals, and of 808 bass samples. All these ingredients put together gave birth to an instantly recognizable formula that has established itself as the main trend of the 2010s.
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Who founded trap music?
Once we know this, two questions arise: “When was trap music truly born, and who was its very first founder? “. To find answers to these questions, it is necessary to go back in time. And music historians are categorical: the first rappers to have highlighted the lifestyle of gangsters from the South by giving them a club touch specific to trap is none other than the duo composed by Bun B and Pimp C, UGK.
UGK’s Early Influence
Indeed, even if the Trap Music genre was not yet officially named as such, we see that the first album of the group from Port Arthur in Texas, Too Hard to Swallow, released in 1992, already used these codes. Two years later, in 1994, it was another duo, from Memphis this time, 8Ball and MJG, who added their stone to this new emerging rap structure, with their album On the Outside Looking In.
However, those who really participated in the popularization of the genre are undoubtedly the three rappers from Atlanta, TI, Young Jeezy, and Gucci Mane. Moreover, these three MCs fought over the title of founders of Trap for a long time, through exchanges and some heated debates, with TI in the lead.
TI’s Claim to Trap’s Invention
The first time the King claimed to have invented the style was in 2012, during an interview with Funkmaster Flex. His plea can be summed up in a single argument: before he and his album aptly titled Trap Music, no one had named the genre.
“Before I came into the game, it was just Lil Jon, OutKast, Goodie Mob, okay? So there was Crunk Music (a style pioneered by Lil Jon) and Organized Noize (the producers of the Dungeon Family). Trap music didn’t exist, I created it, I invented the term, Check it on Google, it’s the truth. It was even the title of my second album released in 2003. It was after that this whole new genre of music arrived. I’m the one who opened the door.”
Comments that he repeated in 2019 at the microphone of Angie Martinez, the show The Breakfast Club on New York radio Power 105.1: “A lot of people don’t know that I created a trap. Honestly, I didn’t think I’d become this old. Before me, trap music didn’t exist. There was OutKast and crunk, Organized Noize and crunk. Before that, there was nothing else.”
Gucci Mane’s Alternative Perspective
Another revisionist point of view: is that of Gucci Mane. According to him and an Instagram post dated November 2020, it was in May 2005 that the genre was born, with the release of his album Trap House. Words which obviously were not to the taste of TI who very quickly and very virulently reaffirmed that no one other than him can claim the title of founding father of trap:
“Okay, I’ll repeat myself once again for those who are hard-pressed: August 19, 2003, was the birth of trap music. Only fools will dispute this proven fact. Shut up, everyone thinking you’re Christopher Columbus… Look what I found out, even if they think they were here before. Bunch of mythos.”
Trap’s Impact and Evolution
Well, whether you are a supporter of one or the other, History has shown that if TI is the first to have named the genre under its usual name, he definitely could not be considered the first creator of the genre musically speaking. This privilege therefore falls to UGK.
However, no one can deny that Young Jeezy and Gucci Mane, all three of them participated in the popularization of the genre until it became the big rap trend of the 2010s. A genre that artists like Migos, Travis Scott, Young Thug, and Playboi Carti have finally put themselves on top of the world. That was until the advent of drill, but that’s a whole different story…