Music
Listen to the trap songs that show the sub-genre’s evolution from street-level hip-hop to chart-topping pop phenomenon.
Even if you don’t know what trap is, you’ve definitely heard it. Future, Migos, Gucci Mane, Fetty Wap, 2 Chainz – they’re all big-name purveyors of the southern rap and crunk spin-off that’s defined by its stuttering kick drums, hi-hats, 808s and eerie synths. Its rhymes deal in the gritty reality of street life, while the sounds are bleak and dystopian. As important as the rappers are though, without star producers such as Shawty Red, Mannie Fresh, Zaytoven and Tony Fadd there might be no trap ‘sound’ at all.
This heavy reliance on production explains why trap has, since 2012, flooded into electronic music, spawning massive international hits and making trap a two-pronged affair. Its trap-rap stars are now hitting the top of the charts and electronic music’s take on the sound is everywhere from high-street shops to summer music festivals. But how did we get here?
2003: T.I. – Rubber Band Man
Atlanta rapper T.I. (or Clifford Joseph Harris Jr to his family… probably) can, along with Gucci Mane and Young Jeezy, reasonably lay claim to giving trap music its big leg-up into the mainstream. Sure, the idea of trap – the place where drug deals go down and hip-hop shorthand for inner-city street life – was referenced by fellow southern rap outfits OutKast and Goodie Mob in the late-90s. But it was arguably the release of 2003’s Trap Muzik, which spawned the crunk-inspired and defiantly southern-sounding track below, that gave the nascent sub-genre its sound. T.I. even set up his own label, Grand Hustle, to promote the rising rap genre.
2005: Young Jeezy – Trap Star
Young Jeezy might have something to say about T.I.’s claims about inventing trap. South Carolina-born Jay Wayne Jenkins’ first pseudonym was Lil J. But after making his independent debut in 2001, he changed his name to Young Jeezy and released his 2005 major debut album Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101 – a masterclass in trap bleakness with Shawty Redd at the controls. The rest is history, of course. Jeezy has since topped the charts with subsequent albums and he’s worked with Rihanna and a clutch of other big names. He’s still repping the trap life, too. His latest (ninth) album – another chart-topper – is called Trap Or Die 3.
2007: Gucci Mane – My Kitchen
Gucci Mane was probably trap’s first major superstar. He emerged from the Atlanta scene in the early-00s after chasing the coattails of OutKast and Goodie Mob, and his heavy rhymes and wonky bangers have come to define the trap sound. As well-known as he is, though, Gucci could be even bigger. He’s not immune to getting into trouble, the silly sausage, but in the past 18 months he’s focused on his music. He’s released two mixtapes, two studio albums, a collaborative album with Metro Boomin, and has also teamed up with young guns Rae Sremmurd and Young Thug. But rewind a second and check out this essential track from 2007, recorded in the same era as two of his finest albums, Hard to Kill (2006) and Trap-A-Thon (2007).
2012: Major Lazer – Original Don (Flosstradamus remix)
As trap rap became almost omnipresent in hip-hop, producers from another already world-dominating genre took heed. Dance music producers in thrall to a beefed-up, arena-friendly version of dubstep decided that trap’s skittering beats, double-time hi-hats and eerie synths would add an extra heavy vibe to things. Chicago’s Flosstradamus remixed Major Lazer’s Original Don, slowing it down and throwing in all the defining features of trap. Floss and Diplo then hosted a BBC Radio 1 show, almost exclusively playing trap in both its hip-hop and trap-house styles.
2012: Baauer – Harlem Shake
The trap-house touch-paper was lit. DJ Sliink and RL Grime got in on the action and Soundcloud was taken over by bedroom trap-house producers. The big – and that’s very much an understatement – anthem was Baauer’s Harlem Shake. If you haven’t heard the track, seen the video, or been bombarded with Harlem Shake memes, then you’ve probably been in astronaut training or something for the past half a decade.
2014: Fetty Wap – Trap Queen
It might turn out that Rae Sremmurd’s 2016 hit single Black Beatles, featuring one of the original trap lords himself, Gucci Mane, is trap’s commercial peak. (That seems unlikely given 2 Chainz’s latest album is doing brisk business.) But Fetty Wap’s debut single Trap Queen was also a massive hit two years before and arguably signposted the way to making hip-hop trap a huge pop success. It isn’t as bleak-sounding as those pioneering trap tracks a decade earlier, but it gave the sound – produced by Tony Fadd – a new anthemic purpose and won Wap acclaim from Beyonce, Jay Z, Kanye and, err, Fall Out Boy.
2016: Migos – Bad And Boujee
Heading in a different aesthetic direction to Fetty Wap and Rae Sremmurd are Georgia trio Migos. Since 2014, the three-piece has either won or been nominated for hip-hop awards ranging from Best Club Banger to Best Group. But this brilliant, surreal and dark chart-topper – produced by Metro Boomin and featuring rapper Lil Uzi Vert – still surprised a lot of fans. It’s a nod to the sub-genre’s originators, while sounding unlike anything else out there. Proof that there’s plenty of life left in the trap sound.
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