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theblacktivity-blog · 8 years ago

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Trap Music: Made In America.

Somewhere in America particularly down in the south where the relatively new metallic skyline cities are situated among rural landscapes more representative of the Dixie past, you hear it. In the shadows of old Jim Crow and the haunting echoes of freedom hymns, “Bloody Sunday” chaos, Chattahoochee river ghost whistles, and the collective sound of thousands of marching feet, there have been stories brewing. They explode into spinning tunes like the combustible elements of fire and petrol, a combination most comparative to the south’s inner city blues, where the poverty is further exacerbated by the structural residue of the past and its very evident present. If northern poverty and “ghetto” life is most represented by the overcrowded high rise project tenements, then from Virginia (mid-Atlantic), Tennessee, to the Carolinas, to the streets and backways of Georgia and Florida, to Alabama, Missouri, down to the Mississippi delta this same struggle is embodied in the dilapidated shacks of houses and public housing low rises that line blocks and side streets in poor Black communities. The same can be said about life down in Louisiana’s bayous and the dry heat of Texas where places such as lower 9th Ward, 7th Ward, 8th Ward, 3rd Ward, Calliope and Magnolia have become household names, small contained worlds known for their infamy. In Texas and particularly in Houston, areas such as Cloverdale, Sunnyside, 3rd Ward, and 5th Ward hold that distinction. It is the state of Georgia however, and the black metropolis of Atlanta particularly, that in the mind of many outsiders embodies the collective southern idiosyncrasies in much the way that foreigners view places like New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles as snapshots of America. One such characteristic can be heard thundering through such aforementioned neighborhood archetypes. It’s a raging noise, an ominous symphony of cinematic strings layered underneath grimy, rhythmic snares and a pounding bass often heard for blocks from out of houses and the pulsating trunks of whips of all type, including the classic cars known in southern hoods as the “trap car”. Woven within the instrumental tempest are lyric patterns that have over time become known and mimicked by everyone, but are best known and felt by the souls on these harsh streets. Young Black men and women with distant looks move about the blocks, corners, and porches speaking (some through golden grilles) an ingenious form of homemade patois that could best be described as a hard-lined defiance of what the so-called white world considers “respectable” language. Others can sometimes be seen fixing a sharp gaze from wherever their post on passersby. And if one is not intimately familiar with the isolation of the hood that sometimes breeds curiosity at anything or anyone unfamiliar, suspicious, or new, then one could mistake these stares for “aggression”. These Black men and women who have been effectively cycled into structural poverty by the forces of old and new Jim Crow and forced to survive in the underground economy are in a sense, trapped. Thus, the name for the projects as well as the distressed and condemned properties in and around poor, mostly Black neighborhoods is, the trap. It’s aptly named, a place marked by something of an organized dysfunction in which many African Americans find themselves in such a whirlwind of structural inequality, crime, and poverty that for many, they are faced with adult choices sometimes before they reach puberty. These are decisions that often come down to the difference between a full and empty stomach, a warm bed and a piece of a roof or eviction, but in many cases, it is the difference between having and not having. The only recourse that appears to be left in such a bleak environment are the confines of the drug game where one is dealt an institutionally crafted deck of cards between eventual death, prison, or addiction. Traps are at once black market versions of Wall Street with its own set of financial and moral principles, grounded in an ethos that is both organically street and, if one is honest, fundamentally American. If America has been described by most (typically white) people as a place where one must “pull themselves up by the bootstraps” then not only does trap culture and the people of it embody this, they excel past this expectation by creating boots that were not given to them, good, bad, right, or wrong. In the trap, they have another saying for this red blooded American philosophy “hold your own nuts”. To be sure this is not at all a promotion of drug culture (I’m sure someone will attempt to make that a “counter-argument”) just a valid point because these are the same people and neighborhoods that are demonized in so-called “mainstream American culture”. If one is lucky enough, and by “lucky” I mean blessed by nothing other than the grace of the Almighty and manages to somehow escape the mortuary, an 8 by 8, or the catacombs of the living that are the trap houses or ‘bandos’ (abandoned houses) then for many, the next logical step is to breathe life into your survival story, this is the genesis from which trap music is born.

The term “trap” has its roots in deep in the pines of Georgia where groups such as Outkast, Goodie Mob, and Organized Noise utilized their twangy colloquial gymnastics to pull listeners into a southern world that up until that point had been ignored by the larger hip hop world. This was the mid 90’s and rap music while seen as a young force in popular culture at the time, was still in its growth mode. Furthermore, at this moment the hip hop world was divided along the lines of two coast; east and west. The east was the birthplace of the art form originating in the Bronx in the late 70’s, but during this time New York hip hop found itself in a state of flux with the rising dominance of west coast hip hop. That is, until a larger than life Brooklyn bred MC by the name of The Notorious B.I.G. hit the scene assumed the mantle of the east’s savior. Aforementioned was the west coast which had come to prominence in the late 80’s on the wings of the all-star Compton group known as N.W.A. With tracks that were at once gangster and politically conscious impressing upon the public mind life in the gang war and corrupt cop infested city of Compton, they were the founders of so-called “gangster rap”. But with internal differences in the group that eventually lead to it dissolving and the double blow of founder Eazy-E’s death resulting from complications with AIDS, that movement that N.W.A would have to continue, but elsewise. Simultaneously coming to acclaim around this time was the label known as Death Row, of which former N.W.A. producer and co-founder Dr. Dre would join at the behest of infamous founder Suge Knight. The label would essentially run the 90’s west coast hip hop scene and eventually all of hip hop when they went on to sign superstar rapper Tupac Shakur during his bid in prison. With both Tupac and Biggie at the height of their careers carrying the torch for the east and west respectively, hip hop appeared to be in relatively good hands. But a split between the former friends that occurred before Tupac’s prison bid (for trumped up charges of sodomy and sexual abuse) involving a shooting in which Tupac was shot 5 times essentially brought about a cloud of negativity. Tupac had rumored the shooting to be a setup on the part of Biggie, Bad Boy, and Junior M.A.F.I.A affiliates (a rumor for which he had no proof) and Biggie outraged by the rumor that he would turn on a former friend, always maintained his innocence of such charges. But as is common in the world of entourages, and media, the strain would be exacerbated by outside forces leading to a violent atmosphere that eventually culminated in both the deaths of Tupac in 1996 and The Notorious B.I.G. in 1998. With two of hip hop’s brightest stars gone within only 6 months of each other, the rap world was not only in a state of fear but one of disarray. Who would carry the mantle for each coast now? Was the so-called “east coast vs west coast” war worth it? Was it even created by the now deceased musical giants who were now mere memories of what was and what could’ve been? Needless to say, these questions and many more swirled in the minds of fans and MC’s alike and hip hop entered an era of reflection. The beat didn’t stop, but it did slow down, and it did so just enough for an unforeseen region to come up in the game…the south.

Southern hip hop can trace its root back to the 1980’s when a certain Houston, Texas trio you might have heard of known as The Geto Boys hit the scene with their break out underground album “Grip It! On That Other Level” in 1989. In 1990 the group would go on to be produced by Def Jam co-founder Rick Rubin for two more albums 1990’s eponymous “The Geto Boys” and 1991’s “We Can’t Be Stopped”. This would be the rap world’s earliest known successful foray into the land and experiences of their “country” cousins. At a time in hip hop where the south was overshadowed by both of its more famed coasts and most associated with Black music’s blues and jazz driven past such classics while met with acclaim didn’t at that time move the needle on a national level the way it would in subsequent decades. In a sense, southern rappers found themselves victims of a benign musical neglect that was at once the result of geographic placement that paled in comparison to places like New York and Los Angeles. Not to mention there was a view of southern rappers held by some which in many ways was indicative of a larger cultural schism that has always existed between the urban and the rural in this country. Southern MC’s and southern music was thought by many east coast hip hop fans and MC’s to be a “slow” and a “less sophisticated” form of hip hop. Some on the west had similar thoughts, though to a lesser degree because much of the west coast sound in ‘g-funk’ derived from samples of southern based funk, and blues records (hell, so did much of hip hop’s over all sound catalogue!). Nevertheless, the south trudged on and on the heels of the success of The Geto Boys, another Houston duo in the persons of Bun-B and the late Pimp-C formed UGK or Underground Kingz an apt name not only attributable to the duo’s regional success, but a telling view of how many MC’s in the south garnered fame despite not having access to the major labels of the east and west coast. For many southern MC’s the claim to fame was a gritty hustler’s mentality that lead one from homemade studios, to pressing up CD’s and selling them out of the trunks of cars, to building direct relationships with famed local and regional club owners and radio DJ’s. It was an ingenious device that not only cultivated music business savvy that would yield future dividends, but was based on a genuine feeling amongst southern music figure’s outside of MC’s that the south needed to stick together if it was to succeed. Among the many hallowed grounds of the southern rapper’s sojourn to stardom was the strip club culture. Today, Atlanta is known as hip hop’s strip club capital, the scene of many a money shower and underground artist breakout. But originally Miami held that distinction if for no other reason but the “Miami Bass” sound and the fathers of that sound, the 69 Boyz led by the one and only Uncle Luke aka Luther Campbell. The hard driving fast paced bass heavy sonic modes over top of which could be heard the raunchiest lyrics then known to mankind drew such shock and awe, everyone from politicians to the FBI stepped in. The 69 Boyz represented not only Miami’s night and club life but they ushered in an idiom of southern hip hop that later generations of MC’s would easily be able to trace back to them, that of party culture woven into street culture. By the 1990’s ATL had become the dominant force in southern rap on the heels of the major label and Grammy winning success of Outkast. Everything that Outkast touched or was associated with was also considered golden. So, collaborations with groups such as Organized Noise, Goodie Mob, and the extended Dungeon Family brought those groups and the artist that made them up to mainstream prominence. It was from the point of departure that the A wouldn’t let up. But meanwhile in “the dirty”, the game was taking on another phase, the rise of independent homegrown labels. In cities like New Orleans and Memphis the rise of labels born out of the street hustling grit and determination of their founders began to take shape in a way that would change hip hop forever. The first major independent southern hip hop label to come to prominence was No Limit Records. Fueled by the former hustler and record store owner Percy Miller aka Master P, the New Orleans based label epitomized what would formulate the basis for the subgenre of southern hip hop that would come to known as “trap” rap. With production from heavyweights such as KLC and Beats By The Pound, Master P, & his lengthy roster of artist wove tales of a dark sort that exposed the consequences of poverty in the south in grim detail. His debut album, “Ice Cream Man” was and ode to the life of drug dealing with all its ups, downs, and penalties. Gang banging as a means of filling the vacuous space left by missing family ties, taped off murder’s scenes, and the schism between right and wrong that haunts the souls of those in “the life”, were just some of the themes that were encapsulated in between dark, hard charging, bass heavy beats. With the release of the movie “I’m Bout It” (which is one of the first southern hip hop cult gangster films) these ills as wells and more (such as police corruption) were brought to life in the on the screen, and with this south and its underbelly had officially arrived on hip hop’s radar. Yet and still other independent labels arose. Still in New Orleans, crosstown rival label Cash Money Records burst on the scene to national acclaim in the late 90’s and early 2000’s after having been a regional powerhouse since 1989. Founded by Ronald “Slim” Williams and Brian “Baby aka Birdman” Williams, the label came to success with artist such as Juvenile, B.G, Turk, and of course Lil’Wayne. On the success of Juvenile’s platinum selling album “400 Degreez” the label spun similar tales of life as “soldiers” on the south’s mean streets. The label also put out collaborative projects with all artist at the helm with the rapping quartet “The Hot Boys” and Cash Money producer and DJ Mannie Fresh and Baby formed the “Big Tymers”. Cash Money was responsible for more than invoking the gritty tales of the New Orleans streets however, they were the southern brand responsible for the single most used phrase in the hip hop lexicon at that time, “bling bling”. This was a term born from The Hot Boys 1999 hit single of the same name and was not only slang for diamonds, but a lifestyle born out of the spoils of surviving (if one did) the wars of the streets. “Flossing” was the hood’s version of the American dream, a mountain top experience of sorts that was the earthly equivalent to heaven achieved not thanks to America…but despite it. Meanwhile in Memphis, Tennessee, southern hip hop took on a somewhat darker tone as the independent label Hypnotize Minds founded by DJ Paul, Juciy J, and their group “Three Six Mafia”, brought a “horror” style of rap to the fore of the south’s signature sound. Dark, grimy beats and even darker lyrics painted a picture of an almost Dante-esque landscape: one of poverty, violence, and inner torture. Even more, with its vast array of artist many of whom were women, the label was one of the first to showcase non-token female southern rappers which gave voice to the female MC’s and their stories. Critics (and I was among them at the time) continued to rave that this form of hip hop was nothing more than debauchery, a perverse form of the art that was seeking to capitalize on the southern wave and the voids that the rap world was still reeling from. However, in retrospect one can easily draw a line from the lyrical atmosphere of N.W.A (which was also considered perverse at a point) and the lyrics of southern dope boy and gangster rappers. The world may not have liked the twang with which the MC’s flowed dark melodies into the ether, but we were nonetheless exposed to the common result’s born when structural mayhem breeds the desperate need for survival. In the earlier half of the new millennium as if Atlanta wasn’t already a force of “Dirty South” hip hop, a slew of game changing artist graced the scene, ensuring that southern rap would not be reminisced as a fad. Artist and groups as diverse as T.I., Young Jeezy, and Gucci Mane would storm both the mixtape circuit and mainstream delivering stirring tales broadcasted live from the streets of Atlanta. But it would be rapper T.I. who would bring the term “trap music” to the world lexicon in the form of his sophomore album “Trap Muzik”. It would be from this point of departure that subsequent rappers, trappers (hustlers or drug dealers) and trappers turned rappers would bleed the pain of years of struggle into melodic street college for your temple. More than just the braggadocio and so-called “simple” lyricism the it was often wrongly deconstructed into, clear rhymes over beats that were more soundtrack than car music gave (and still gives) the listener the feeling of being in there. Whether in the steaming kitchen of a trap house where the bleak atmosphere steals one’s innocence and forces him or her into an adulthood with a predictable end, at the funeral or trail of a fallen comrade, or between the diamond districts and strip clubs celebrating victory (however brief) you were forced to concede that the trap is laid everywhere. In the decade, plus since trap music has hit the scene many of the aforementioned artist have gone on to become household names with holdings in other businesses outside of hip hop, making Forbes list and of course tearing up charts. What began as hip hop’s version of “the other white meat” has now become the sound associated with today’s “mainstream” hip hop in general. This is just as much due to the producers who laid the ground work for the genre as much as the MC’s. Lex Luger (considered by many to be the father of the sound), DJ Toomp, Fatboi, Shawty Red, Drumma Boy, and Zaytoven just to name a few. Not only this, but the lyricism, depth, and complexity of many the south’s best had long been overlooked due the colloquial nature of their wordplay, but one would be hard pressed for instance, to name many albums that could hold a flame to classic’s such as “Trap Muzik” or “TM: 103”. Some would counter however that for every great trap rapper, group, or album, that there is some garbage the thwarts the whole movement. I would say that is the critics version of cutting of your nose despite your face. The very same thing could be said for any genre of music from any coast at any period (remember MC Hammer?). The game is now elevated, southern hip hop and trap music not only brought us into a world ignored, it opened the doors proving that artist from anywhere could succeed with a real story, right hustle, and a knocking production team. It is also a thumbing of the nose at so-called mainstream America’s version of the “American Dream”. However articulated or not, it isn’t lost upon those in the lifestyle and in the music that the system as it is in this country toward Blacks, has its origin’s out of southern pines and red clay roads, upon which many of their ancestors stood on auction blocks. Some would say that trap rap itself doesn’t do the continuing struggle any justice with its promotion of a dangerous life, and certainly there are many things left to be desired in the art-form. But at its most basic level trap rapper are the ones who made it out of the traps laid and who have forged a new life in an America whose sole desire was to destroy them. It was best summed up by Kanye West: “We wasn’t supposed to make it past 25/Jokes on you we still alive/throw yo hands up in the sky and say/we don’t care what people say!”.

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