Born in the back rooms of drug dealers' boarded up houses sometime in the mid-2000s, Trap music has since established itself as hard-hitting, gun-slinging, street rap.
And what does that sound like? According to Urban Dictionary "Trap music is based on use of the 808 Roland drum machine, pitched and resampled hiphop/rap vocals, pipe flutes, gangsta synth leads, and various FX."
It’s since made its way across the seas (well, under it, via YouTube vids carried on the Southern Cross Cable) to Australia and been reinterpreted by locals acts like Da Mutantz.
You can watch a longer cut in the video player above.
Speaking about Trap’s hard-hitting-but-anyone-can-mess-with-it kind of vibe, Da Mutantz producer, Geek, reckons trap music is, “more like a movement than a sound.”
"It’s a way to tell your story and the stories of people around you.”
It’s a pretty accurate description: Trap has global momentum.
Miracle is a hip hop producer who makes music for a range of artists in The Collective. Like most of the artists we spoke to for this story, he says his life experiences influence how he makes music more so than hip hop fads.
“It's an expression of your environment. It’s a way to tell your story and the stories of people around you.”
“Music is a great way of challenging preconceptions of Australia and offering up something more.”
Miracle was raised on hand-clapping, drum-beating church music, and says, “The rhythms in the kind of beats we make draw inspiration from my African heritage, with the high hats and snares or the drums that you might not hear, but you can feel the energy.”
Urthboy is one of the pioneers of Aussie hip hop and he reckons it’s time the local scene has some new life breathed into it. He welcomes the arrival of African- and Asian-Australians and lady MCs riding the Trap wave.
“Music is a great way of challenging preconceptions of Australia and offering up something more.”
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