HOW T.I. CELEBRATES THE 20TH ANNIVERARY OF TRAP MUSIC AND THE BIG 4L! (719 hits)
For Immediate Release From Rolling Out!
He parlayed the global success of ‘Trap Muzik’ album and movement into a financial empire.
Rap icon T.I. leaned back in his chair onstage at the annual ComplexCon in Long Beach, California, and reminisced about his directorial debut in the 2023 comedy film Da ‘Partments with his adult son, King Harris at his flank: https://rollingout.com/2013/11/28/ti-turke...
His face was flush with the contentment of someone who has persevered through innumerable obstacles and legal entanglements to achieve the American Dream — and created a musical dynasty in the process. The concrete jungle that birthed an Earth-shifting movement called trap music was in his rearview mirror, yet ever-present in his soul.
Da ‘Partments is a comical view of the essence of the trap that defines Tip and the Grand Hustle crew but failed to ensnare them in its potentially deadly grasp. Or as Kawan Kawmi “KP” Prather says, “The trap is a place. But it was turned into almost like an adjective to describe the aspiration to get out of it, but without the idea of leaving the identity.”
As T.I. and his crew take a nostalgic walk back to Aug. 19, 2003, the day the album Trap Muzik was released and the movement mushroomed into a global phenomenon, crisscrossing the oceans, and reaching the seven continents on the globe, it’s fascinating that one of the most consequential subgenres in hip-hop history — that has also permeated pop culture — began in the most inauspicious and humblest of fashions.
The album Trap Muzik originated in the Bankhead section of Atlanta, seemingly oceans away from Buckhead, the famed upscale section on the other side of the bustling metropolis. There were not many Martin Luther King “dreams” on the horizon in Bankhead, just a chaotic cluster of check-cashing joints, fast-food franchises, liquor stores and funeral homes that littered the neighborhoods and resulted in unending drama from folks trying to survive in, or come up out of their challenging circumstances.
But the ambience was fertile enough to grow a monumental movement that blossomed and trumpeted loud enough to be heard throughout Bankhead, Buckhead, Beverly Hills, Bangladesh and Buenos Aires. Fifth Avenue came calling. Hollywood came calling. Trap music was an undeniable and unimpeachable paradigm shift in music.
Trap music began next to the pots and pans in DJ Toomp’s parents’ home. It started in the back of a beauty salon. It originated before the explosion of the information superhighway and its tentacles of digital dalliances of Google, emails and social media.
It began with a charismatic wordsmith who sports a distinctive baritone, an infectious cadence, an instantly recognizable Southern twang as thick as pancake batter, and a gift for storytelling. It started before Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. was even known as T.I.
As Tip flips through his mental scrapbook of memories, he is pensive and philosophical about the place that molded and cultivated him and ultimately launched him into the entertainment stratosphere.
“It’s the feeling of what the devil means to be bad, God uses for good. And when I say that it’s like all of these experiences, all of these life lessons, all of these triumphs and tragedies that are shared, to create trap music, you know, they come from a very dark place,” Tip says. “People had to endure some extreme circumstances, to be able to take that and that testimony, and use it as a philosophical presentation, through the music, to share with the world for a few reasons.”
Yes, trap music probes the grime and grittiness of urban America, particularly in Atlanta. But it is not lost on fans that trap music is also aspirational. It is a movement spawned from triumphs and tragedies but also about hope, dreams and goals.
“[Trap music] is, for one, to let people who are going through an ordeal know that they ain’t in it alone. Two, to let people who are still going through it know that there is a possibility and there is hope for a way out,” Tip said. “And, three to let the world know that these circumstances and conditions are having long-lasting effects on the people who live in communities.”
