brittanyluongo
For months I’ve been listening to similar sounds on my iPod as well as at shows and I couldn’t quite put my finger on the classification of the music. It wasn’t moombahton, it wasn’t house, it wasn’t dubstep (or any of its sub-genres). It was something different altogether. If you’ve been to any music festivals that have been taking place over the summer, you’ve probably been listening to the same sounds without even knowing it.
What exactly are these sounds? It’s trap music. This brand of music is taking over the scene, as DJs left, right, and centre seem to be embracing the trap sounds. The key to staying relevant in the music industry with the inventions of the 21st century is adaptation. When the 20-something year olds change their preferences of music, as a DJ, you either adapt, or join Crazy Town in the clearance section at Walmart.
To get a better understanding of this new adaptation, I turned to the trusty Urban Dictionary, which spit out this definition for me:
Similar to “trap houses” in the underworld drug trade, “trap music” is a style of Hip-Hop originally created by decent individuals as a means incorporating “traps” for dangerous individuals to fall into in reality; meant as a means of finding out and knowing who’s who in society.”
Hell if I know what any of that means, but what I take from the definition and the sound, is that it’s a modern take on hip-hop which focuses less on the lyrics (which seem to be completely disrespectful to both women and men everywhere nowadays) and more on the beats that usually go along for the ride.
Artists like Flosstradamus, RL Grime, Baauer, and Diplo have been some of the few to be sampling this style of music for a while. But more recently, Dillon Francis (with his rebirth of “Masta Blasta”) and Skrillex (with his remix of Birdy Nam Nam’s “Goin’ In”) have joined the Trap team. There’s no hiding that I am a complete fan of this music, I’m just glad it’s becoming more popular because I’d love to hear more of it and of course different takes on the style.
I’ll leave some of my favourites down below. I may have posted a couple in previous posts, but they’re just too good not to listen to again. Enjoy!
Flosstradamus “Rollup”
..and the Baauer remix to that
Major Lazer “Original Don” (Flosstradamus Remix)
Flosstradamus & DJ Sliink “Test Me”
Kanye West “Mercy” (RL Grime Remix)
Dillon Francis “Masta Blasta” (The Rebirth)
Birdy Nam Nam “Goin’ In” (Skrillex Remix)
Baauer “Harlem Shake”
