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yes, sort of a troll post. but I've been thinking about this ever since I sat down to do a write up on Gucci Mane's Trap Back and it's creeping back into my mind over and over this summer, especially now that I'm Up just released (no I haven't heard it.)
this is what I said then.
"Trap Back provides as good a platform as any to pick apart a thought that's been tumbling through my skull for a few weeks now. Hip-hop as a genre has been a comfortable home for micro-movements and periods of experimentation for nearly as long as it's been alive. It's had its electro dance movements fade in and out of vogue multiple times, though often in radically different contexts (krautrock, house and the current wave of bombastic, ecstasy-driven dance to name a few). It's taken turns into the avant-garde (Busdriver, Doseone, El-P), the avant-gangsta (Ghostface Killah, E-40), the funky (all California everything) and the grimy, gritty, nihilistic (can The Bridge ever truly be over?). But a lot of that has always felt very trendy, easily affixed to certain cultural events and moments of time. Even in seemingly timeless cases such as the Dungeon Family or the Soulquarian movement, there is a glaring lack of true and widespread emulation that makes that music feel even more confined to their respective eras in some ways. Truthfully, the one steadfast rule that hip-hoppers across the globe have remained adherent to and loathe to dismiss is that all it takes to make a dope record is a cleverly chopped soul or funk sample and the illest drums you've ever heard keeping 4/4 time. From the moment Marley Marl and Jam Master Jay began to flip the scene on its head the one thing that hip-hop has always promised in large quantities no matter what year is a steady, ever-confident string of "real rap".
Admittedly it's hard to sit in the eye of a storm and claim it will last forever. There's always that nagging suspicion that the best/worst of it is behind you, when in truth there's no telling what's developing beyond the veil. But doesn't it seem like trap music is becoming boom bap's emphatic little brother, the Eli to boom bap's Peyton? When Thug Motivation first happened, trap music seemed like a fad that was doomed to burn itself out within months, partly because much of the music felt so similar and partly because so much of the hip-hop community was openly disgusted by the idea that a rapper might so openly celebrate trapping their communities in cycles of drug addiction both physical and mental. Especially prevalent, and still most prominent to this day, were the complaints that these rappers were "so-called", that their presence finally lent credence to the rockist agenda that "anyone could rap if they were asked to". But that was nearly seven years ago, and much like boom bap the formula has only experienced slight alterations in format and attitude yet experienced and continued and ever-growing number of invested participants and eager onlookers. A rapper like Andre 3000 rapping on a Rich Boy remix was a novelty in 2007; in 2012, Muslim "conscious" rapper Stalley of Masillion, Ohio leaves the jazzy, smoked out environs of Dame Dash's DD172 for Rick Ross' trap mecca Maybach Music Group and no one bats an eye.
Gucci works best as a siphon for this discussion not only because he's been around from the very beginning of the style's surge but because he's easily released more music than many of the genre's artists could likely conceive of. Each year is guaranteed at least four Gucci Mane releases, one of which may or may not be an actual album available for purchase. His omnipresence allows his discography to be examined in an increasingly interesting way; when he's everywhere all the time, it becomes easier to dislike his products. This is ostensibly because they are all about the same thing and sound so aggressively similar, but why then does he come through as soon as folks begin to count him out with a release that reminds everyone who gives him the time of day why that is? When he drops a project that just feels right, it stands as proof that once you've broadened your value sets to include trap music it turns out that its visceral, primal elements of satisfaction are near impossible to diminish. As such, Gucci Mane releases so much music each year for no other reason than nobody minds; for every BAYTL, there will inevitably be a Burrprint 3-D or Mr. Zone 6. That the projects propped up as his high water marks and comebacks are more likely than not the free ones engenders an odd sort of loyalty, too. It's a lot harder to be mad about putting down money for Back to the Traphouse when five or six Wilt Chamberlin mixtapes are flanking it, after all.
But I probably wouldn't have been compelled to go ahead and have that discussion with myself yet if Trap Back weren't as good as it is on the heels of a year in which Gucci Mane seemed to be spinning his wheels, bordering on invisible despite some solid releases. Trap Back isn't necessarily better than a Writing on the Wall II or Return of Mr. Zone 6, but through some intangibles it does feel that way. As usual Trap Back's production lineup reads like a who's who of current dominant producers, but there is a distinctly album-like flavor to their work here that elevates Trap Back slightly from the more generic fair he tends to challenge himself with. The use of guest spots is also quietly efficient, as all but three are taken by Yo Gotti, Rocko and Future. At 19 tracks long Trap Back is an explicit slap back at all the detractors he picked up over the past year, the rare gangsta mixtape that's fairly uninterested in bringing token love songs along for the ride or inviting everybody stopping through Atlanta to spit a 16. "Walking Lick" is the tape's undeniable highlight due to his undeniable chemistry with Waka Flocka Flame and a Mike Will banger that's absolutely impossible to hide from your neighbors, but most everything maintains a certain level of enjoyability. The music here is acutely aware of all the sonic trends Gucci and his 1017 squadmates mostly ignored over the past year, and truthfully it just feels like a fresh start for Gucci as much as anything else. He's also sprinkled so many references to past works in here, from "Two Thangs" to "Stevie Wonder", that for the so-called Gucci historian there are plenty of extra joy layers to sift through. Which, for a guy who's been rapping about the same shit for a decade over largely the same beats, is an an accomplishment not even many creators of crowd-approved classics can claim. It's always possible trap music doesn't have much time left, but releases like Trap Back sure make it easy to question how that could ever be possible."
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"This is the streets, and I am the trap." © Jay Bilas
http://www.last.fm/user/NodimaChee
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
http://rateyourmusic.com/list/Nodima/run_that_shit__nodimas_hip_hop_handbook
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