KingsOfKings
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In 2003, T.I. and other Atlanta rappers created new subgenre of rap: trap music. Twenty years later, its influence is everywhere
SUMMERS: T.I. was born Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. That first album, it wasn't a flop, but it wasn't a smash either. T.I. was dropped from his label, and he started selling mixtapes.
GARLAND: They were selling these things, you know, hand to hand. You know, they would show up in their car, and they would just open the boxes and sell them themselves.
SUMMERS: That's Maurice Garland again. Those mixtapes took off, and T.I. signed with Atlantic Records. In 2003, he released his second official album, and this one was called "Trap Muzik."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TRAP MUZIK")
TI: (Rapping) Ay, this a trap, c'mon. This ain't no album. This ain't no game. This a trap, trap music.
SUMMERS: This time, T.I. broke through. The album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and sold more than 100,000 copies in its first week. And it gave a name to a specific flavor of Atlanta rap that reflected the city's street culture.
GARLAND: When they saw that that was the album title, like, it kind of just sent off like - almost like a bat signal to a degree. Like, hey, yeah, this ain't going to be underground no more.
SUMMERS: A quick note before we go any further. In the decade since this moment, multiple people have made credible allegations of sexual assault by T.I. and his wife, and any story about trap music needs to acknowledge that. For now, let's return to the story.
More at link
BRIANA YOUNGER: We are literally 20 years deep on trap music (laughter), and it hasn't gone anywhere.
PEARCE: It permeated the culture so deeply that it became nearly impossible to remove it. And it seems like everywhere you look, you can still sort of see the residue.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TRAP OR DIE")
JEEZY: (Rapping) Last time I checked, I was the man on these streets.
SUMMERS: I want to ask you all about mixtape culture around the same time. T.I. was just one of many who used mixtapes to kickstart a career. Can you just help us understand a little bit the mixtape phenomenon and the role that it played in Southern hip-hop.
YOUNGER: It's truly hard to overstate the impact that has on a lot of Southern rappers' careers in particular.
PEARCE: Yeah.
YOUNGER: Lil Wayne's entire career is built around mixtapes. Gucci Mane's entire career is built around mixtapes. And so, yeah, like, the entire lifeblood of Southern rap begins to kind of flow through these mixtapes.
PEARCE: Mixtape culture has always sort of been essential to the way rap has spread on a grassroots level. With the rise of the internet, that meant potentially going beyond your local scene and into suburban homes across the country. And in the course of that, you end up building up these regional scenes in a way that doesn't involve the traditional record industry.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DOWN IN THA DIRTY")
LUDACRIS: (Rapping) Down in the dirty South, this how I go making money, making money. Gettin' that dough. Familiar. Yes.
SUMMERS: So, I mean, at this point, there's a lot more attention on the South, but that doesn't mean that there's necessarily more respect. Briana, can you talk about the ways that Southern rappers were looked at by rappers from New York and those out West?
YOUNGER: Yeah, I think, you know, it very much mirrored the way in which Southerners, particularly Black Southerners, are looked at in general, which is that it's ignorant. It's not really cultured - the Southern twang even. Like, even when people hear the accents, like, there is just a lack of taking any of it seriously or trying to even position it as something that is, like, a part of the broader hip-hop culture that contributes to it and isn't taking from it. To some extent, it almost seemed like they were treated as, like, interlopers.
SUMMERS: T.I. was born Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. That first album, it wasn't a flop, but it wasn't a smash either. T.I. was dropped from his label, and he started selling mixtapes.
GARLAND: They were selling these things, you know, hand to hand. You know, they would show up in their car, and they would just open the boxes and sell them themselves.
SUMMERS: That's Maurice Garland again. Those mixtapes took off, and T.I. signed with Atlantic Records. In 2003, he released his second official album, and this one was called "Trap Muzik."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TRAP MUZIK")
TI: (Rapping) Ay, this a trap, c'mon. This ain't no album. This ain't no game. This a trap, trap music.
SUMMERS: This time, T.I. broke through. The album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and sold more than 100,000 copies in its first week. And it gave a name to a specific flavor of Atlanta rap that reflected the city's street culture.
GARLAND: When they saw that that was the album title, like, it kind of just sent off like - almost like a bat signal to a degree. Like, hey, yeah, this ain't going to be underground no more.
SUMMERS: A quick note before we go any further. In the decade since this moment, multiple people have made credible allegations of sexual assault by T.I. and his wife, and any story about trap music needs to acknowledge that. For now, let's return to the story.
More at link
BRIANA YOUNGER: We are literally 20 years deep on trap music (laughter), and it hasn't gone anywhere.
PEARCE: It permeated the culture so deeply that it became nearly impossible to remove it. And it seems like everywhere you look, you can still sort of see the residue.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TRAP OR DIE")
JEEZY: (Rapping) Last time I checked, I was the man on these streets.
SUMMERS: I want to ask you all about mixtape culture around the same time. T.I. was just one of many who used mixtapes to kickstart a career. Can you just help us understand a little bit the mixtape phenomenon and the role that it played in Southern hip-hop.
YOUNGER: It's truly hard to overstate the impact that has on a lot of Southern rappers' careers in particular.
PEARCE: Yeah.
YOUNGER: Lil Wayne's entire career is built around mixtapes. Gucci Mane's entire career is built around mixtapes. And so, yeah, like, the entire lifeblood of Southern rap begins to kind of flow through these mixtapes.
PEARCE: Mixtape culture has always sort of been essential to the way rap has spread on a grassroots level. With the rise of the internet, that meant potentially going beyond your local scene and into suburban homes across the country. And in the course of that, you end up building up these regional scenes in a way that doesn't involve the traditional record industry.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DOWN IN THA DIRTY")
LUDACRIS: (Rapping) Down in the dirty South, this how I go making money, making money. Gettin' that dough. Familiar. Yes.
SUMMERS: So, I mean, at this point, there's a lot more attention on the South, but that doesn't mean that there's necessarily more respect. Briana, can you talk about the ways that Southern rappers were looked at by rappers from New York and those out West?
YOUNGER: Yeah, I think, you know, it very much mirrored the way in which Southerners, particularly Black Southerners, are looked at in general, which is that it's ignorant. It's not really cultured - the Southern twang even. Like, even when people hear the accents, like, there is just a lack of taking any of it seriously or trying to even position it as something that is, like, a part of the broader hip-hop culture that contributes to it and isn't taking from it. To some extent, it almost seemed like they were treated as, like, interlopers.