Trap beats and the state of Hip Hop

I'm not the biggest hip hop fan, but I've enjoyed hip hop over the years, so this is not my place to speak so much. But I've had my moments, been really into some artist, for rappers seen J5, Blackalicious and Lyrics born a Tribe called quest, (actually met Gift of Gab and Lyrics born after their gigs), seen DJs Cut Chemist, RJD2, Dj Krust and DJ Food, From the UK scene I've seen Scruff play countless time, and Herbalizer, listened to lots of Grand Central and Fat City records and seen Aim DJ a few times. So my tastes are pretty old school, laid back Funk, Soul based sampled music. I've even seen the Beastie Boyz do 2 sets, one of their proper old school hip hop classis, and another of their funk playing (the latter was far better).

Before I started listening to hip hop, I was into Drum and Bass, and a little Jungle, so again sampled beats.

This is sampler forum, so I'm guessing more people sample their drums than don't. So I'm wondering how people on here feel about trap beats, being they are just mainly style beets 808 beats, with lots of rolls or ratchets. And hip hop moving away from finding gems to sample to pulling from a small pool. I'm more into electronic sounds at the moment, and even now in the new world of synthesizer and software synthesizers we have a wealth for drum machines, capable of creating different drums sounds with different movements. But trap seem to pull from the same 808 base. (And I am sick of hearing someone talking about an 808 like it's only a bass drum synth)

And since trap happened and mumble rap alongside it, I'm totally lost on rap now, I don't get what's going on to even start. We have full production studios in a laptop, and they say you can't polish a turd, but there's plenty rolling sh1t in glitter.

i feel like trap has branched out into it's own (sub) genre

To really appreciate (authentic) trap music from a production standpoint, you have to listen to albums like...

T.I. - Trap Muzik
T.I. - Urban Legend
Young Jeezy - Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101
Young Jeezy - Thug Motivation 102: The Inspiration
Young Jeezy - The Recession

Those albums features production from people like DJ Toomp, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, Shawty Redd, Drumma Boy, Don Cannon, Mannie Fresh, Scott Storch, The Neptunes, Kanye West, Timbaland, etc...

Naah dude...
So the whole Synth Trap thing has been around for sometime. It's more in the actual gang world, but leaked into the mainstream. Norteno rapper Woodie is sorta a key element to it. A lot of these people are just biting people like that. Also Andre Nickatina with people like Smoov-E producing. I don't mind some of it, but honestly anything on the radio, mainstream or whatever I really don't like. But I'm from a world that if you paint graffiti and only do murals, then you a toy. Like just go pick up a damn coloring book or something if ya gonna be like that ya know? So the Trap you hear all over I would say and people are gonna get mad at me for this.... inauthentic. It's wanna be gangst shit. Basically a bunch of actors and trash. Not into it.

Boombap, and yes people like you mentioned, Herbalizer and such, will always be legendary as for a lot of this mainstream trap stuff years down the road, will more resemble pop music than rap/hiphop. Like it reminds me of Cage vs Eminem. Cage is like "I don't battle popstars". Eminem pretended to be sooooo crazzyyy for doing mushrooms and E when Cage just got out of a mental asylum, got signed to universal, but got kicked off because he was f*ckin around, getting high on Pcp and such. When Eminem join Univseral he was given a couple of tapes to record a demo on, one of the tapes had Cages Old Previous Demo on it. This is when Eminem truly really started biting Cage. Eminem, even after Losing Scribble Jam to Dose One with his trash pre-writtens, got picked up by Dre and then with there overhyped marketing team they basically tried to drown out all other whiteboy rappers. Shit was terrible asf. Cage did albums with TameOne like LeakBros, and then there was NightHawks, and these albums burned anything Em ever put out.

What I'm getting at is.... Mainstream trends are marketed trash but are remembered in history do to that. Even this sing-a-long, autotune BS. It's like for uneducated types that don't want to really learn/look into music, wanna just support a bro, or just wanna something to listen to because to them it's JUST music and not an Authentic Lifestyle. It's not a bad thing, just some live it and are passionate about it and some don't or aren't. With things like like Marketing, you can sorta just Tromp over history or whatever... Drown out your enemies. It's pathetic. At least people word for word keep things alive. That's real. F a Celebrity.

I for one(unfortunately or fortunately) did and have bros that do. So we all get pretty picky on who we listen to for specific reason and the average Joe does not. They just want it to sound good and be catchy. I for one hate sing-a-long chorus rap/trap/pop. Binary Star said it best. "You got your Hip-Pop and Hip-Hop"
I respect One-Be-Lo. Why? Because he supports my graff crew, friends, gives back to the community, teaches down and such. He speaks about something real making me want to listen to him. I honestly have never and will never listen to Drake, Kendrick, or whatever else. I don't care for DrDre either, I just don't like overly market or overly hyped up trash. It's Sus. I know people gonna get mad because they love seeing the brotha, with a Mpc2000XL or SP1200 banging out beats, the image sells... I get it... But in the Graffiti World(Atleast oldschoolers), We know our history. We know Graffiti Art from NYC came about during the Led Zepplin times and people were actually bumping that. We know the puerto ricans, italians, latins and such were also getting treated the same way as the black culture and contributed just as much if not more at times.

Hiphop is a word created by a white guy in NYC who used to follow around the breakers to find the graffiti. Don't believe the hype. Don't follow the trend. You like Cut Chemist, old trip, breaks, boombap and such, then keep doing your thing. That shit will stay classic. All the trend jumpers will die off. It's fine. If someone makes trap beats for the gang homies, then all the power to them as well. Gotta support ya bros. ya know? If you like Mainstream Trap, all the power to you, but honestly look up real cats like Woodie who made that genre REALLY what it is today. Hiphop is in a sad state, but it's fine. I don't believe it's supposed to be a money making machine. It's supposed to be about the love, and pushing the culture forward and teaching down. It's not for everyone. Remember... Even Boombap hiphop had its REALLLY sh*tty trendy tracks at one point or another... It was bad for awhile... But then again, I guess I'm thinking of that Television trash that they market as hiphop.

Lastly I wanna say, that being Authentic can be good yes, but Authentic can make your actual music suffer. For example a lot of REAL gangsters don't live that old, depending on their situation, so for someone to be making music for a short time and actually produce good music, than that's huge. If they from a real hood, they usually don't have access to gear back in the day, but to be from the hood, grown up in a gang, to know what your doing, make your music with synths, and bang out a bunch of albums in a handful of years... That's pretty dope. It may not be no Beethoven or Mainstream trap quality, but the fact someone did that... I respect it.

Anyways... I miss em days when Eyedea was around.

I'll shut up..

This a pretty easy problem to solve. I'm no fan of country polka. But country polka exists and I don't listen to it. It is so much good music out there, probably more than at anytime in musical history. The issue is you are accustomed to music being curated for you. Get out of that mindstate and seek out the music you like, it is a raging sea of good music out there waiting to be heard and you can pretend like trap doesn't even exist.

BeatWilson wrote:But I'm from a world that if you paint graffiti and only do murals, then you a toy.

Tell me we’re the same age without telling me we’re the same age.
I stayed with a piece book everywhere I went, ready to battle.

if trap doesnt resonate with you then dont mess with it. nobody said you gotta like, or try to be part of anything that you dont like.

I got mad 'spect from them down south mfs, they continually innovate new music. I dont feel as though the sample based production artists really push any unique production boundaries. You wont find a record label willing to sign you and pay you any real money doing that shit anymore either... the demographic isnt there. Your generation isnt the generation buying rap music for the most part unless you are under 20 years old. Your one of two producer / dj friends dont constitute enough album sales.

Funny when folks bash trap, but bullshit like takashi 69 has more plays than you.

Is trap music even relevant? I mean, Drill music is already dying because of that new fad people are jumping on, I forget the name, but that will probably die out in a few years, too.

BKLYN wrote:Is trap music even relevant? I mean, Drill music is already dying because of that new fad people are jumping on, I forget the name, but that will probably die out in a few years, too.

you make a great point lol, that craps on its way out too.

RIP Gift of Gab

Living in the northwest I had the pleasure of not only seeing him and many other Bay Area and cali MCs live all the time but also opening for them as they always were touring up and down the I5

Dude was not only a great MC but a great human. Always willing to chop it up

But to your main point, hip hop isn’t dead. Theres still tons of great artist making dope music in the style you’re taking about. Trap is basically its own sub culture of rap, it isn’t hip hop. Don’t stress it.

BackOnDaMPC wrote:To really appreciate (authentic) trap music from a production standpoint, you have to listen to albums like...

T.I. - Trap Muzik
T.I. - Urban Legend
Young Jeezy - Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101
Young Jeezy - Thug Motivation 102: The Inspiration
Young Jeezy - The Recession

Those albums features production from people like DJ Toomp, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, Shawty Redd, Drumma Boy, Don Cannon, Mannie Fresh, Scott Storch, The Neptunes, Kanye West, Timbaland, etc...

I had a listen through 4 of these. They are all nearly 2 decades old. I am really talking about the beats. And there was more verity, back then a broader pallete of beat sounds, it seems than trap now. It's far more accessible to make interesting beat, and be creative with what you are doing than rolls/ratchets. So who now is doing that with in the field of trap.

I always found the keyboard horns on hip hip corny back then, almost Rocky themes over and over. But that was the sound popular hip hop had. I've seen people search for there sounds on a Triton and replicate.

I got on with T.I. better the Young Jeezy, whose music just seems for kids

BeatWilson wrote:Naah dude...
Anyways... I miss em days when Eyedea was around.

:

I haven't quoted the whole thing, but thanks for your perspective. I'm a white kid from a village in rural England, whose closest experience to Hip Hop was winning the Primary school Disco breakdance battle, and the most gangster I got was getting expelled and not being able to use the free ticket I won to go the final disco of the year.

Had a listen to some Eyedea, and noted he passed at 28. A shame, I dig where he was coming from.

Ultros wrote:if trap doesnt resonate with you then dont mess with it. nobody said you gotta like, or try to be part of anything that you dont like...

I'm not not meaning to bash on trap, it's not for me, I'm just curious about how people here that sample, and probably crate dig for beats, feel about the limited palate of beats (not the music that surrounds it, but the beats in the traditional sense) that have been used for so long in Trap.

One of my drum machine sources is SugarBytes Drum Computer. I would have thought a that would be an interesting synth for trap producers to get a fresh twist on those sounds. The sequencer has rolls built in, and the modulation to get textural movement going would compliment the genre well. I kinda get record labels not picking up anything that's trying to be different, that been there M.O. in all generes, yet producers are allways looking for beat makers making something fresh, and surely beatmakers are looking to do something different. I'm interested in the beatmakers take on it here.

J.O.BEATS wrote:RIP Gift of Gab

I found out about a year after his passing. In generally I don't get hung up on famous people passing, but he was the sounds of the early 2000s for me, and I was gutted. Back then my girlfriends brother was a promotor and we got him to book him. After the gig when everyone had gone, he came out and sat on the edge of the stage and chatted with us. His motto was 'stay true to yourself and be humble' and he lived by that it seems. Lyrics Born also hung out with us for a bit after his gig and he was just a chilled and friendly.

The problem with today's music (in general) is that no one dares to be different. Everyone takes a monkey see, monkey do approach.

BackOnDaMPC wrote:The problem with today's music (in general) is that no one dares to be different. Everyone takes a monkey see, monkey do approach.

Say it again for the people in the cheap seats because this has been repeated repeatedly for nearly two decades.

BackOnDaMPC wrote:The problem with today's music (in general) is that no one dares to be different. Everyone takes a monkey see, monkey do approach.

Yeah this is a accross all genres, but the ones the break free of that tend to leave a bigger mark.

I really like the Chemical Brothers, and I don't even like most of their work, but the tracks I do like I really like, and really inspire. They don't seem to a have a formulae to their tracks, they all sound different. Their early stuff had more of a hip hop connection, being based on breaks, but even their current stuff is still based around a sample, that generates an idea, and the synths and beats build around it. The best example for me is Saturate. Their isn't anything in Dance Music that sounds like Saturate.




You tube is full of 'How to sound like' videos, usually built in Ableton, and the videos are like 'do this, then do this, then do this, then do this'. Makes it a really paint by numbers approach to making music. But if the original track has enough to itself, it's just a snapshot of the artists work, because they don't want to sound the same themselves.

Sorry I'm off topic here on my thread, but your comment struck a nerve (an agreeable nerve).

I really like how the trap guy gonna gets his beats to sound super luxurious? I guess you would call it.. like futuristic but real regal vibe too.. his beats are different I think. Lots of guys with talent though in that genre if you look past the beats are mostly done by like ten producers for everybody.. and most of them sound the same almost.