While the trap genre has deeply divided the hip hop community, a lot of that can be attributed to new music-fad hate and a generational passing of the torch. Like any sub-genre of hip hop there are woeful lyricists, and talented ones. But at the end of the day both boom-bap and trap make use of the Roland Tr-808 drum machine.
Due to trap’s relevant infancy we haven’t seen a ton of older, more established rappers put their creative flair into the genre. They either won’t touch it, or they create a replica of every other song already out (this is true of all music). With the release of Boomverse by Big Boi that’s changed.
To really flesh out that South sound, Killer Mike, Sleepy Brown, Guvvi Mane, Curren$y and Jeezy are all listed as collaborators. Everyone one of those names has been highly relevant in the South’s sound from the ‘90s to today. It’s like a fantasy sports lineup of South talent.
This creates an almost-anthropology of the Dirty South’s sound. Kill Jill has an almost trap beat. It has the same short choppy cadence common to the genre in the opening verses as well. But after you get settled, the cadence switches pace. The later verses are longer in sentence and more technically put together. It’s subtle but apparent; a real fusion of old and new.
All Night rolls with An upbeat piano swank. Freakanomics announces itself with a jazz intro. The album is super tidy with production but sprinkled with tiny nods to the game’s history. Big Boi has his finger on the pulse with Boomverse. It probably won’t halt the great trap debate, but it’s cool to see what old school players can do for new school fools.
In hip hop there has always been what they call a cypher, a gathering of MCs and beatboxers jamming live with their voices. Then the beatboxers gave way to the DJ, who underwent some changes and eventually became today’s producers.
Now this cypher culture continued, but it’s also undergone some pretty radical changes. Cyphering paved the way for collaborations and mixtapes. A cypher was no longer relegated to the live format, it could be recorded, packaged, and given to the consumer.
The late ‘90s and early 2000s in Aussie hip hop were dominated by mixtapes – Culture of Kings and Obesecity probably the most notable among them. The mixtape and collaboration culture has thrived in the Australian scene. Australian MCs are no strangers to using YouTube to release content. For example the infamous 360 RapperTag from several years ago. It was a cypher that was played out nationally in video format.
As such we are seeing a reduction in mixtapes released, but an influx of YouTube collaborations. Instead of getting a mixtape featuring artists from one city, or one label, now we get a national syndicate. Ratayner One’s The Connection or the follow up, The Tassie Connection being the embodiment of this. Bothfeature a ridiculous amount of artists giving it the mixtape feel, but not the mixtape length.
This chop and change does lead to some charms. Due to a fortunate meet up at the The Tassie Connection, Greeley, Vanguard, and Vokal have spun out a new track, F*cked With That. In Vanguard’s verse, he alludes that this collaboration was due to The Tassie Connection. The remote location no detriment to the cypher.
