- I've been hearing this sound everywhere. (electronic hi-hat) That blazing fast hi-hat burst. Have you heard it? It's all over. So what is it and how
did it end up everywhere. (electronic feedback and hi-hat) - So these crazy fast hi-hat triplets, they are the hallmark of the trap sound, a sound that's been
steadily working its way from the Atlanta streets
into the mainstream for nearly two decades. Nahre and I are gonna try
to make a beat inspired by the trap sound, but first,
where did it come from? Today, T.I. and Gucci
Mane are both claiming to be fathers of the genre, and no disrespect to the two
major innovators of trap music, but trap's roots actually go
back further to the mid 90s. That's when the term trap
really started showing up in hip hop lyrics. The word was popularized
in Atlanta as slang for a place where drug deals go down. - It's about a lifestyle
where you are dealing drugs and it's a trap, right, that
you can't really get out of or you can go to jail
or something like that. - References to the trap as
a place started appearing in music by many Atlanta
rappers, for instance, the 1995 song "Thought
Process" by Goodie Mob. - Rap music is the CNN of
the black community, right, and trap music is one that is unique in that it is speaking
to some of the cultural and economic disparities that
exist in our society today and so a lot of the youth can relate. - That brings us to the
origin of the trap sound, and those roots extend even
further back into the 80s with the invention of an instrument that had a massive impact
on hip hop, dance music, and pop music, the Roland TR-808. When the 808 was released in
1980 it instantly stood out but not in a good way. Instead of using prerecorded
samples of actual drum sounds, the 808 tried to mimic real drum with synthesized,
electronically-produced beats. Imagine a robot describing
what a drum sounds like. - (robot voice) Oh that
sweet sweet juicy boom. - Most of the producers in the early 1980s did not like the strange, synthy sounds. That's when a stock pile of 808s invaded neighborhood
thrift stores, and soon, young creators found a cheap way to experiment with new sounds. Eventually the 808 became standard gear for any hopeful hip hop producer. In the 2015 documentary on the 808, Questlove even called it
the rock guitar of hip hop. Here it is, the Roland TR-808. - The boom that you hear
when you're in a car and you hear that bass be like boom, that's typically the 808 boom
and the 808 authentic source is from this actual machine,
which is analog technology. The sounds in here, every trap producer today constantly uses. This is how you dial up
every single individual sound that you're gonna use. - I wanna go back to the cowbell. - Yeah, go back to your
cowbell, CB, tap it in. (synthesizer sounds) What makes this special is
the iconic, legendary status of the instrument itself. Now the technology has
advanced to the point where an 808 is irrelevant, because you can use any software program and get absolute amazing dynamics. - Yeah, just on steroids. - Completely not needed
at all. (LA laughs) - This is the essential seasoning, but you're not using it
in just any ole kitchen. - Absolutely.
- I dig it. The 808 was crucial to
creating crunk in Memphis and bounce in New Orleans,
forerunners to the trap sound. You can hear the electronic hi-hats on Juvenile's 1998 album, 400 Degreez. Atlanta in the early 2000 is when trap really comes together. Soon the trap trinity emerged: T.I., Young Jeezy, and Gucci Mane. But behind every big name, there's usually a producer
playing a key role in shaping their sound. - We made all the stuff they
was rapping on. (laughs) So without them, without
Toomp, without Shawty Redd, you wouldn't know who T.I. is or Gucci. - But a lot of people
don't recognize the names of the originators of the trap sound, like DJ Toomp and Shawty Redd. It wasn't until the next
generation of trap music that the producers started
to get recognition. It was 2008 and 17 year
old beat maker Lex Luger was uploading his beats to MySpace where they caught the
attention of Waka Flocka Flame. Luger ended up producing Waka's hit single "Hard in Da Paint". Before long, Lex Luger and
other Atlanta based producers, like Metro Boomin', were
producing hits for major artists from all over, like Snoop
Dogg, Drake, Kanye West. So not a whole lot of people are familiar with Shawty Redd or DJ Toomp, but Metro Boomin',
that's a household name. How do you think producers
of trap gained as much fame as the rappers that were
rapping on their beats, how did that happen? - The tags. (laughs) The tags and the rappers
starting to shoutout and actually put producer on. - You might recognize Metro
Boomin' producer tag in songs like "Father Stretch My
Hands Pt. 1" by Kanye. - Back when Redd and them were doing it, they weren't doing tags
so you didn't know who was making the beats. We'd start shouting them out, "Mike WiLL Made-It", Gucci
Mane slayed it. (LA Laughs) Once the rappers started
shouting the producers out, producers became big. - Soon, everyone wanted a piece
of Atlanta's trap producers. Pop stars like Beyonce,
Rihanna, even Miley Cyrus all came knocking and
the Atlanta sound spread around the world. International producers started using it in everything from reggaeton to K-pop. In 2017, rap and R&B surpassed
rock as the biggest genre in the US, based on
album sales and streams. And trap is arguably rap's
most popular subgenre. That means millions of Americans
of every shade, right now, are listening to music that
invokes the cultural legacy and ongoing struggles of segregation, structural racism, and urban violence. - Think about somebody like T.I., right, he talks about the
consequences of what it means to be a trapper, and he uses the music to kind of work through that. This is really interesting
to me how everything is all trap everything, and
I joke with my students, it's like you have trap
yoga, trap in paint, trap karaoke, trap water. And I am a trap purist, I
really need to get a shirt. It basically means sitting
on the porch, so to speak, and shaking my fist like
this isn't trap. (laughs) But I'm slowly but surely
coming to grips with the fact that trap music is now trap aesthetics. It does have that kind of
distinct print that can be used to update or remix other genres
that are already in place. But I also wish that folks
would also give receipts and credit where credit is due. This didn't just come out of nowhere, trap didn't just come out of nowhere. - So now that we know where
trap music comes from, let's break down how we
come up with trap sounds. Trap music has a wide range of tempos. It ranges from 110 BPM to about 140. I chose 126 BPM, because
it just felt good. When I think of trap music, this is about the tempo that I go to. I started with the 808. That heavy bass note, that's
what we mean by 808 nowadays. Next I added in that
hallmark sound, the hi-hats, and they go at these alarmingly fast rates of 32nd note triplets
or 16th note triplets. (electronic hi-hat) Trying to play that on a live
gig would be a nightmare. That's part of the reason
why trap is so intoxicating, that's why it's so appealing, because it's almost like
you're hearing the impossible being captured, you know what I'm saying. Next I added in the
snare. (electronic snare) The snare just sits right
in the middle of the mix. This right here is pretty
much the basic, bare bones of trap sound, anything else is extra. (electronic beat) So Nahre created the sound
bank of a bunch of sounds that she made, maybe like a
call and response kind of thing. Here it is, it's like (imitates notes). I got all these waves
working in like a respond, open space kind of thing,
it sounds like this. (electronic music) This is everything put together. (trap music) Nahre And I, we collabed
on this trap beat. - Alright. - Alright, it should pop up right there. - Ah, found it, ha ha. - Make it loud, turn
it up loud if you can. (trap music) For some advice, what would
you suggest we could do to make the beat more trappy, what could we do to improve it? - I think that sounds trap
enough to me, I like it. I like the bounce on it, for real though. - Well Marz, man, I really
appreciate you coming though. - Definitely, and keep in touch, we can collab or something, man. - [LA] Absolutely, for sure. - Let us know what you
think of our trap beat and make your own. Download the sound bank
that I created for LA from our description and please subscribe. (trap music)
Arthur is about to drop the hottest mixtape in day time television
mfw everytime i time i watch a video like this they never mention Memphis
Waiting for PBS Kids to make a doc about Lil Pump.
Shout out to PBS for the heat
Technically it's T.I. since his second album was titled Trap Muzik in 2003 i believe
I’ve gotten sick of watching poorly made videos about hip hop from people who don’t know any history. Someone lemme know if this is worth my time