Corporate America (& White People) Love Trap Music, Here’s Why Posted by Nathan S. on 03/11/14 | Filed under Top Stories, Opinion

When I first started going to SXSW it was breathing its last gasping breaths as the "independent" music festival it started as, and I can tell you exactly when I realized it was dead. In 2012 I looked down from my hotel balcony and watched Snoop Dogg slide out of a two story Doritos vending machine, a not exactly subtle indication that maybe, just maybe, corporate America had discovered Austin, Texas. 

Now, in 2014, Doritos and house-sized vending machines feel almost quaint. Some of the world's largest companies, from Nike to Samsung to Google, are now spending millions at SXSW to reach that highly sought demographic - young, cool people with money - and over the last week my inbox has been flooded with their press releases. Frankly, I'd rather have my hand trapped under Rick Ross' titty flap than wait four hours to get into a Yahoo showcase, but I was curious. Just who is Yahoo recruiting to play their shows? 

Good question, here's the answer: King Louie, Lil Durk, 2 Chainz, Rich Homie Quan and Young Thug. Wow...really? A company that's about as mainstream America as it gets is throwing some of trap and drill music's most notorious names onto their stage? (Side note: Trill's really just the Chicago sister/brother of trap). And Yahoo's far from alone. Reebok, the same company that dropped, then-maybe-kinda-resigned, Rick Ross over one line will be throwing Migos and Young Thug compatriot PeeWee Longway onto their stage. 

Goddamn corporate America, turn up turn up!

The fact that billion dollar companies are now mining the dirtiest and darkest reaches of the trap for their marketing gold says a lot, but it also says a lot about who's listening to those artists. After all, you don't think the Yahoo execs and their myriad marketing teams are booking Young Thug because they really want to support his artistic mission, or they're really hoping to make Yahoo the preferred search engine of impoverished Black people in the South. 

Of course not. The only reason these companies are at SXSW is because they're looking to reach affluent (and future-affluent) young people who, the math says, are probably white. And that's high level confirmation of something that I've noticed anecdotally over the last two years; huge portions of Chief Keef and Young Thug and their brethrens' fans are white. 

I know, I know, not exactly breaking news, but I think it does say a lot about hip-hop's place in American culture. How did this happen? How did trap and drill music become the go-to playlist choice at suburban high school house parties and frat mixers? Here's my theory. Whether it's rock n' roll, punk or early hip-hop, every generation wants to listen to whatever music will piss off older folks (aka me) the most. In 2014 lyrical rap, and not just the traditional east coast underground rap but even shit like Eminem, has become old. Trap and drill is the antithesis of all that; the lyrics are often nearly incomprehensible and delivered off beat. It's painful to older ears in the same way fans of completely crafted Led Zeppelin songs dismisses the Sex Pistols as pointless noise. 

What's more, you just can't listen to Nas or Eminem without feeling the entire weight of hip-hop's history bearing down on you, and be forced to think, if even for a moment, about your place in that history as a white listener. Someone like Peeway arrives almost completely unburdened by that history, and if someone catches you listening to Nas and criticizes you, you have to defend yourself as a hip-hop listener. By contrast, if someone catches you listening to Young Thug you can always just claim you're enjoying it ironically (aka the "ignorant brilliance" defense). "On no, I was only listening to this as a joke. Come on, he's making Pokemon references, that's hilarious!" 

So what's my point? I don't really have one. I don't think this is a particularly good thing or a bad thing; although at the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, I do worry about so many people treating hip-hop as a chance to be tourists in Black ghettos from the safety of their laptops, completely isolated from any feeling of responsibility (cut to shot of Thomas Morton walking through Chiraq). But ultimately, like so many other phases in hip-hop's long history, the rise of trap will prove to be just a phase. Some of these artists will build long careers, some will disappear into "Lost Ones" territory, the same as it's always been and always will be. 

We're not in a state of emergency, in many ways hip-hop's never been healthier precisely because it has such a diverse range of voices (even though you still wouldn't know it listening to the radio). And sweet baby jesus knows I enjoy myself a good ignorant banger. But seeing trap music dominate these corporate SXSW rosters really makes me realize we are in the midst of a new era, an era where Lil Durk is being used by companies to reach the next generation of consumers. 

Strange times we live in my friends. #Turnt

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