This week I decided upon the music I will incorporate in my podcast. I have decided to parallel Drake’s career trajectory with Trapo’s – a young up and coming rapper from Madison, Wisconsin. Trapo uses his verses to admit things about himself to himself and perhaps the world. His venerable style doesn’t fit with current popular trends (i.e., he doesn’t just blindly talk shit to the concept of a hater). However his unique lyricism and funky beat selection have earned him quite a bit of notoriety. He has even been feature by some high caliber independent rappers.
The music industry is a common topic in Trapo’s music. He speaks of his frustrations with his long road to success. Other rappers are more careless with their art than Trapo, yet they have massive followings while he remains relatively unknown. But Trapo isn’t doubting himself. He often claims he thinks he is a really high quality artist. The issue is the only Black entertainers the industry wants to pay are the ones that embody a type of minstrelsy.
“Is that green for a n*gga, I don’t see it for myself yet
Why they only gave it to the coons
To whom would dance and rock a jewel or two”
(Trapo, Relapse, Oil Change EP, 2018)
Trapo refuses to conform to that style of performance for profit. Instead he focuses on making sincere music, “weird music” as he calls it. In the interview below Trapo talks about his relationship with his music. He focuses heavily on sincerity and expression. He later declares a dedication toward this style of music.
I have decided to use songs from his previous albums Oil Change EP, Shade Trees, and She. I will then show how this commitment to sincerity has shaped his career trajectory.
I am comparing Trapo’s evolution to Drake’s. Drake’s career followed the flow of the music industry that neoliberal policies push. They prioritize cheap, easy to reproduce, and general enough to have the widest audience content. Drake had that natural talent to fit a perfectly marketable mold. And his sound adjusted to that as well.
I will also be select songs from Drake’s albums Thank Me Later, Take Care, Nothing Was the Same, Views, More Life, and Scorpion. I will outline the evolution in Drake’s content and hip-hop aesthetic across each album. Finally I will draw the similarities and difference between Drake and Trapo to show how neoliberalism pushed Drake to make many of the choices he did. On the other hand, I will show that Trapo’s discography is a protest against neoliberal principles.