The most humorous part of this trap movement is the people that are new to it. The kids that think Carnage, gLAdiator, Mayhem, UZ, and Baauer are the only avenue in this genre. There is very little discussion about why these producers are pulling influence from a southern rap sound. And a complete lack of education on the part of blogs and websites that cover this music. It translates to a separation of genres that are really tightly related to one another. And while most producers are pulling inspiration from other electronic genres, Heroes x Villains just made a rap record. It's not crazy to think that there was a meticulous plan to merge these two worlds together.
Daniel Disaster is in Moscow as I type this. He's been all over Europe in the past couple of weeks. We've been friends for a minute, and had the pleasure of playing a few shows together. I've played rap-infused dubstep for the past few years, and only championed this electronic trap sound after he gave me a proper education. But every time I ask him what he's going to play, I get the same answer. "Rap music." And that answer hasn't changed since I've gotten to know him.
People also slept on the Heroes x Villains release with Dim Mak. It has less than 1000 plays on the label's SoundCloud, and truly shows the reach of this seasoned brand. We're not saying you're slow. I had this record a few months before it came out and just happened to notice Disaster mentioning it on his personal Facebook page as his Run The Trap EP was getting tens of thousands of plays a day. You might notice the trap drums backing an electro track. I was baffled, and it slipped by the world.
But this is a remix of a DJ Scream record that features five of the biggest rappers in Atlanta right now. This song wouldn't matter as much if the groundwork wasn't laid for it. If Heroes x Villains never made those dubstep anthems, landed on that tape with Diplo and Iggy Azalea, engineered for Grand Hustle, or released one of the biggest EPs to come out last year, this would just be a rap record. And if you don't know this history, you might just shrug it off. There are only a few producers that can remix a track of this magnitude, keep it 100% rap, and get it covered on an electronic music platform.
