17-year-old Madison, Wisconsin rapper Trapo’s voice transmits an impressive amount of emotional depth with each line delivered. On new single “Cards & Conversation,” he addresses a serious, recent car accident that he escaped unscathed.
“Seeing how serious that car accident was, people damn near could have died that night,” says Trapo. “With this song, I wanted people to feel how blunt and real that experience was for me.”
Combining auto-tuned singing and gruff, nimble, and often melodic rapping, Trapo addresses his experience with a mixture of brazen plainspokenness and reflective darkness. It’s an arresting blend made all the more powerful by his dynamic delivery.
The song’s aesthetic and title were inspired in part by Ice Cube and his crew playing dominos in Boyz N The Hood. “This is the neighborhood talking, cards shuffling,” says Trapo. “In my experience, people get together for cards or dominos or whatever and talk about what people have been doing and what’s going on around us.”
As a world-weary observer and a unique talent, Trapo is yet another young rapper to watch from a state producing an ever-increasing number of them.
