He seems to have rediscovered the power of fluidity, zipping through his thoughts until larger ideas settle into place.Ī murderers’ row of both new and seasoned producers match his breezy rapping with zesty beats. That single sequence is more potent than T.I.’s entire last album. “Swear to God I coulda been Freddie Gray/Or Mike Brown, getting shot down/With a pistol on me and half a brick of yay,” he reflects. “Laugh at Em” melds T.I.’s memories of his days in the trap with observations from this ongoing era of hyper-visible police brutality. “In the trap with a trap door,” he raps, insisting that a successful hustle only begets more hustles.

“What Can I Say” transforms T.I.’s unlikely ascent into a cautionary tale.

When he dismisses the advice and sets his sights on hip-hop moguldom, instead, you can feel the weight of that choice. On “Seasons,” he quotes his marriage counselor, who tells him to focus on the pain his decisions have caused. in repose, mapping the choices he’s made and teasing out their effects. Narrated by Dave Chappelle, another black artist who’s publicly wrestled with questions of legacy, Dime Trap finds T.I. But throughout this record, there’s an emphasis on consequences.

still likes to flex, and balling remains a priority. But he wanted Dime Trap to reset the balance and provide “unadulterated trap music” with “young, hungry, talented producers.” This return to the trap was so straightforward that, at one point, Dime Trap was simply called Trap Music.īut the Dime Trap of 2018 focuses on legacy instead of legend. duel- that is, the clash between the CEO and the streetside hustler-had been settled. He’d recently received a Grammy nomination for “Blurred Lines,” was Iggy Azalea’s mentor and defender, and was the patriarch of a reality-show family. envisioned Dime Trap as the second installment of a trilogy that began with 2014’s pop-leaning Paperwork. For the first time in years, he sounds less like a copyright lawyer and more like a contributor to a culture he loves.īack in 2015, T.I. “I made it album… but WE MADE IT A GENRE!!!!” This pivot from ownership to participation animates Dime Trap. “Trap Muzik wouldn’t be shit without ALL OF US,” he wrote. dropped the language of invention and proposed the genre was a group effort. But last month, announcing a new pop-up museum dedicated to trap, T.I. staked his claim to the genre’s origins on his 2003 album, Trap Muzik, arguing the proof was there in the title. Trap has become such a force-in hip-hop, in music, in style-that its creators can credibly say they have helped shape modern culture. For the past year, T.I., Gucci Mane, and spectators have been embroiled in a debate about who invented trap music.

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