Meet the MC: TRAPY | DJMag.com

In relation to TRAPY’s on-line exercise, the MC’s presence is large — he’s obtained 50k followers on his tattoo account — and his interplay along with his followers is among the issues that units him other than different creatives. He’s always partaking along with his followers by way of questionnaires on his tales, providing these struggling in their very own heads a spot in his DMs, and pushing the message that you need to unapologetically be your self.

One factor that the followers undoubtedly gained’t see, nevertheless, is TRAPY’s face. Even when he started tattooing, he wore masks, face coverings and balaclavas to guard his anonymity, and it’s one thing he’s by no means compromised on. Talking about his choice to cover his id, it doesn’t simply stem from run-ins with the legislation, but additionally with ensuring the main focus — initially with tattooing, and now with music — stays on his artistic output, not his picture.

“I’m nonetheless responsible of what everybody else is although,” he says, talking about his social media presence. “I solely present my greatest on-line, like all people does. I attempt to be as clear as I can, however to a level I’m curating what I share. Once I do decide up my cellphone, and I’m in excessive spirits, that’s after I wish to work together. There’s intervals of silence as a result of after I’m going by way of shit — I don’t wish to share.”

ANONYMITY

In January this yr, the MC introduced ‘MIXTAPE’, alongside the aforementioned single and video, ‘MILLIE’. Accessible now by way of YouTube, the undertaking is a method for TRAPY to shed a number of the anonymity and thriller that shrouds his life, telling tales and relaying deeply private reminiscences by way of lyrics. “That’s the place persons are going to get the complete spectrum of me,” he says. “It’s an introduction to the actual me, what I’m about and what I can do — singing, rapping, rhyming… all of that. It’s the one place the place I might be very open about me.

“As a shopper, after I take a look at or hearken to one thing that’s been created, I wish to find out about who made it, and what’s occurring of their lives. I do very properly speaking overtly in music. All that shit I say and do to maintain up the privateness — that is my outlet.”

TRAPY already has his subsequent three initiatives lined up, too. It’s a trilogy of mixtapes, centred round Marvel Comics character Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. It’s filled with feel-good disco, soul and funk samples, starting from Robin Beck’s 1979 hit ‘Candy Discuss’ to Armenta’s ‘I Wanna Be With You’, launched by Savoir Faire Data again in 1982. They’re not the standard, rinsed-out samples you hear in hip-hop or rap, and that’s a aware choice from TRAPY. When the MC travels, he makes some extent of stopping into report shops and second-hand outlets the world over, sourcing outdated vinyl and CDs purely for sampling functions. “Funk and soul is what I truly hearken to, however I’m not that individual…” he trails off, earlier than laughing. “If I used to be born in a special time — belief me I’d be the lead singer of a funk band, and I’d be on SMOKE.” 

TRAPY was impressed to jot down the Iron Man tapes after the current loss of life of one among his heroes, MF DOOM. With the instrumentals impressed by DOOM’s again catalogue, TRAPY wished to pay his respects by way of music, and taking over a personality — akin to DOOM’s affiliation with Marvel Comics supervillain, Physician Doom — felt like the precise solution to do it.

“MF DOOM is King. And Tony Stark is King. He’s the most effective Avenger, and if you realize me personally, I’m very comparable… clearly he’s obtained more cash although,” TRAPY says, laughing at himself once more. “He saves the world, and I’ve a giant humanitarian plan on the finish of this. I do know which may sound shocking, however I’m gonna make an influence and a distinction with my music and what I do.”

TRAPY’s finish purpose it appears, finally, is to make folks really feel good, and provides again to these round him. His experiences throughout his childhood, and rising up on estates surrounded by basketball courts and soccer pitches, have sparked an thought for an idea known as 72 Sport — a programme which might see younger, underprivileged folks spend a day with profitable artists and entrepreneurs in these settings. “Lots of people who’re super-famous or in profitable fields met somebody well-known or profitable once they have been younger, and it unlocks one thing of their thoughts,” he says. “If a few of these superstar sorts would simply spend a day with youngsters in the course of the college holidays, work together with them, present them they’re an actual individual — I do know it will make the distinction. It unlocks potential, and I wish to take that formulation all over the place.

“Put it this fashion. I’ve obtained a gold chain on proper now. I can’t see it, it hangs on my chest, below my shirt. But when I put it round your neck, I see it on a regular basis, and that makes me joyful. The issues I do with music, and the stuff I’m gonna do as I develop — I wanna do issues that simply make folks happier. You may’t take the worth of that anyplace else on the earth.”