Hailing from Gipsy Hill, south London, drill frontrunner K-Trap has been setting standards for years, giving the British public a gritty depiction of his former life as a ‘trapper’. Now the 25-year-old is releasing his fourth mixtape, ‘Trapo’, less than a year after his debut album ‘Street Side Effects’. Here he proves he’s still the voice of the streets, even if his flow can become slightly repetitive.
This isn’t helped by production that sounds like it sometimes came from a drill beat starter pack, though some redemption comes in the form of his collaborators: Birmingham’s Lotto Ash kills it on ‘Billie Jean’, while ‘RRR’ sees south London’s Youngs Teflon enthral the listener with his goofy wordplay.
‘Trapo’ is also lifted by K-Trap’s own cheeky braggadocio, as well as the odd heartfelt moment. Towards the latter part of the record, he begins to really push the gas and give more of an insight into himself, rather than the lavish lifestyle and mindset he acquired from having been a trapper. He stops spewing out borderline chauvinist lyrics such as “She wanna Prada bag and a kettle / Huh, you better hold this brick and metal” (from ‘She Wanna’), and tells his fans that he really wants to be a positive role model for his fans.
‘Intentions’ and ‘Fighting’ stand out as his most thoughtful tracks, with the former detailing a little as to why he was sucked into “trapping” despite wanting to “change the narrative”: “I gotta something good for myself when the hood make you feel like you’ve found your friends / Wow, how, I want out / When? Now.”
On final track ‘Fighting’, K-Trap does an a cappella verse thanking those around him, telling them that he has “some many battles to face, and now I’m back with this tape”. As he finally moving away from his hardened exterior, we get a little look into what goes on in this driller’s head. And that should be highly commended.
Despite the presence of awesome collaborators on this brand new tape, ‘Trapo’ feels underwhelming for someone who likes great wordplay and great stories. However, if you love the idea of listening to a guy who says it as he means it, then you’ll enjoy hearing a formerly defensive driller being willing to let his guard down – and it will be interesting to see how much more of his inner psyche he is willing to reveal.
