In 2004 Disaster was 20 years-old when he was recruited by Grand Hustle as an engineer for three T.I. albums. Since then he has gone on to work with Young Jeezy and Lil Wayne and release electro-infused remixes of rap under a variety of pseudonyms (Heroes & Villains, MeganFoxxx, Quadrant). In 2010, the DJ started a party called Heavy with the goal to play any and all music of a certain “hard, powerful, raging energy” including dubstep, dirty bass, trap, and punk. “I would go out and notice that other DJs were doing the same exact thing,” he says. “We would see clubs full of kids of different backgrounds — half the crowd was black and half was white — we’d see them go totally crazy and start a mosh pit to dubstep, and then to Waka, back-to-back.” Burn One remembers these parties as well. “You’d be listening to this dubstep track and then he would throw a Gucci a capella on top. It was trippy, really trippy, but I liked it.”
And then there was the time that Gucci Mane made an appearance himself. “We’re all a tight-knit community,” Disaster explains. “Lil Jon, Pill, Big Boi, Yelawolf — they would come by when they were in town to hang out and hear new music. Some of them performed or partied with us, they loved it.” As for Gucci’s visit, Disaster recalls when the rapper freestyled in the middle of one such party in 2010. “Gucci was hanging out one of the times he got out [of jail],” says Disaster. “Everyone was having a good time and Gucci was really feeling the [dubstep track] that was playing and jumped on the mic for a verse.”
–I investigated the Internet-borne hashtag genre “trap rave” for Stereogum. Daniel Disaster, Burn One, and Lunice chimed in along the way.
Not to shit on you but I don’t like this trend
My problem with this whole trap rave shit is that yeah there may have been a meshing of scenes in Atlanta but outside of that it’s primarily turned into a way for people who don’t like rap to hear rap without the rap. I have my issues with that because the same kids who are jocking would have looked at you sideways for pushing that tick tick in the trunk before it was rave cool. Trap shit was all dollar bin music in San Francisco and now a bunch of dubsteppers want to roll it out in the club as long as there is no rap in it and it’s got some uk funky twist? I have friends playing this shit when in 2003 they would just roll their eyes at me when I’d tell them how dope Tip was. Ten years ago the only southern rap most people gave a shit about was The Love Below. Most people were more interested in hears In Da Club than anything involving horror samples and snares.
I don’t know I guess this shit just bothers me because its been embraced so much by people who never cared about this music and it’s music that I’ve spent a lot of time listening to and defending. I don’t expect everyone to have listened to it a decade ago but damn fools need some persepective. Hell at least get learned on the 808 mafia if you’re gonna be a coopting new jack trying to hand me a fucking flyer for your bullshit party.
I don’t like when things I have loved for years become trends, not because I don’t want them to get popular. It’s because I don’t want people half assing shitty versions of things I love just because it’s cool now. Dog trap music doesn’t need your shitty wobbles, it needs more menace, fuck your furry dubstep boots and house whistles. You want to bow up then lets fucking do it, that’s what it’s for.