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Gucci Mane Says He Invented Trap Music, Not T.I.

Trap Music Gucci Invented

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Who invented trap music? According to T.I. he did, but Gucci Mane begs to differ. 

On Friday (April 6), Guwop posted an old photo of himself and made the claim that he originated the popular sub-genre, no one else.

“The day I invented trap music,” he wrote in the caption, before adding a couple of hashtags.

But some might say that T.I.’s claim of being the originator has more validity since his album “Trap Muzik” came out in 2003 and Gucci’s debut “Trap House”  came out two years later. In fact, that’s the reasoning T.I. used to back up his claim during a 2017 interview.

“A lot of people don’t really know that I created trap music,” he told Angie Martinez. “There was no such thing as trap music prior to [T.I.], no such thing. It didn’t exist. It was Outkast and crunk, like that’s what it was. Organized Noize and crunk.”

Then in a separate interview, the Grand Hustle founder doubled down on that opinion and used some Southern hip-hop history to back up his point.

“We can go back historically and check actual references that before that album dropped the term didn’t exist,” T.I. explained. “Who created trap music first before me? But it has grown from the contributions of others who have taken it far beyond where I left it or where I could have taken it.”

But regardless of who the inventor of trap is, it’s taken full hold of rap music, almost to the point of being synonymous with the genre itself. It’s also bled into other forms of music including pop and EDM in recent years.

Before that — at least in theory — the music was made for those who spent time in the trap, another name for a place where drug deals occur. It also documented some of the experiences of the street hustler.

In fact, the whole drug dealing aspect is why Jeezy doesn’t want to be included in the who-invented-trap-music debate, because he sees it as a negative.

“He could have it,” said Jeezy earlier this year, about T.I.’s claims of being the inventor. “Anybody else who want it [can have it too]. I don’t got nothing to do with that sh–. At the end of the day, I trapped my whole life to get out of trap. I don’t want to see it again. I don’t even want it connected to me. No disrespect to my peoples that’s out there grinding. I just want to show them a bigger and better way. I just left the New York Stock Exchange yesterday.”

As far as Gucci’s post, Tip has since responded and didn’t take too kindly to Guwop taking credit for starting trap.

“Again, for the slow ones in the back, August 19th, 2003 birth of trap music, and only fools dispute facts,” wrote T.I. “FOH with that Christopher Columbus ass ‘Look what I discovered, even though they was already here a– sh–.”

You can see Tip’s response below.

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