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So what happens when three best friends from Atlanta — each packing their own estimable music credits — come together to pool their talents? A new genre tagged “trap jazz.”
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Trap Jazz is also the title of an insightful docu-film chronicling the origins of this creative undertaking by musicians Chris Moten, Devon “Stixx” Taylor and Cassius Jay, whose collective credits outside of that realm include working with marquee talents such as Cardi B, Justin Bieber, Questlove, Machine Gun Kelly, Future, Migos and Post Malone. Directed by Sadé Clacken Joseph and presented by Black multimedia platform Andscape and HULU, Trap Jazz premiered Aug. 23 on the streaming service.
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Internationally, Trap Jazz will premiere on Star+ in Latin America on Oct. 6 and Disney+ in all other territories on Oct . 27. Beyond the film’s soundtrack, the trio is also working on another trap jazz album with their bass player Raschad Marshall.
As much as the docu-film is about trap jazz and its genre parents (“This is the next sh–” says veteran producer Jazze Pha at one point), its spotlight also shifts to other areas — like the spiritual connection between Moten, Taylor and Jay, the personal challenges they’ve experienced, how Atlanta’s stance as a music mecca helped shape their careers and, above all, why creative freedom is crucial.
How did the notion of trap jazz first come to mind?
Moten: It’s something that I started in 2015. I’d been playing with a lot of celebrity artists, traveling and working as their music director. Then I decided that it was finally time for me to do something of my own. Something that would be very catchy; that people wouldn’t have to work hard to understand what it was. After that, I knew I needed some help. So I called Cassius and kept bugging him every day until he gave me exactly what we needed: a book of songs with some beats and I put my little 2% on there. Then we called Devon and became a group of like minds. Quincy [Jones] got a chance to hear it, and that was dope.
What do you want people to realize after listening to trap jazz?
Taylor: Jazz music is a way to express anything that you’re going through emotionally. You just sit down and play whatever you want. A lot of kids right now think jazz is lame. But what we’re trying to do is bridge the gap to where they hear these beats, these cool beats. And then they can hear the melodic jazz lines, which are also cool. I don’t think jazz is ever going to die. Because if you really think about it, jazz riffs and chords are in R&B, hip-hop and gospel. It just depends on how you play it. You’re never going to get away from jazz. I don’t care what anybody says.
Moten: As long as we continue to let the kids hear the street sound, the R&B sound, the sounds being heard most today, and sprinkle in jazz, then it will never die. In that sense, if you really talk to some of these kids, they’re actually looking for something different than what they’ve been forced to listen to. So we’re never going to lose jazz because it’s going to continue to evolve. It may be called different things. But it’s still going to be a form of jazz. I like to call jazz structured chaos because it doesn’t have a destination. Jazz is so much about expression and improv that I think old school jazz players would say today, “Don’t try to micromanage the music. Let it breathe and be a complete expression.”
Jay: People have been accepting this music with open arms. Every day that you wake up, you’re creating your path, your destination. So that’s the way we process this music. Jazz is improvised. You’re creating your own runs, riffs, patterns, substitutions and chords. That’s how we create. There’s no format, no pattern. You can’t tell me this is what we’re about to create today in the studio because I’m going to create whatever the f**k I feel like creating because it’s ours. We’re three different personalities. You’re going to get jazz from Chris; the straight-head drums, banging and trap from Devon and straight ghetto from me [laughs]. That’s the whole creative vibe. That’s what you get when you get us. No structure; no right or wrong.
And what one life lesson do you want viewers to take away from the docu-film?”
Jay: Creative freedom. I want people to just fly when they hear trap music. And when they think about creating something, they can say, “I can do what I want to do. I can go where I want to go. There’s no limit.”
Taylor: God gave us creative freedom to do what we want to do. We also want the younger generation to take away that you don’t have to be out here gang banging or selling drugs. Many people think music and musicians are lame. You can still be cool doing music.
Moten: No matter what we go through in the Black community, there are a lot of complications, trials and tests that keep us from reaching our potential. No matter what you’ve gone through, you can still come out on top, accomplishing every goal that you’ve set. All it takes is to just stand up, believe and keep doing it [pushing forward] every day.
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“I’ve been in the deepest depression for a lil min contemplating todays date, which makes a year since your transition,” wrote Stephanie Sibounheuang a year after the MC born Rakim Allen, 30, was robbed and shot to death at a Roscoe’s House of Chicken’N Waffles restaurant in L.A. on Sept. 12 while the two were having a meal together.
“I argued with God about openly reliving this day and i absolutely did not want to, so this is an act of obedience,” she said alongside a picture of the couple in happier days chilling on a boat on a sunny day. “This same day last year, you could look into my eyes and and tell my soul was not in my body.All I could hear were the gunshots over and over and they were so LOUD I couldn’t hear myself think.I was so terrified and heartbroken.”
The photo roll also included a snap of the two celebrating an occasion with a giant ice cream cone cake and family pics of the two with their child, Xuri Li, and Rock’s daughter from a previous relationship, Milan.
Freddie Lee Trone, 41, and his then-17-year-old son were arrested a week after the shooting, with each charged with one count of murder, two counts of second-degree robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery; Shauntel Trone, 39, Trone’s wife and the boy’s step-mom was also arrested and charged with one count of being an accessory after the fact to the killing and pleaded not guilty.
Sibounheuang also opened up about the day Rock was shot, writing, “You came to me and [daughter] Lani wearing all white and said those were not gunshots, they were fireworks. You did it! You changed for the better and you made it to paradise! Celebrate you!”
She added that she planned to honor her love on the anniversary and to “push thru and be joyful and celebrate you, just like you asked me to do. For I know this Earth is temporary and we will spend eternity together. You’re a legend and not only that…but a hero. I’m forever yours and forever loyal to you. I will live my life to the fullest because you gave your life for me. Thank you Lord for carrying us through a whole year and every day after this.”
See Sibounheuang’s post below.
The initial TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart, dated Sept. 16, features Sexyy Red’s rising hit “SkeeYee” as the tally’s first No. 1.
The TikTok Billboard Top 50, announced Thursday (Sept. 14), is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the U.S., based on creations, video views and user engagement. The maiden chart reflects activity from Sept. 4-10.
“SkeeYee,” which follows Sexyy Red’s breakthrough hit “Pound Town 2” (with Tay Keith and Nicki Minaj), reigns amid its notable prominence on TikTok over the past few weeks. Released in June, the song was initially aided by a trend in which users whipped their hair during the St. Louis rapper’s “skeeyee” ad lib, although many of the uploads to date have utilized the song in general videos, whether for comedy clips or otherwise.
Concurrently, “SkeeYee” bows at No. 67 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated Sept. 16. In the Sept. 1-7 tracking week, the song drew 6.5 million radio audience impressions (up 55%) and 6.2 million official streams (up 29%) and sold 1,000 downloads (up 28%) in the U.S., according to Luminate. (The Hot 100 blends streaming, radio airplay and sales data, incorporating streaming platforms including Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube and more; for Billboard chart purposes, activity on TikTok is reflected solely on the TikTok Billboard Top 50.)
Sexyy Red boasts four songs on the inaugural TikTok Billboard Top 50, with “SkeeYee” followed by “Looking for the Hoes (Ain’t My Fault)” (No. 19), MCVERTT’s “Face Down,” on which she’s featured with Ferg (No. 27), and “Mad at Me” (No. 50). That’s the second-most appearances of any act on the chart; a leading six Taylor Swift songs infuse the first survey.
“I am so excited that so many of my songs are charting on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart,” Sexyy Red tells Billboard. “I always knew I would be a No. 1 type of artist, so I want to thank all my fans on TikTok for running my music up! I’m just being me on TikTok and people love it.”
Swift charts highest with her 2020 Folklore cut “August” at No. 3. Its high rank is concurrent not only with the end of August, but also general momentum in streaming for the song, which reached No. 23 on the Hot 100, following its first week of release in August 2020. It placed in the top 10 of Billboard’s Alternative Streaming Songs chart last month for the first time since 2020, and has risen as high as No. 3 (Aug. 19), spending the last three frames at No. 5.
Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red,” which ascends to No. 1 on the Hot 100, ranks at No. 2 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50. Released in early August, it debuted at No. 15 on the Hot 100 dated Aug. 19 and has gained since sparked, in part, by TikTok usages, including viral dance choreography set to its chorus.
“Go!” by Greg Cipes, Scott Menville, Khary Payton, Tara Strong and Hyden Welch is No. 4 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50. Superhero and animation fans may recognize the song as the theme to Teen Titans Go! to the Movies, the 2018 film spinoff of Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans Go!, performed by its voice cast. Many of its uploads utilize a “Hoodtrap Remix” from ProdByTTK, with some users adding animations of certain features of the Teen Titans characters set to each of their verses.
Rounding out the first TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top five, Zach Bryan’s “I Remember Everything” featuring Kacey Musgraves ranks at No. 5. Many TikTok videos spotlighting the song, from Bryan’s new self-titled album, are set to the lyric “I wish I didn’t, but I do/ Remember every moment on the nights with you,” with some users recalling past relationships.
The 50-position list doesn’t include only newly released or mostly modern songs. At No. 10 is Dazz Band’s “Let It Whip,” a No. 5 Hot 100 hit in summer 1982. The electrofunk track sports a resurgence more than 40 years later driven by a dance challenge featuring the song in which users try to emulate majorette-style dancing.
See the inaugural TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart here, and click on each entry to be sent to the TikTok sound page to learn more about what’s fueling each hit.
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