INTERVIEW: CERTIFIED TRAPPER

A CHAT WITH MILWAUKEE’S MOST EXCITING RAPPER

A lot of good rappers have come out of Milwaukee, but there is only one Certified Trapper. I’m not sure if anyone like him has ever existed within the city limits. Certified Trapper raps and sings and dances and makes his own beats and directs his own videos. He puts it all out at a pace (14 mixtapes this year) that brings to mind another internet rap legend: Lil B.

Certified Trapper’s beats are often anchored by 8th-note 808 claps. They make the music manic, like “Donk”-era Soulja Boy (Certified Tapper shares that rapper’s love of BAPE hoodies) or New Orleans bounce or Baton Rouge ratchet. But it’s his warbly vocals and leftfield sonic palate that pushes it into a singular zone. And his videos are another thing altogether. When I first saw the clip for “50 on 6” last year, I knew he was on his own shit. In it, he’s driving a car really fast and filming himself and rapping, all at the same damn time. The camera movement is as high strung and ecstatic as the music.

Look, I could get kind of annoying and compare Certified Trapper to things that have little to do with rap: I could say his frenzied videos recall the work of the artist Ryan Trecartin; I could stretch and talk about how as a producer his MIDI-gone-wild style reminds me of James Ferraro around the time of Far Side Virtual. That wouldn’t be completely off, but it also wouldn't be the point. Certified Trapper makes inspired DIY American art. He makes original rap music.

The rapper recently released what I believe is his first major label album, I’m Certified, on a new Sony/Columbia imprint called Signal Records. It serves as a bit of a “greatest hits, so far”-style compilation and is a pretty good primer. I can’t wait to see where he goes next. I recently met up with Certified Trapper at a studio somewhere in Brooklyn. He was nice enough to let me ask him a few questions.

What were you listening to growing up? What kind of rap music?

I used to listen to 50 Cent, Waka Flocka and shit. Soulja Boy sometimes. I used to listen to a lot of people. Chief Keef most definitely. Shit like that.

There’s an interview you did where you talk about these “Bash Music” parties you used to sneak into when you were really young. Did that style influence you?

I mean, it did, but not… Yeah, it did.

Because I hear that, you always have these superfast claps, these 8th note claps going. Where does that come from?

Really when I first started making my beats and then listening, like the beat never dropped… I don’t want to give nobody the sauce on my shit, because then they’re going to start stealing my shit, but it was just how I rap, and then I just caught my sound, it’s like the volume of the song and all the instruments and shit like that too.

Were you listening to New Orleans shit?

Yeah, I fuck with all that, like, New Orleans, Baton Rouge–shit like that. I fuck with that shit.

I hear that in a lot of your music.

Hell yeah.

So you went to MATC (Milwaukee Area Technical College). That’s how you started making beats.

Yup, I went to MATC, I did.

Downtown?

Yup. I did audio production. I didn’t finish, but I did the basic audio–introduction to audio software, audio techniques.

What kind of stuff do you make your music on?

I use Logic Pro and Pro Tools.

How much of this music do you make in a day?

When I used to rock my shit, I used to make like five, ten songs everyday. But I just make beats, I let it come natural, so I can make a couple in a month or every day–it's just how I be feeling. Sometimes I get on fire, somebody probably could make me mad and I could make like ten songs, fire ass songs, in a day. A lot of the songs that y'all hear are made in the same day.

So you’ll maybe make a ton of songs in a day and then just chill for a bit.

Yeah, yeah.

You were rapping before you started making beats, right?

Yeah.

What changed? Did you making your own beats–do you feel like that took you to a different place artistically?

Yeah, I had to come up with my sound and see how I want my shit to sound, basically I had to get a hang of it. 

I feel like nobody’s making beats like you right now. That’s just a fact.

I think I made a lot of fuckin’ beats, and I sat in there and made them, so it’s just like, I had to get a hang of the sound and what I want. So I think I put in enough work to see how I like it. 

What are you thinking about when you’re grabbing sounds? Because you’re fucking with sounds nobody else is really fucking with on these tracks.

And they can’t get them. They can’t get them motherfuckers. But, I just feel like, shit, when I be doing it, I just want to go crazy, go crazy on that shit. I make beats so I can put a lot of energy into the beat and into the song, make a good ass song.

This music feels like, when I first heard it, I kind of got a feeling like you were throwing back to this different era of rap. Was that intentional? 

I made my own sound, I don’t sound like nobody else. That’s why I had to separate myself from a lot of people in Milwaukee, because I made my own sound and can’t nobody really copy my sound, no matter how many times they want to.

You’re not selling your beats to anybody.

No, not right now, no. 

Do you almost make them in a way where you’re just like, I know nobody else will be able to do anything on this?

It’s crazy because when I do send beats off and give them away and shit, they don’t do nothing with them. I’m the only one who knows how to make something good. I do feel like I made a lot of beats and fucked up on the beats, put some bullshit on the beat, on some fire ass beats.

Just, like, to make it weirder?

Yeah, yeah. To make that shit, like, because I give a whole bunch of stories in all these different songs.

Are you trying to push something with the sounds when you’re in the studio?

Sometimes I be trying to give off a message that it’s easy, that this shit’s easy–trying to get off some type of message every time.

By easy you just mean, you’re doing this and it takes you, like, 20 minutes?

Yeah. I gotta make it come natural, and then when I do it like that I be saying anybody can do this shit. Motherfuckers can get on there and do anything. I ain’t going to lie, I ain’t much different from everybody else. Everybody else got two feet, everybody else got two arms and shit, I ain’t that different. But it is different, I’m different from everybody, but we all…

Are you trying to hear some kids in Milwaukee making Certified Trapper-type music?

It’s crazy when I be hearing that shit because it’s going to start a whole different wave, but they just like the flow. Sometimes I do flow, I be going crazy with the flow.

It is funny, you’ll be like, oh shit, this guy can fucking rap. But it’s beyond that, almost.

It’s the creativity, it’s beyond rapping and shit like that. 

And what about the videos. I’m so into these videos where you have a green screen up, right, but you’re not using it. You’re just using it kind of as a backdrop.

Yeah, I need to start doing more shit like that. I be doing that just to like… Not comedy, but to make it more entertaining. And I talk about plenty of shit, so if I do that, I put plenty of different backgrounds. 

There’s just an energy to it, I’m sure it’s like the music, you’re probably churning these out pretty fast, the videos.

Yeah. Hell yeah.

Like, the “50 on 6” video. Tell me about that. How did that happen.

That’s funny as a bitch, because when I made that song, I made like eight songs that day, and that was one of the songs that I posted at 8 in the morning. I posted that shit at 8 in the morning, and I was just in the mode. What I was really doing was, I do the song at night, wake up in the morning and do the video. Because I catch my pop every time in the morning, early as a bitch.

So in the video, you're holding a smartphone?

No, it’s a camera.

But you’re holding it as you drive?

Yup, I did that shit. I was driving fast as a bitch.

Yeah, it really comes through that you’re driving… Even if you couldn’t see the speedometer, it’s very clear that you’re driving really fast.

I was driving fast as a bitch. That shit’s entertaining, because they were like, How the fuck do he do that. And it’s kind of clear it’s not a phone, it’s a real camera, so they’re like, What the fuck is he doing, he made a whole music video in a car.

I was listening to a song you made a while ago and you mentioned Culvers. What’s your favorite Culvers order?

The ButterBurger.

You fuck with that new one, that’s like the ButterBurger with the cheese curds?

No, I ain’t tried that yet. I seen that, though.

So, tonight in the studio, you came loaded with your own shit.

Hell yeah, I came with my Mac and I think I’m finna be able to drop some shit.

Before I go, do you want to load up a beat?

Hell yeah, let's do it.

Certified Trapper grabs his laptop and opens up a Logic Pro session file.

Maybe you want to take me through this quickly, what’s going on here? It’s not video, so nobody gets to see your secrets here.

Certified Trapper starts playing a track through his laptop speakers. It has aggressive 808 claps and a somewhat spacy polyphonic synth.

I just made this, I didn’t use a piano or nothing with this.

He solos the lead synth playing in concert with an 808 bass. Drums slowly re-enter.

Do you program it out or are you playing it on a keyboard?

I play it on this. 

You played this on your Macbook keys?

Yeah, I did this in my hotel. But I just did this on some bullshit, I did that right before we got here. But that other shit…

He plays another song, this time through iTunes. It has a similar palate. There’s synths and 8th note claps and catchy rapping. Ty​​​pical sick exciting Certified Trapper music, but I detected a tiny bit more focus and control in the composition and performance. 

When did you make this?

Two days ago.

Some of these newer ones, it feels like you’re locking in. Are trying to make hits a little bit now?

Hell yeah.

Is that what’s next? You got the sound and you’re trying to make it bigger?

Hell yeah.

I’m Certified is out now on Signal Records. Certified Trapper on Instagram and Soundcloud and YouTube