Cyrus Langhorne
[With all of the controversy surrounding Lil Wayne’s Black Lives Matter comments, there’s no better time to check out St. Louis native Big Will’s new #TrapLivesMatter album. The former BET “106 & Park” Freestyle Friday champion talks to SOHH about piecing together the must-hear release.]
The motivation to put together #TrapLivesMatter came from around the time Walter Scott was killed. It was a lot of people who have been killed by police and when I saw the Walter Scott one, that really touched home.
I’m a 6’3, 300-plus pound black man and I can’t help the conditions that I was raised in. I can’t help where I come from. The only thing that I can really control is what I do.
I just felt like it was needed because nobody – especially musically – talks to that demographic that I’m shooting for, which is the people of the hood.
My thought process behind putting these songs together, especially coming from BET’s Freestyle Fridays and the battle rap world, you would be surprised at the amount of music I listen to. I’m very diverse and you wouldn’t know that based on my previous work.
I came up with the thought process that I wanted to put out a trap album. So I studied the trap from Gucci Mane and T.I. to everywhere in-between. I studied as far left as you could go and as far right as you could go.
I took elements that I loved from every last one of the trap rappers that I listen to and I added my own element to it. As far as “Ain’t Livin It,” I feel like talking about adverse conditions isn’t anything new to hip-hop. So I had to give it a feel that my listener would be able to regularly identify me with which is more of the East Coast-type of rap. Then after that, I took it some of everywhere.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BLuRyQ9D9n3/?taken-by=bigwillstl
As far as the cover art is concerned, I was raised Christian – as a lot of black people are where I come from – there’s a story in the Bible about Jesus where he’s being crucified. There’s two people on the cross next to him. They all were criminals and one of them said, “If you really are who you say you are, then get us off of this cross.”
The other one said, “I believe you. Remember me on the day of judgment.” I put the trap guy on there because Jesus, if you study your Bible, hung out with trappers – what today we would consider trappers.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BK9DwObj6L2/?taken-by=bigwillstl
One of his apostles was a murderer and there are stories of him taking up for prostitutes and everything like that. People look at the people who come from that type of environment as less than human. But if the creator was to come back today, those would be the people he’d talk to.
It was also a double meaning because I believe, personally, that any type of change is going to start from the ground up. The ground up would start with the trap guys. The trap guys are the leaders of our communities. They’re the banks when we can’t get loans – they have all the money, they have all the influence, they have all the power, they have everything.
They’re not trained to understand that, about who they are and what they do. If they ever were, then they could be our saviors in real life.
Grab your copy of #TrapLivesMatter below:
iTunes
https://itun.es/us/5M1vfb
Tidal
http://tidal.com/album/65731299
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/6q7UYZb0AbE988W38ERrjn
Stay connected to Big Will on social media below:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bigwill314
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigwillstl/
Snapchat: @BigWillSTL
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BigWillSTL
