Four Reasons Pretty Girls Like Trap Music

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By Dr. Joycelyn Wilson

It’s been a good week for hip-hop.

Last Friday, which would have been Tupac Shakur’s 46th birthday, saw the release of “All Eyez On Me,” the biopic about his life and times. Big Boi dropped his highly anticipated third solo album, “Boomiverse.” And 2Chainz released “Pretty Girls Like Trap Music.” We do – especially big, 808 drum booms.

The Big Boi and 2Chainz albums have been in heavy rotation for the last seven days. Here are four reasons why.

  1. Trap music helps pretty girls get through a tough workout. My trap music playlist is my workout playlist. I love to row to Future’s “Move That Dope,” spin to Juicy J’s “Bandz A Make Her Dance,” and get on the elliptical machine to TI’s “56 Bars.” But when Gene, my cycle instructor, plays his 10-minute Tupac mix, I turn into my own version of Wonder Woman. Even when I’m exhausted and drenched in sweat, there is a burst of energy – a second wind – that pushes me to pedal uphill to the beat of “California Love” or come out the saddle on “Ambitionz Az A Ridah.” Trap music is the remedy.
     
  2. Trap music, even in its misogynistic glory, often makes us feel pretty and empowered to hustle, grind, and get ours. Now, c’mon. We live in the South, where juke joints and strip clubs are just as culturally common as peach cobbler and boiled peanuts. “Big Amount” is a confidence-booster. “Kill Jill,” featuring Killer Mike and Jeezy, gets the workday off to a great start. Migos’s “Bad and Boujee” awakens our “inner sexy.” Not for anyone in particular. For our damn selves.
     
  3. Trap music is a great way to get goals accomplished. Pretty girls get things done when “Wicked” or “Mask Off” is playing in the background. There’s something magical about hearing Jeezy’s “Sky Is the Limit” bumping, whether I am cleaning the house, meeting a deadline, or wrapping up a day’s work. Trap music has never made me or any woman I know say, “I can’t do this.” 
     
  4. And finally, pretty girls have the power to get trap music from the streets to the clubs to the radio to the world. If we aren’t dancing to it, then we ain’t feeling it, and if we ain’t feeling it, it ain’t getting heavy rotation. Sorry, but “It’s a Vibe,” just like 2Chainz says.