808 Mafia's Southside Will Certify Your Trap

For the last couple of years, LiveMixtapes's Pesh and Tilla have been curating a mixtape series called ClubTapes. The site's most ambitious project, Certified Trap, is web series that charts the growing popularity of trap music and its impact on electronic music. For Certified Trap Volume 5, Pesh and Tilla convinced 808 Mafia to put together a mixtape that would bridge the gap between trap and electronic music in a more complete way than ever before. 808 Mafia's Southside was initially resistant to the idea, but he eventually saw an opportunity to show EDM producers how real electronic trap music is done.

When I spoke to Southside over the phone, he opened up about his hesitation in putting together Volume 5, and why his songs should've always been considered electronic music anyway. I also spoke to Pesh and Tilla about their goals with the latest mixape, and their various other plans in uniting the trap and electronic music worlds.

Noisey: So, how did 808 Mafia get involved in Certified Trap Volume 5?
Southside: I mean, can I be real for a minute? With me and Lux Luger, it's a new age of trap music. So, for people in EDM to take their music and call it trap music, it's really offensive to me. Honestly. They don't show us no love. So, I hollered at Pesh about it, and Pesh was like, "Let's just put you in the loop with everything. These people really love y'all." He told me, "There's no point in being negative about it—let's just go at it." So I was like, alright, cool. I'll do a mixtape with it and give it to everyone instead of being mad at people. That's how that whole deal came about.

How did you produce and select the tracks?
I met a cat named Mayhem through Pesh when I was at the studio working with him. Mayhem was playing some EDM mixes and tracks. He said, "Listen to this shit," and I was like, "Damn, they really kind of ill—they ill as a motherfucker." So, I was like, alright, this shit could really be another sound, like putting out real trap music with EDM. So that is how everything went down.

Hip-hop producers use electronic music production techniques and equipment all the time, whether it's drum machines, software or samplers, but hip-hop isn't really considered electronic music. It's sort of odd, isn't it?
You know what's crazy? I'm glad you say that 'cause it really is. Can I ask you a question?

Sure.
Why do you call it trap music?

Well, I know trap purely as a type of hip-hop. And I think the attempts made by EDM producers to incorporate trap into their sound surprises me just as much as it surprises you. But, if the music is good, I listen to it. If it's not good, I don't.
That's how I am, too. You know how I feel about it, bro? Can I be honest with you?

Of course.
We call it trap music because we all came from nothing, you know what I'm sayin'? And when you have dope spots it's called traps. So, the music that Gucci Mane, Young Jeezy, and Waka Flocka was making, that was trap music. And T.I. started trap music. That's dope boy music because the trap is where you sit and get money all day. You either gonna get fucked up, get killed, or you gonna go to jail. So, for me, they're just taking what we've created and putting their twist on it and calling it trap music, and it's blowing up. It's going crazy, and they're not showing no kind of love to us. That's why we did ClubTapes and put those two worlds together.

But, they should classify my music as electronic because everything I use is electronic. I don't even know how to play a keyboard; I just click a mouse all day long. I agree with you, bro—we should be called electronic music.

Which tracks do you think stand out on Certified Trap?
I liked all of the tracks we did. I like all the stuff I do, bro.

Pesh and Tilla: what do you have to say about the synthesis of trap and electronic music on this latest volume of Certified Trap?
Pesh: Well, Certified Trap started about a year and a half ago, and since Volume 1 we've brought the electronic and the hip-hop worlds together. We've also captured it visually in the studio, like we did with Waka and Southside listening to "Original Don" for the first time. Waka is bobbing his head and Southside is saying, "How do we make these beats? Can we get in contact with these guys?"

Tilla: This has always been the vision since day one. We wanted to get the originators of the trap music sound involved with new EDM trap music. A lot of these electronic music guys are fans of these trap producers who we're really good friends with, but there was this disconnect between the two communities. Going into Volume 1, the idea was to bridge the gap between the originators and the EDM producers who were inspired by the production techniques, and then get them in the same room so they could talk and create together. Now we can see the whole thing expand and progress in a new way.

Right. This is interesting because in the early 2000s I was wondering why no hip-hop producers were sampling or laying down verse over Boards of Canada albums, for example. There is a world of difference between Boards of Canada and Baauer or Skrillex, but it's still great seeing worlds collide.
Pesh: That is our approach—combine the worlds.

Tilla: Another question we ask is why aren't the hip-hop producers also collaborating with electronic music producers? When we do this hybrid, the first thing you think of is you get a rapper to rap on Skrillex. I come from a production background, so for me it's also about getting hip-hop producers to collaborate like the electronic music producers do. In the hip-hop world, the producers don't collaborate with one another.

Pesh: They weren't, but now they are.

Tilla: Yeah, now they're starting to. We also really wanted to educate the hip-hop world about how these electronic music producers are work together to make tracks, go to festivals and clubs, and play each other's music; and how it's created this network of support. We're trying to bring this to hip-hop producers to empower them, so they can learn what they can from the electronic music world; how those guys make millions of dollars touring live, which the hip-hop production world hasn't ever really done.

Is there some resistance to this blending of worlds?
Pesh: Sure, there are some people that just don't want to do it. They don't get it, and they don't care for it. And then there are some people like 808 Mafia who are like, "Yo, this is cool. I don't really understand this fully, but I'm willing to reach out and work together to make a great song."

What tracks off of 808 Mafia's mixtape do you think really showcase the dynamic between trap and electronic music?
Pesha: DJ Warrior and J Classic's "Certified Trap." That track was cool because they come from a production background. It's an original track and their rendition of what they thought electronic music sounded like.

Tilla: DJ Warrior is also a legend in the mixtape game. This isn't an electronic music person; this is a guy who comes from the underground hip-hop mixtape world, who is now embracing something from the other side. That segues into my favorite track, which would be KE On The Track and TK Kayembe's "Put 'Em Up." KE On The Track comes from the hip-hop world, and TK Kayembe comes from the electronic music world. So, here are two guys from two completely different worlds, who would normally never be in the same studio, and we brought them together. They were willing to create something that was totally new that embodies everything that we're trying to do with Certified Trap.

DJ Pangburn is on Twitter — @djpangburn