Trap catches a fair amount of flak for being a genre based solely around 808s, outrageous twerking, and obnoxious snare drums. But much like every kind of music, there’s both terrible and amazing sides to the coin. RL Grime & What So Not’s refreshingly eclectic collab Tell Me falls firmly on the “amazing” side of that metaphor.
When you combine the deeper chillstep element that What So Not brings to the table with RL Grime’s 808 mastery, you get the hard-hitting chill-trap lovechild that is this song. It begins with all the relaxed aspects you’d expect from Emoh Instead and Flume’s production. You sit back and picture a sunny day in the city, as you lay out in an open field taking in the heat while the late afternoon ticks away. But then the build rushes at you at million miles an hour, culminating in a drop akin to barreling down a steep cliff-facing. Pulling you back and forth between the clashing styles of both artists, somehow the end result is a comfortably weaved collaboration that we hope becomes the future of trap music.
Grab the free download here, stream it below, and cross your fingers for RL Grime’s alter ego Clockwork managing to work this into his set at Lucky. From what we saw of What So Not’s New York performance last week, this is one of those tracks that will turn the energy up to eleven in a heartbeat.
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