Travis is notorious for putting on shows where his rambunctious energy is so infectious that it spills over into the crowd. The example of Travis Scott is a pertinent one because due to his intersecting pun and trap sensibilities, he has become somewhat of a poster child for the recent ascendancy of the hip-hop mosh pit.
Onyx hip hop group full#
Travis Scott’s “ Piss on Your Grave” isn’t a song you can simply nod your head to because there’s something distinct about the production that transforms this song into a full body experience. A DJ Premier banger may have caused listeners to raise their arms and bounce in rhythm, but a Mike WiLL Made-It beat resonates around the walls of a room and physically vibrates through a listener’s chest, producing a much more visceral sensation.
This isn’t to say that older hip-hop beats didn’t ever elicit this sort of response, but it’d be disingenuous for me to claim that there isn’t something particularly aggressive about the sound of modern production. Always one step ahead of his time, Kanye seemed to predict the eventual confluence of these two production styles, as he provided a template for it on his song “Blood on the Leaves.” It wasn’t a coincidence that his performances of this song were marked by attempts on his part to encourage audiences to break out into giant mosh pits.Īs this 808-heavy trap sound came to dominate mainstream rap in the coming years, it was only a matter of time before more rappers began following in Kanye’s footsteps. As the word “trap” went from describing lyrical content to becoming more commonly associated with a style of production, Kanye West’s Yeezus was simultaneously inspiring a digression in sound through its experimentation with industrial music and subsequent popularization of the sentient 808 drum. Notably, just as the increased relevancy of the hip-hop mosh pit was marked by an abstract shift in attitude, it was also catalyzed by a much-easier-to-track shift in the sonic direction of the music itself. Quick sidenote: I’m not sure what “fucking school” would entail in the middle of a rap concert, but I imagine it would present logistical challenges. Audiences couldn’t very well start killing people, burning shit and fucking school as they watched Tyler, The Creator chant the chorus to his song “ Radical,” but breaking out into a rowdy mosh pit seemed like a close secondary option. When it came time for these various artists to put on live shows, it only seemed natural that their audiences began organically breaking out into mosh pits, essentially physically manifesting the music’s anarchic energy. Seemingly undeterred by how decidedly un-punk rock it is to draw broad comparisons to punk rock, writers penned countless think pieces, dissecting the various ways in which groups like Odd Future embodied the punk sensibilities of yesteryear. Ushered in by the rise of artists like Odd Future, A$AP Mob and Danny Brown, this era of hip-hop brought with it a new wave of anarchic energy at a time when audiences were apparently ready to embrace it with open arms. Being forced to absorb this energy without any outlet to displace it, I couldn’t help but think about how much fun this song would be to mosh to.Īnd yet, even though it never really went anywhere, it seems as if the rap mosh pit began to round a new corner of relevancy at the outset of the current decade. Unfortunately, it was 1 a.m., I was sitting immobile in my computer chair, and I was listening to DAMN. quietly in headphones in order to avoid waking up my parents. I imagine it must feel similar to the experience I had the first time I heard Kendrick Lamar’s song “DNA.” Between the song’s thundering bass and Kendrick’s visceral bravado, the song imbued me with so much vicarious hype that it felt like the only way for me to recalibrate myself would be to physically transfer this energy elsewhere. Although I may never do something as awe-inspiring as posterize a 7-footer, I can certainly appreciate what it must feel like to watch someone do it. Until such time as this occurs, however, I am unfortunately only familiar with the opposite side of the congratulatory shove transaction.
My life’s ambition is to one day do something cool enough to warrant one of these congratulatory shoves.
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