Steve 'Flash' Juon“We’re not playing no ras claat games ’round here so… real recognize real.”
I don’t know for certain if that’s the voice of Leomie Anderson on the opening track of Lancey Foux’s “BACK2DATRAP,” but since she’s got Jamaican heritage and is noted to be Foux’s partner, it’s either her or a mutual friend of theirs. I’ve never heard Leomie speak such roughneck language in interviews though which is why I won’t go on the record with it as a fact. Personally I’d find it powerful if she had a bad backstage experience at a shoot and started cussing out the makeup artist or fashion designer in patois. The world can always use more of black women who don’t take shit from anybody. Speaking of which you can see and hear Sexyy Red on Foux’s “MMM HMM.”
Now I know our writer Grant Jones was not the biggest fan of Red, but it’s hard not to notice she’s “that bitch” right now as Jade Cargill would say, and the irony of the whole thing is our resident UK head reviewing a rapper from St. Louis while I’m reviewing one from Stratford. “I’m the reason niggaz talk ’bout UK trap” brags Foux on “COUPE GTS,” which like all of his tracks (and his album title) is stylized all caps like MF DOOM. I understand Foux may also be “that dude” right now because he’s dating a model and getting high profile US artists to collaborate with him, but it would be overstating it to say nobody was trapping in the UK before him.
“My gun’s poking out my waist when it’s low”
What’s remarkable about Foux isn’t his high profile girlfriend or his international connects — it’s how much he sounds exactly like a US trapper. He’s got the English accent of course but when you pitch correct it as much as he does on “WORLDBOSS FLOW” it tends to get lost in the sauce. If you pay attention to the bars he’s not saying anything different either. You might think it strange for him to brag about “GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS” when he’s already with a Victoria’s Secret model, but if he wasn’t talking about all punani he gets he wouldn’t be keeping up with his rivals doing the same. That’s the trap of trapping. It’s not just that trap emcees copy whoever is successful in the hopes of achieving similar results. If you trap you are forced to hold up the trap lifestyle of drugs, promiscuity, flashing and spending big money, and taking out the opps at all costs.
“It’s strictly business, I’m only taking ’bout the loot”
After a half hour of listening to “BACK2DATRAP” I began to wonder if things were going in the wrong direction in rap. I used to count on rappers from other countries to distinguish themselves from their American counterparts. With Lancey Foux I can safely say that’s no longer the case. Foux is not to blame for this trend; rather, he’s just a symptom of a larger illness that is now infecting the worldwide rap scene. I expect to hear German, French, South African and Korean rappers start trapping AutoTune vocalized bars too. I saw one comment when searching for Lancey’s name online that said “I felt like I heard the whole album in the first 2-3 songs.” DING. Nailed it. Lancey Foux isn’t bad, he’s just generic. When you’ve heard 25% of this album you’ve already heard everything he has to offer.