When most individuals consider Florida – outdoors of its bourgeoning younger rap scene and OGs like Rick Ross, Trina, Poe Boy Entertainment, and your entire Slip N Slide household – they’re reminded of headlines about criminals and degenerates; possibly some alligator incidents, and South Seashore Miami. The fact is, most of Florida is dirty, swamp-ridden, and humid as hell. It actually is America’s armpit: sweaty, musty, however stuffed with character.
I grew up within the Panhandle of Florida – Tallahassee to be particular – surrounded by swamps, dust roads, and only a few road lights. In school at Florida State, I used to be surrounded by youngsters from South Florida; lots of my classmates have been from among the grimiest elements of Miami. Their tradition, fashion, and style in music was the essence of that extravagant Florida way of life. When anybody – together with myself – speaks on the music scene right here, what they’re actually speaking about is the sounds of South Florida. These tropical metal drums and island-influenced rhythms took over your entire state – it’s our one connection.
Hearken to Rick Ross’ Trilla now.
And that’s what Rick Ross’ music and profession embodies. He turned one of many greatest artists in music whereas by no means abandoning that luxurious South Seashore vibe all through his whole catalog. His second album, Trilla, embodies this vibe from the (actually) thunderous intro, the shoutouts to Opa-Locka and Carol Metropolis, the dirty manufacturing, and the love for strip golf equipment.
In 2008, mainstream rap was leaning increasingly more extravagant. The music was shirking away from the cave-your-chest-in early aughts gangsta rap that 50 Cent’s Get Wealthy Or Die Tryin’ helped make standard. As a substitute, rappers have been taking a web page from the shiny go well with period of the late 90s and making music that appeared like wealth and exclusivity. It was a approach of turning the phrase “black excellence” right into a style. Producers like Cool & Dre, The Runners, and Drumma Boy helped make songs, helmed by posh pianos and motor synths that set off visions of speedboats and all-white soirees but nonetheless club-ready with heavy bass.
Trilla is a masterclass on this luxurious rap fashion of music. Singles like “Speedin” and “Here I Am” are songs that encapsulate Ross’ love of flamboyance and luxurious – and the extra idealistic visions of Miami. Whereas a lot of Florida’s scene was fixated on dancing to chipmunk quick occasion data and music harking back to Baltimore and New Jersey membership data, Ross took one other method. His music was the postcard imaginative and prescient of Miami and Florida typically. Like Ross raps in “This Is The Life”: “This reserve for them trill, I’m red carpet every year/ Take a picture, canary stones so photogenic.” Miami is usually a metropolis of goals.
When these songs dropped, I used to be in school and “Here I Am,” particularly, felt like plain data universally beloved by youngsters at each Florida State and the HBCU throughout the practice tracks, Florida A&M. “Here I Am” even shouts out each colleges: “Home from FAMU with a gorgeous face / Next semester she transferred to Florida State.” It’s pure bait for a gaggle of 18 to 22-year-old school college students but it surely doesn’t matter, the track is just too excellent to search out something to quibble with.
A lot of Trilla and Ross’ rapping on it’s intoxicating in the identical approach hanging in a VIP sales space or vacationing on an island could also be; that feeling of exclusivity, profligacy, and indulgence runs rampant all through the album. Ross’ strengths come from emanating an immaculate way of life that individuals can reside vicariously simply from his rhymes. “Speedin” and “The Boss” are Michael Bay films in track kind – homages to data like The Infamous B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize” and Ma$e’s “Feels So Good” with a Southern twist from a rapper and a real pupil of the craft.
Years later, listening to Trilla feels nostalgic however not essentially stale. Rap has modified dramatically in sound however Ross’ fashion has all the time stayed constant. What was maybe distinctive and stylish in 2008 now seems like rap’s model of grownup up to date; this isn’t an insult essentially, adults want rap songs too and Trilla, together with a lot of Ross’ discography now, feels very “grown and sexy.” But it surely’s additionally undeniably Florida. The Runners and J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, who play a serious function within the manufacturing of the album, are Floridians and perceive the distinctive sound of South Florida’s bass and jook scenes. DJ Khaled, the final word Miami persona, is on the document; native rappers like Briscoe and the Triple Cs are included and Ross himself is bred in Florida and comes by means of in his laid-back but gruff demeanor.
Ross’ music seems like rushing down the I-95, seeing the palm bushes as you cross into Miami, with shades on to maintain the solar out of your eyes. It most likely additionally seems like being on a yacht in the course of the ocean – a life I do know nothing about, however that’s what Trilla is for, providing you with that fantasy.
Trilla is an album of occasion data that doubles as cigar bar music; excellent for sitting in a leather-based brown chair in entrance of a hearth with a flowery glass of straight cognac. Ross excels at decadence; whether or not it’s with strains like “Stuffed shells, thanks to crack, I crack crab and lobsters” on “Maybach Music” or the elegant piano and victorious horns of “Luxury Tax.” Rick Ross makes music that sounds prefer it was actually made inside a chandelier, with manufacturing and rhymes that glide easily like a marble flooring. And nonetheless there’s room for a track like “Money Make Me Come,” an unabashed strip membership anthem made for King of Diamonds or school home events when it begins to get late and lusty.
Rick Ross left an imprint on rap however a fair greater one on Florida by taking its native sound and mixing it with the Atlanta sound hottest in rap in 2008. It was a blueprint different Florida artists like Plies and T-Ache would observe. However nobody did it higher than Rick Ross, and Trilla was the second all of it got here collectively. He would solely go up from right here.
Hearken to Rick Ross’ Trilla now.
Editor’s notice: This text was first revealed in 2018.
