Photo courtesy of Youtube.com
I’ve never sold dope. The only things I’ve introduced to my stove are Tyson Buffalo-Style Chicken Strips.
I drive a 2003 Ford Windstar in basic blue — with all the back seats removed. The swagger wagon (which sadly retains little in the way of mid-aughts swagger) reliably tops out at close to 65 mph before emitting an unsettlingly powerful rattle.
I’ve never rolled a sack. I’ve never even rolled Backwoods, though the one time I took a hit off a roommate’s gravity bong, it elicited a coughing fit so violent I vomited and was left yearning for the sweet release of death.
That said, the first time I heard “Trap Queen,” that effervescent paean to love in the bando, I was a Gucci Mane guest verse away from hopping in the kitchen and trying my hand at whipping up a few bricks myself.
At this moment, Fetty Wap, the one-eyed wunderkind behind the boy-meets-dope-meets-girl anthem, is sitting pretty at No. 6 on the Billboard Top 100. “Trap Queen” held that spot last week, too, so this likely heralds the end of its improbable but meteoric rise. (Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened.)
No. 6, though certifiably hot and respectable for any single built around Pusha T-grade drug felonies, isn’t quite “Uptown Funk” territory. Last week, the Mark Ronson-assisted Bruno Mars joint almost broke the record for most consecutive weeks at No. 1 with its 14-week streak (but not quite at the level of Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men’s “One Sweet Day,” which held the charts for 16 weeks at No. 1 in the ’90s). In layman’s terms, your mom might’ve heard “Trap Queen,” but Wap isn’t performing it on The Ellen DeGeneres Show any time soon.
All the same, the number of rap and R&B songs that have reached the top spot in the U.S. since the turn of the decade is fewer than 15, give or take a few Juicy J-assisted Katy Perry singles. Macklemore features prominently (twice), as does “Like a G6.” At this point, “Trap Queen” — a trap-leaning single backed by reasonable street credibility — is venturing into mostly uncharted waters.
Since 2010, Eminem (“The Monster,” “Not Afraid,” “Love the Way You Lie”), Jay Z (“Empire State of Mind”), Macklemore (“Thrift Shop,” “Can’t Hold Us”), Far East Movement (“Like a G6”), Pitbull (“Timber”), Wiz Khalifa (“Black and Yellow”) and Iggy Azalea (“Fancy”) have been the only artists to top both the Billboard Hot Rap Songs and Hot 100 charts.
Of those 10, only Jay Z touches upon drug dealing, while Far East Movement, Khalifa and Eminem flirt with drug use. Wap, arguably the world’s most ebullient dope boy, has succeeded on mainstream charts perhaps in spite of his subject matter.
It’s a testament to the song’s largely unprecedented crossover appeal, skewing toward and surpassing that of O.T. Genasis’ similarly coked-out “CoCo,” and Bobby Shmurda’s “Hot N—” last year’s dark-horse candidate for song of the summer. (Curiously enough, “Hot N—-” also peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard charts.)
Unlike the latter two, however, Wap has produced a stupid-catchy megahit largely without the help of Vine-fueled gimmicks, one that makes writing him off as an unlikely one-hit wonder a bit more difficult.
Since dropping a rough version of “Trap Queen” independently in March 2014, Wap — born Willie Maxwell in hardscrabble Paterson, New Jersey — has signed with Lyor Cohen’s 300 Entertainment, which boasts the likes of Young Thug and Migos, and performed with Kanye West.
He’s also released two mixtapes, Up Next and Zoo Style, which comprise 31 tracks ranging from functional to excellent. Notable guest features in the wake of his chart takeoff include “Promises,” a collaboration with “Harlem Shake” producer Baauer, and a song-swiping turn on LoVel’s “The Move.”
Wap’s considerable gift for crafting screwball trap-influenced sing-alongs suggests he could easily fall into the same role as Future, who’s serviced a good number of the hottest hooks of the past two years with an assist from Auto-Tune. It’s not inconceivable that Wap, more melodic and easier to digest for those with pop-heavy musical palates, could have a few more bangers on the order of “Trap Queen,” especially if he sticks to the same formula and leans on his singing.
I want a world in which Fetty Wap boasts as many No. 1 singles as Katy Perry. I want Fetty Wap to win trap its first Grammy. I want Fetty Wap hosting Saturday Night Live. All good things; all things that seem just within the realm of possibility in the wake of his impossibly hot debut single. But mostly, I just want “Trap Queen” to stay in our hearts forever.
CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this story incorrectly stated that “Uptown Funk” broke the record for a song’s most consecutive weeks at No. 1. The story has been updated.
