RVA/ATL’s TRAPCRY offers alternative perspective on Black gay experience with ‘Blond Ambition’

Brad Kutner
November 28, 2016

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Read More: gay hiphop, gay R&B, Richmond rappers, TRAPCRY

The opening tracks of TRAPCRY’s new record offers unique insight into what the artist has to work with and what he’s aiming for.

“You can’t wait three years and shit,” Tony Jackson, a friend of the artist’s, explains on the track as Prince-like chords slowly swells in the background. “The world is different, social media is different… just get in there. You can do trash shit, but sometimes you find good shit in trash.”

Lucky for TRAPCRY, AKA Gene Thompson, there’s little “shit” on the new 18-track release, Blond Ambition and a lot to be proud of.

The Newcastle, DE, born rapper who now splits his time between RVA and ATL, is no stranger to the music scene. His love of production, hip hop and pop started when he was still a tween, listening to Janet Jackson and Britney Spears records.

“I wanted to make pop music, but I was also into Missy Elliot,” he said in an interview with GayRVA. “But there’s still a pop-undertone to it.”

He was writing a lot of poetry and lyrics, and his father would get audio equipment catalogs which would let TRAPCRY dream about the equipment that would help him make music. Some piano lessons didn’t sink in, but before long he was messing around with sampling software, pulling loops from tracks he loved and making new mixes for his friends to enjoy, or at least try and enjoy.

“It was so horrible,” he said laughing about his early songs. “I was recording off a $10 microphone and my lyrics sucked.”

But he admitted what he lacked in skill then he made up for with research. “I would read the booklets and research what songs Jay-Z was sampling,” he said. “I’d download those songs and put them in my music.”

It wasn’t until 2006, with a little help from Myspace, that he started to build a following.

“People were into my shit and it made me feel like a legit artist,” he said. People were hitting him up to help produce tracks even though he hadn’t networked much until that point. His past attempts at success weren’t leading to much so he didn’t have much faith for it.

But he ended up on the Beatclub forum, an online community run by the music producer Timbaland. There he met TC who introduced him to some other talented folks. That led to a number of collabs, some of which he’s kept up with today like Siren.

This led to one of his most successful releases, “If this Pussy Could Talk” with ATL gay artist Ken Dahl:

The song went viral with dance videos created by people around the world

“I logged onto YouTube and there’s Asian people dancing to it… They don’t even know what it’s about,” he said laughing.

He worked with Dahl some more, helping produce more under the name Garlic Bread. He released some other solo tracks under the same name – they were a collection of dance club beats that make it easy to move your feet and/or butt to.

Again, he made some waves, but it continued to be a more low-key, beat-focused project.

All the while, TRAPCRY continued to be who he was individually – a gay Black man. He might have been rolling with folks making a splash in the fem-centric Black gay club scene, but his image and passion was something a little different.

“I’ve never had issues with gender, not that there’s anything wrong with that, and it’s great to see that,” he said about some of the more gender-variant Black queer/gay artists who have found success; Cakes Da Killa, Mykki Blanco and L1ef for example. “That’s just not me,” he said.

And in the world of music, where image can help define both your audience and your sound, he stands out with a more masculine presence.

Though there are some roots to this variance – TRAPCRY’s coming out story is one of the more disheartening I’ve heard.

He’d always presented as a “cultured” and it often led to teasing from his peers.

“I would talk proper and my voice hadn’t dropped,” he said. “People would call me gay all the time but I didn’t know what that meant till I was 15 or 16.”

By that time, he ended up going out to gay events with high school friends. He eventually came out to his sister who didn’t waste much time telling his folks.

“They didn’t really process it. And they treated {it} as a phase,” he said of his parent’s reaction. That “phase” included his dad taking him to get a blood test to find out if the “gay” was genetic.

“If you can imagine that, they did more things like that,” he said. “We kind of swept it under the rug.”

To this day he’s not 100 percent clear about his sexuality with his parents.

“I don’t think they completely understand it still and they’ve always made me uncomfortable about it still,” he said.

I think this helped define him as an artist, and helped develop the level of mystique he’s cashed in on as he grows his sonic chops.

His first full release under the TRAPCRY name, Thanks Anyway, was more subtle and hidden in his discussion of sexuality.

Tracks like “debat’n” feature a frank examination on late night hook ups, but the gender involved isn’t quite clear.

Other tracks, like “Uber” seem to focus on a meet up with someone of the opposite sex. This is aided by guest vocals from his friend and fellow rapper Breezy.

Thanks Anyway was more of a test of will anyway – he was made of tracks he recorded over a weekend in his Richmond apartment with help from his friend Buddy X.

He saw some success with it and realized he was offering an alternative voice to much of gay Black rap scene – something he wanted to expand on and has done so with Blond Ambition.

“There’s probably a regular amount of masculine or feminine guys, but people only see the feminine ones,” he said. “It’s extra important in the Black community because they don’t see a masculine guy being gay. They might see it more now cause of social media, but the stereotype needs to be challenged.”

While providing a different view point was a mission, it was also his natural state.

“I’m just being me and I’m hoping a younger gay Black guy will see me and say “oh, he’s just being himself” and they can do the same thing,” he said.

And in Blond Ambition TRAPCRY has released a raw, sexual and powerful mix of tracks that span the hip hop and R&B genres.

Tracks like “Toyfriend” open up the artist at his most exposed as he pursues a boy who is obviously less interested in the relationship than he as – but they can still get it on.

The realities in the record can be a bit astounding in their comparisons to other musical acts, from both the LGBTQ and straight community. Topics like running into someone from online dating service Jack’d at a fast food place to making sure you’re always true to yourself despite what the world tells you – these are experiences those outside of the sexual minority community don’t often deal with (no matter how weird Tindr has made straight people.)

And all this talk about hyper-masculinity is not to say he doesn’t queen out some. “Hennything” offers a club hit that is both filthy and perfect for voguing across the dance floor in some 5-inch heels.

“I don’t think I’ve been comfortable with my music until now,” he said, with a deserved level of pride in his new release. “People are taking me more seriously, I’m taking myself more seriously, and it’s sounding a lot better…”

Some of the new tracks already have thousands of spins on SoundCloud and there’s an iTunes release scheduled in the near future – he’s got plans despite a lack of label support.

“I’ve got hundreds of songs, and that’s my diary,” he said. “If I’m going through something, or maybe I just want to say something… If its popular, then I feel like people will get a new perspective on what gay looks like. You’ve got pop queens that look the same – there should be more Frank Oceans, more people like me, to give different perspectives.”

It can be a tall order to fill, but the quality and crispness of Blond Ambition could and should be the start to something impressive.

Keep up with TRAPCRY on Twitter, Instagram and SoundCloud.

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