When Gucci Mane took to Instagram on Saturday to proclaim himself "The Inventor of Trap Music", naturally there was quite a shock throughout the hip-hop community. Trap music is far and away the most popular and influential genre of rap music right now, and most of its biggest artists credit Gucci Mane for their success.
With the Instagram post, Gucci stated that his 2005 album Trap House was the original trap rap album. However, T.I. wasn't going to take that statement lying down, and took to Instagram today to stake his own claim as the inventor of trap music.
The photo, a screenshot of the Wikipedia entry for T.I.'s second album Trap Muzik, clearly shows its August 19, 2003, release date. So if we're talking purely about hard facts, then Tip has Gucci beat by two years. He captioned the post, "Ok,so.... AGAIN for the slow ones in the back... August 19th,2003 Birth of Trap Muzik & Only fools dispute facts!!! FOH wit that Christopher Columbus ass... “Look what I discovered,even though they was already here ass shit!!!!” WITCHO GOOD CAPPIN ASS 😂."
T.I. makes some bold claims here, but he may have a point. However, music genres aren't set in stone. They take bits and pieces of inspiration from everywhere, so in most cases it's difficult to say who exactly invented a specific genre of music. Listening to some of the singles off Trap Muzik, only the faintest hints of what modern trap music has become are present. What's really important now isn't who invented the genre, but who is continuing it's legacy by evolving the genre, just like Gucci and T.I. both have.