The trap is everywhere. This current of American rap sees teens humming its hits on both sides of the Atlantic, its artists, such as Young Thug, Future or Migos, appear at the forefront of fashion shows, which, in turn, use their tracks in tape -his. The city that gave birth to him was the Atlanta television series Donald Glover, known in the world of hip-hop as Childish Gambino.
In short, the trap radiates the pop culture of the moment. And allowed the capital of Georgia, from which this musical stream originates, to steal the limelight at the two poles of hip-hop, New York and Los Angeles, imposing a slower flow, music closer to electro only soul or funk, with refrains that contain only a few words (often referring to luxury brands, drugs, strippers or big bodys).
Page Contents
"Trap houses"
But who really knows the universe from which he came? The French photographer Vincent Desailly, born in 1989, finally gives him to see, in a book, The Trap, published by Hatje Cantz. For a year, and after six stays of several weeks, the co-founder of the cultural magazine Snatch has immersed itself in the daily life of homes near Atlanta Airport, the largest air hub in the world by its traffic.
"When I think of trap, I think of something raw. Music that sounds as dirty as the world from which it came out. Gucci Mane, rapper
Those are the trap houses ("Trap houses"), which seem abandoned, surrounded by the lush vegetation of the South, but which are equipped with surveillance cameras, because there is stored, packaged and sold drugs. He also followed "Young wolves" Trap at the option of studio sessions or wanderings in striptease clubs.
In his book, Vincent Desailly did not want to put words under his images. It reproduces just, in the introduction, a decryption proposed by one of the pioneers and one of the most emblematic characters of this musical trend, Gucci Mane: "When I think of trap, I think of something raw. Something that has not been diluted. Something without polish. Music that sounds as dirty as the world from which it came out. "
The immersion of Vincent Desailly in this violent world is due to the French Louis Brodinski, producer of electronic music, himself impressed by the trap. In early 2018, knowing that the photographer is looking for a story, he blows the idea of going to Atlanta: "You'll see, it's fascinating. Another planet. "
Peewee Longway and Trouble
" A week after, says the photographer, I took my ticket. Louis Brodinski introduced me to the artists with whom he worked, divided between two major tutelary figures of the Atlanta trap: Peewee Longway and Trouble, whose fame did not cross the borders of Georgia. They are very strong characters, very important there, but we know very little about Europe. "
Vincent Desailly will quickly learn to respect the codes of the neighborhoods where he takes artists and their entourage, who tell him what he can or not take a picture. "I did not take an image right away, He explains. I counted on the fact that everyone today is sensitive to images and wants to have beautiful ones for social networks. " He thus imagines a give and take exchange: "I told them: "I take a picture of you, I give you the picture and then you forget me. " The simplest thing in my approach and in my daily life in these neighborhoods was to make me forget. "
Wide field
If music was the gateway to his project, the result goes beyond this world. After his first trip, he abandons close-up Steve McCurry portraits of his work for the magazine press, and widens the field on bored sitting young, fan girls Waiting in front of the recording studios, teenagers, clappers on their feet, sitting on the hood of a car.
On his third trip, he starts to make landscape format, gets up at 4:30 to wait for the sunrise at a service station bordering a neighborhood, then returns several times to the same trap house and waits for the surveillance cameras to turn off to photograph the outside.
The red color is essential in almost all clichés, as well as the abundant vegetation. However, his shots could not avoid frustration: "After my last stay, I did not want to look at my photos for two or three months, so I was obsessed with all the images I had seen and that I could not do. "
The Trap, by Vincent Desailly, Hatje Cantz editions, 128 pages, 38 €.
