Corny white people have been recording ironic acoustic covers of rap songs for almost as long as there’ve been rap songs. It’s a fun way to get a laugh from audiences who are amused by the obvious juxtaposition of the singer’s awkward, white-boy nerdiness and the song’s original context of referring to drugs, streets, revolutions, and other things that the new singer has no experience with. The Barenaked Ladies had a minor hit with a cover of Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power” in 1993, and artists from Ben Folds to Ed Shereen have gotten a chuckle by covering Dr. Dre or Fetty Wap. But as the latest YouTube covers from acoustic guitar-playing white folks–of new anthems like Rihanna’s “Work” and Beyonce’s “Formation”–started popping up, Black Twitter decided to flip the script: Hence the #TrapCover was born.
The #TrapCover is basically exactly what it sounds like: A Dirty South take on a song known for its blinding whiteness. Some of the songs covered are classics–“Hey Jude,” “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “Bohemian Rhapsody”–while others are, like Ben Folds covering “Bitches Ain’t Shit,” just a funny juxtaposition (the Golden Girls theme!). Similarly, some of the covers are spectacular to listen to, and others are made by people whose enthusiasm outstrips their natural gifts as a musician–but all of them feel a little bit like justice in a world where this exists.