T.I. has a music history message for "the slow ones in the back."
Monday, the Grand Hustle founder shared a screenshot of the Wikipedia page for his classic 2003 album Trap Muzik. "Only fools dispute facts!!!" T.I., laying claim to the invention of the trap genre, said. "FOH wit that Christopher Columbus ass…'Look what I discovered, even though they was already here' ass shit!!!!" See his full comments below.
This looks to be a response to Gucci Mane's previous Flashback Friday post on Instagram in which he looked back fondly on the day he "invented trap music." The photo appears to have been snapped around the time Guwop dropped his equally classic 2005 album Trap House.
Of course, both T.I. and Gucci are mainstays in the trap music history discussion. Both are credited alongside Jeezy and others with developing the Southern rap subgenre through their early releases, though T.I. has long claimed to be the one solely responsible for creating trap as a genre term. Speaking with Funk Flex back in 2012, T.I. shouted out fellow Atlanta artists like Outkast and Goodie Mob before making his case. "I coined the term," he said. "It was [my] second album, it dropped in 2003. After that, there was an entire new genre of music created. An open lane for each of you to do what you do, and live your lives on TV and be accepted by the masses."
T.I. has been on a bit of a music history kick recently, even chiming in on Lil Xan's comments about 2Pac's music being "boring." By T.I.'s estimation, younger artists are trying to find respect by stripping it from previous generations.
