T.I: Trap Muzik (Grand Hustle/Atlantic, 2003) While this record wasn't exactly released in the past five years, it does seem to mark the beginning of an era for hip hop. It's called Trap Muzik, after all. Is that to say T.I. "invented" trap music? Maybe, maybe not. I guess that's up for debate, despite how he personally feels about it, but I'm not that interested anyway. At the very least, I think it's fair to say that he gave this style of music a label and put it on the map. But either way, trap has obviously changed a whole lot over the past decade. I can still hear remnants of the shitty "bling"-era on this thing that are hard not to cringe at today, but at the same time, you can't forget that there's still a couple of cuts on here ("Doin' My Job," "Let Me Tell You Something") that feature a pre-College Dropout Kanye West on the production. Naturally, these wound up being some of the more interesting tracks, and not just for the novelty—they're actually decent. And as corny as it is, "Rubber Band Man" still bumps. I don't care. It's just a fun song, which the rest of the album doesn't seem to offer a whole lot of. Most of the beats sound like they were composed in Mario Paint or some shit. Especially that intro cut. Overall, it's a lyrically dull and merely listenable experience that I couldn't really recommend to anyone but hardcore T.I. fans (all three of them) or hip hop historians, both of whom have no doubt already listened to this thing. ("Doin' My Job," "Rubber Band Man") 6/10