Words by Jesse Serwer—
It looks like Labor Day Weekend in NYC might just have its anthem for this year in place (and perhaps Caribana and Notting Hill, too).
Dipping into Bunji Garlin’s catalog for a second time, Harlem-rapper-of-Trini-extraction A$AP Ferg has breathed sudden new life into the Viking of Soca’s Trinidad Carnival anthem “Truck On D Road.” While Ferg’s “Petit Valley” used the riddim from Bunji’s “Carnival Tabanca” as a canvas for a song about falling in love with a Trini gyul, the “Truck On D Road” remix slows Jus Now‘s electro-soca rhythm down to a tempo suitable for hip-hop radio, which is exactly where it debuted, on Funkmaster Flex’s Hot 97 show last night. Ferg’s time at Carnival this year has clearly left an impact: the Harlem rapper adopts a periodic Trini accent, offering Carnival-time observations about “girls from Tribe in their fancy clothes.”
The result is definitely something new; we’re not sure what to call it. Let’s try trapival music. Stream below.