T.I. shared his thoughts on the current state of trap music in an interview with AllHipHop that was recently released. In the conversation, the Atlanta-raised rapper mentioned the rappers who he thought should join him on the Mount Rushmore of trap music.
T.I. commented, “There were always three figureheads in trap music – myself, Jeezy, and Gucci. That was always like unanimous, and nobody could even question or you can’t add or remove anybody from that. Over time, there have been conversations about who else should be allotted.”
The trap legend continued, “Right now, we had the three. And us having the opportunity to also collect more data and conversation and input from the people who are the most passionate about the culture of trap music, it’s like, ‘Who should be the fourth figurehead?'”
After conducting a poll on who should be the final member of the illustrious four, T.I. revealed the public arrived at a decision. T.I. said, “We finally came to the conclusion from the people that the fourth figurehead is Future.”
The Hustle Gang frontman is currently celebrating the 20-year anniversary of his platinum-certified sophomore album Trap Muzik, which is widely seen as kicking off the genre. The album originally dropped on Aug. 19, 2003 and featured hit singles “24’s,” “Rubber Band Man,” and “Let’s Get Away” featuring Jazze Pha. To date, the artist has had four No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and three Billboard 200 chart-toppers.
The rest of the pantheon of trap music figureheads have also seen substantial success. Jeezy released his Trap or Die mixtape in 2005. Gucci Mane released his Trap House album in 2005 and followed it up with his Trap God mixtape in 2012. Future’s contributions include his Monster album, released in 2014, and 2015’s DS2.
Check out Tip’s full interview below.