Trap Beckham Reflects on How “Birthday Chick” Raised His Profile

There aren’t too many artists who rise to stardom from Jacksonville, Fla. Sure, in the past year artists such as Tokyo Jetz and MobSquad Nard have hit the scene and become hometown heroes, but before they made any noise, Trap Beckham flooded the Southeast with a plethora of club bangers.

The artist formerly known as Yung Trap has come a long way since his teens, but he’s still managed to maintain the party persona that first earned him traction. Today, he released his uptempo Evil Emoji mixtape, a 14-track project that's heavy on dance music that's reminiscent of the early 2010s. Strip-club anthems are laced throughout, with connoisseurs like D-Roc of the Ying-Yang Twins and Strap Da Fool of Travis Porter making contributions. Trap tells XXL that the lead single "Thumbin Thru It" is made for "the working man who doesn't have much! If you work hard, then when it's time to play, you deserve it, you earned it. So fuck it! Thumb through it."

Trap Beckham first made waves back in 2012. “She Thick” with Willie Beema and the Young Cash-assisted “Top Of The Line” were staples at Jacksonville parties that year, and in turn propelled him into the local spotlight in the years that followed.

Trap continued to push music with an annual mixtape series, named for his birthday (July 14) and the date that it releases. At the top of 2016, that the nation became hip to his trap-party anthems with the release of “Birthday Bitch.” Soon after, he was flown out to Los Angeles—his first time on a flight—and signed a deal with Def Jam Records.

“I feel like I had two big breaks,” he says. “I feel like I had a local big break when I was Yung Trap, then I had a nationwide big break when I came out with [the edited] ‘Birthday Chick’ last year with Def Jam.” The single went viral in a matter of weeks, with celebrities like Ashanti, Kourtney Kardashian and Leslie Jones turning up to the track on their special day.

Trap Beckham has since moved on from the viral cut, but with an average of 17.7 million birthdays a day worldwide, it’s no surprise the official audio has been streamed nearly nine million times on YouTube, joining fellow hip-hop birthday anthems like 50 Cent's "In Da Club" and 2 Chainz's "Birthday Song." "This is my first time ever being able to touch this many people or this many places at one time," he says. "Being from Jacksonville, nothing is around there really like that.”

In October 2017, Trap released the infectious Life Is Lit EP, his first major label project. Since the drop, the "Cold" rhymer has pushed out a visual for every track, with the video for "Lil Booties Matter"—with a cameo from Cardi B's sister, Hennessy—amassing nearly two million views since its Oct. 20 release.

Now that Trap Beckham has released Evil Emoji, he's focused on keeping his momentum moving. What’s next? “More. More music, more releases," he says. "The type of records I got in the chamber I can’t even explain."

See New Music Releases for March 2018