Veteran DJ A-Trak may be best known for his electro-house production, but he can get busy in the rap realm when he wants. To prove it, he recruits two of hip-hop’s up-and-coming stars, Young Thug and 24Hrs, for a crazy-sounding trap banger, “Ride For Me.” The track is also a Zane Lowe World Record, so you know it’s going to have legs.
Thugger runs rampant on the snaky, rattling beat with his off-the-wall vocal inflections, while 24Hrs opts for a smoother delivery, but both sound well-suited to A-Trak’s jangling keys and staccato snares. A-Trak specifically chose Young Thug for the collab due to his unusual vocalization style.
“When we did ‘Ride For Me,’ I was in complete awe of Thug’s take,” he says. “No one’s ever heard him sound like this. I’m really into sound manipulation—I’m a scratch DJ. Hearing Thug’s voice be so elastic, so malleable, testing the limits of what a human voice can sound like is incredible to me. I love how he jumps from this self-distorted screaming style to his familiar squeaky bouncy voice. I was sitting on the song for a little while, trying to figure out a structure to it. Eventually, I got 24Hrs to come in and round it out.”
“Ride For Me” is just one of many A-Trak collabs coming this year, but he’s got more than a few rap pairings under his belt, including an EP with Harlem icon Cam’ron. Could he be open to a similar collection with Thug? Considering Thugger has just come off a joint album of his own with Future, it sure seems like he’d be open to it. Let’s all cross our fingers and hope that conversation happens soon — if it hasn’t happened already.
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