Gospel, funk and soul are all key elements that contribute to the gumbo that is Atlanta rap. It’s what makes the city home to innovative rap subgenres like crunk, snap and, of course, trap music — the latter of which has become one of the most dominant sounds in rap music history.
So when Chris Moten, a musician from Decatur, saw an opportunity to blend his background playing jazz music with Atlanta’s trap sound, he seized it and never let it go. He started combining the two genres in 2015 and later created a 10-piece band, Trap Jazz All-Stars, that performs across the country. Now, his style of musical fusion will be highlighted in a new documentary, “Trap Jazz,” set to debut on Aug. 23 on Hulu.
“Trap came from Atlanta,” Moten, 37, said. “Trap started in Atlanta. Hip-hop has always been here, but...we’ve been all taking off and doing our own thing and trying to really share our voice with the industry and with the world.”
In the early 2000s, Atlanta rap heavyweights T.I., Jeezy and Gucci Mane popularized the sound of trap music that became known for rumbling 808s laced around moving lyrics on poverty and street hustle.
“Trap Jazz” follows the respective musical journeys of Moten, Jay and Taylor that led to them forming the trap jazz sound.
Moten, a graduate of Columbia High School, started playing piano at an early age. He received a scholarship to attend Clark Atlanta University, where he studied music performance with a concentration in piano. Moten dropped out of college to pursue making his own work, applying his love for music theory and writing and arranging music to developing his own sound.
He enlisted Cassius Jay, who he met in high school, and Devon “Stixx” Taylor, who he met through mutual friends, to play in his band and help mold the new genre. Jay is a Grammy Award-winning producer who’s worked with Future, Migos and Young Thug, while Taylor is a drummer who’s toured with Usher and Justin Bieber,
“Trap jazz is just another way of expressing yourself,” said Jay, who produces all of the beats for Moten. ”It’s our lifestyle.....It’s almost like when Gucci and T.I. started trap music. Well, I want to see other people do (trap jazz), too. “I wanna see other bands try to imitate what we started.”
The documentary producers approached Moten with the idea of making “Trap Jazz” in 2017 after seeing his band perform in Los Angeles.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Moten said. “I didn’t think it was gonna come out for a minute because of the pandemic slowing everything down, so I’m super excited that we finished it. We made it to the finish line and now everybody gets a chance to see what we’ve been doing for the last five years.”
Credit: Getty Images for Andscape
Credit: Getty Images for Andscape
The documentary features Atlanta producers and artists like Big Boi, T.I., Zaytoven and Jazze Pha. Director Sade C. Joseph, who makes her feature-length directorial debut with “Trap Jazz,” said she wanted viewers to fall in love with the musicians as quickly as she did.
Joseph recalls a moment in the film when Moten talks about how he learned music through the cassette tapes his father would send him over the course of his 20 years in prison. It’s one of her favorite scenes in the documentary.
“I really wanted to focus on the humanity and not so much the glitz and the glam, but really showing these Black men being vulnerable in their darkest moments as well and really coming to understand their passions and what really drives them and all of them share this commonality of legacy and carrying on things that their fathers had started and love for their communities,” she said.
Credit: Josh Williams
Credit: Josh Williams
Moten hopes Atlanta residents leave the film feeling inspired to never give up on their dreams.
“They’re gonna love to see that we’re all from here, and it’s gonna make them represent the city even more because they know (this film) doesn’t belong just to us. It belongs to them, too. This is their journey too. This is their win. This is their victory as well.”
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