Once again it’s made clear that the Tacoma scene can’t be fucked with. On his recent double album Luxury/Trap, Lroc shows us the full scope of his talent. Luxury/Trap is reminiscent of the classic Outkast album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, though rather than a duo going track for track, Lroc has the reins for the duration of the project. The first half of the album, Luxury is like a nostalgic walk through your hometown. There are elements of classic hip-hop, jazz-inspired instrumentals, and a Southern inspired delivery that only reinforces the comparisons to Outkast’s album.
Trap, on the other hand, is…well, it’s trap. Bombastic bass meshes with clicky hi-hats to make a second half that somehow meshes perfectly with the first, despite their vast differences. Lroc manages to take the two competing philosophies of modern vs classic hip-hop and blend them into a congruous double LP.
Lroc Pops Off a Double Dose of Lethal On Luxury/ Trap
The album’s title track (located on the Luxury side) is a real highlight. It is full of this crazy energy, with 1000 things going on at once. The instrumental from Mvllah is like something from the mind of Madlib or Captain Murphy, with this sense of all of these samples coming together at once to create the track. And, of course, cutting through all of this is Lroc’s incredible delivery, which manages to tame all of these competing sounds into one cohesive track.
The Trap side is of course loaded with bangers on bangers on bangers and “Plans” may the best among those (and maybe the best on all of Luxury/Trap). The subject here is Lroc’s huge plans he has for how he is going to make it big and how all of these different parts of his life are blocking him from the road to destiny. Things like imprisonment, leeches, snitches are all a part of Lroc’s life that he’s actively trying to prune away. This is Lroc saying ‘you’re fucking around on the side with all this kid shit, NOT working towards your career? Couldn’t be me.’
The blending of two contrasting ideas is a running theme on this latest project from the Tacoma vet. Between combining the ideas of classic and modern hip-hop and pairing Southern inspired deliveries with jazzy, PNW style samples Lroc has come out of this with a real highlight of his discography. He manages to cut through the incredibly varied instrumentals and delivery some of the best lyrics of his career
Luxury/Trap is a fantastic addition to the often ignored Tacoma rap scene. On a final note, it seems the title of the album itself alludes to the financial concept of the luxury trap. It’s this idea that as you become more financially successful, the things that were once niceties become necessary. The things you once struggled for are now mundane and commonplace. It seems with this album, Lroc is beginning to experience this for himself. Which, in typical Lroc fashion, seems to be both a good and bad thing, two competing ideas at once.
CHECK OUT LUXURY/ TRAP AT THESE STREAMERS BELOW