AOTW: Troyboi.

Sunday, September 06, 2015

Image Courtesy of Brooklyn Bass
For this week's AOTW, I'll be venturing into the unknown: EDM, or more specifically, trap music. Since this is relatively new ground for me, it's only fitting that I do a review on one of the EDM/trap producers that made me rethink my stance on the genre.

A little backstory: Growing up, the narrow-minded self didn't consider EDM "real music"; it's only real if it comes from actual instruments, voice included. Some time in my early teens, I started watching dancers like Mike Song and Tony Tran on YouTube, and I found myself not just enjoying their choreography but their song choices as well. Other than the songs I heard them dance to, I never found an artist that I really enjoyed listening to, that is until Body Rock 2014. Kinjaz did a wonderful set, as they usually do, and one of the songs that stuck was Troyboi's FYI. For some reason, it struck a chord with me so I went on to look up his other stuff on SoundCloud and you can say the rest was history.

Since I couldn't find his solo EP, and coupled with the fact that he doesn't have a Wikipedia page or anything of the sort, I shall just recommend some great tracks from his SoundCloud page. [Also, he's a part of a collab project with Icekream called SoundSnobz and they have an EP out. I have yet to check them out properly so when I do, that'll probably be in another post.]

Troyboi's music has been labelled as chill trap and I very much agree with that. His music is rather soothing and yet it has that punch that trap music usually gives. I know it seems rather oxymoronic so I'd rather bring in examples to help illustrate my point.


"On My Own" featuring NEFERA starts out with an echoing harp on a loop followed by the adding of a child-like clapping game beat and other sound effects. Around the 45-second mark, the beat drops, and with it comes the familiar strong beats usually found in trap music. As with his other tracks, there is a strong sense of his ethnic influences, and unlike most attempts at merging traditional oriental/asian music and sounds with EDM, he manages to find a perfect balance between the two to create a nice head-bobbing track.


"O.G.", a track some people would know from the Kinjaz's collaboration with BNGA and/or the former's performance on ABDC, also has a similar vibe, with that riff on loop being layered on, and the beat drop coming in after "I'm OG, y'all new to the game". As much as every layer in this track is as important as the other in delivering that overall chill/groove vibe of the song, the percussions and hard-hitting beats are what made this song for me.



I chose this last song because it is a fantastic blend of that R&B feel good vibe and that heavy and hard-hitting bassline Troyboi's good at. What I love the most about this track is that he used a trumpet in the middle of the track and it didn't feel out of place at all. In fact, it felt essential to the track. On the whole, it's another great Troyboi #mystyle track. [Side note: #mystyle is the genre Troyboi uses to refer to the type of music he produces.]


If you loved some of the tracks here, please visit and follow his SoundCloud page to check out more his stuff, and to hear his upcoming tracks. There are also links to his collaborations with Diplo and Icekream, and a bunch of his remixes there so do give him a listen. 

D-A-N O-U-T (...like Troyboi's signature? Ahh never mind.)

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