Rap Blog: Fat Trel is still talking to the trenches

Fat Trel told The FADER, “DC rap is becoming a problem.” That statement has only grown more true in the years since (see: Shy Glizzy, Yung Gleesh, Q Da Fool, Xanman, Goldlink, Rico Nasty, IDK, Yung Manny, Cordae, Yung Kayo), but 2024 has been a particularly dynamic year for the metro — just turn on the latest Havinmotion or Jaeychino mixtape.

Fat Trel’s latest album Boosa’s Keeper is filled with plenty of hard-hitting flexes (“Can’t Stop Stuntin’”) and street raps (“Back Home” with Est Gee and “My Kutta”). But it’s the record’s back half where Trel truly shines. As tempos downshift and instrumentals swing from minor-key anxiety inducement to more contemplative chord progressions, he carefully weighs the past decade of his life, the “Wins & Losses,” and how he handles “grown man business.”

“We been at this shit since 17,” he keens on “Anything.” “On 16th we was peddling amphetamines.” Fat Trel has always possessed an imperturbably smooth flow, able to unfurl honeyed melodies over even the grittiest instrumentals. On a gently incandescent beat like this, he floats. “New investigations / Murder in my city the police is tryna blame it / I feel like the judge and prosecutor tryna frame it.”

The final 30 seconds of “Anything” reverse the song’s bluesy instrumental. “Sometimes I go talk to the dead, they say I’m out my mind,” Trel muses. “I miss my brodie forever, I cried so many times.” It feels like watching a documentary rewind at triple speed: play any film backwards and it’s elegy.