Negro spirituals and Freedom songs carry within them expressions of joy, pain and the realities of living as a Black person in the United States. These songs provided the sonic background of the Civil Rights Movement.

Today, a new sound provides the sonic background in the ongoing movement for Black liberation and agency: Trap music. Trap music traces its roots to the heart of the Black American south. It’s part of the continuing evolution of Hip-Hop in America with lyrics that paint a picture of surviving a system that entraps while pursuing the “American Dream”.

We discuss music as a form of Black expression from the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement to Trap music’s existence as a route to self-determination and the path it carves on the journey of Black liberation.