SAINt JHN has done an excellent job of carving out his own little lane of brazen late-night stories told over dark instrumentals. And "Trap" makes a concerted effort to not leave this lane. This song serves as the first single for his upcoming album Ghetto Lenny Love Songs, and his first release since signing a deal with Circle of Success Management Company. SAINt JHN is the first artist to be signed to Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder Kareem “Biggs” Burke's newest venture. "Trap" also comes on the heels of a song Meek Mill previewed they have together, raising the buzz on this guy to new heights.
With bigger money backing the track, it seems SAINt JHN has played it safe with his first single, using the extra coin on production and a featuring guest—which is a rarity in his music. The production contains all the components of a standard SAINt JHN song: the guitar riffs that sound like they just broke down the gates of hell, the skipping high hats, and a sinister atmosphere. But nothing to give the song any kind of character.
The loud, bland production is almost overbearing to the charismatic delivery that makes SAINt JHN's sound his own. However, despite the interesting delivery, the uninspired production is only matched by the bland lyrics. If the production is room-temperature tap water, the lyrics are just tasteless ice cubes floating in it. There's no sparkle or flavour to the song. It's about being a trap star, that's it. If I want stories of a life that moved from trapping to being a star there's a handful of artists I can turn to and be disappointed by. While the incorporation of Lil Baby adds a bit of tempo to the verses, it does very little in the way of adding any kind of substance to the track, which is only punctuated with the verse-opener, "Trap. Only thing we ever had to do was trap. I was breaking down bales and now switched it to rap."
Despite the lackluster sound of this song, I'm still optimistic about the forthcoming album. Collection One was too good to be a fluke. I'm just hoping he finds that sound that made him special again.
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