Twitter experienced one of its perfect storms of spontaneous, unplanned awesomeness on Thursday night when the hashtag #TrapCover trended for several consecutive hours on the social media site. Scores of users posted their own home-made hip-hop covers of famous pop and rock songs, ranging from “I Got You Babe” to “Let It Go.” The idea here was to turn the tables on all the lame acoustic cover versions of hip-hop songs that have been cropping up on YouTube, utterly robbing the music of its potency. Recently, Beyonce’s “Formation” has been the target of many of these unwanted and ill-conceived covers. If hip-hop songs can be turned into middling folk music, Twitter reasoned, why can’t pop and rock songs be transposed to rap? The resulting #TrapCover phenomenon was created by a Twitter user called Captain Kirk, who started the trend with his own hastily recorded hip-hop remake of Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles.”
okay guys. my first cover ever 🙂 “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton #TrapCover pic.twitter.com/ql6yfNrboE
— Captain Kirk (@ILLCapitano94) February 26, 2016
Considering that his version of “A Thousand Miles” was recorded in about 10 minutes, Captain Kirk probably did not set out to create a viral sensation with #TrapCover. Nevertheless, this is one of those instances when Twitter took a simple idea and expanded on it without much prompting, generating tens of thousands of tweets within just a few hours. One of the most prominent supporters of the #TrapCover hashtag, for instance, was Nathan Zed. Among Zed’s creations was a trap version of “The Star Spangled Banner.”
Zed’s rendition of “Hey Jude” is another one for the ages.
A Twitter user called 2006 Rex, meanwhile, proved that Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” was easily and convincingly translated into a trap song.
For his part, Captain Kirk remained humble about what he had created, thanking those who had contributed their own trap covers and expressing surprise and delight that the hashtag had taken off so quickly and attracted such media attention.
When you make a silly hashtag, while pooping, to do with your homies. and end up trending and doin interviews. pic.twitter.com/RP0lxzS1i9
— Captain Kirk (@ILLCapitano94) February 26, 2016