This hood love song is the breakthrough single for Paterson, New Jersey native Fetty Wap. The track finds him paying tribute to his girlfriend of three years, the Trap Queen. He explained to Complex: "I was just dealing with somebody at the time, and she was holding me down. We were building a lot, and I came up with the concept. She was my trap queen."
The "Remy Boyz, yeaahhhh 1738" shout out at the beginning refers to the name of the Paterson squad, which consists of Fetty, Montana "Monty" Buckz, P. Dice and Khaos. The name originates from Remy Martin 1738 liquor.
The New Jersey rapper told Complex: "I always put my squad in everything that I do even though people tell me not to. I do what I want because it's been working. I don't listen to anybody."
Fetty Wap recalled the recording of the song to Billboard magazine. "I can't remember exactly what day, but I just know it was in March, the energy was just so high," he remembered. "The day before, I was just letting them hear how I was coming up with - like I never came up with nothing, I just had melody in my head and I just knew how I wanted to do it. Once I listened to it a couple of times I just went in."
This was the first time that Fetty Wap sang on a record. "I wouldn't say I was nervous. I was anxious to do it, really," he told Billboard. "I just wanted to do something different. Everybody was rapping. Everybody wants to be a rapper so I did something different. I started singing. But I ain't want to be a singer, so I did my own thing. Melodies - I don't really know how to put it. I just do the Fetty Wap."
The guy that delivers the outro is Fetty Wap's friend Nitt Da Gritt - he also directed the song's music video. Nitt Da Gritt runs RGF Productions, the label to which Fetty is signed.
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Speaking to New York Magazine, Fetty Wap said that the "Trap Queen" phrase celebrates the loyalty he's received from one particular woman in his life. "The person I was dealing with at the time [of writing the song], she kind of just showed me a different side of women," he explained to the publication. "She still to this day supports me and buys all my songs on iTunes, she still shows me loyalty, the same loyalty before everybody knew who I was. That's where I get my inspirations and my motivation from for most of my songs and the meanings behind them."
Fetty Wap told Complex about the real-life inspiration for the song. "I first met her at her job, and the way that I introduced myself, she didn't like it," he recalled. "I didn't really do it in the most respectful way. I was like, 'What do you want me to say? Do you want me to say, "Hey, what's up, hello" to you? Does that sound better?' The next day I went back to her job, and she was my trap queen from then on."
Though Fetty isn't dating her anymore, they remain friends. "I don't think I'll ever meet anybody like my ex ever again," the New York rapper said. "She's doing good now. She's in school. She's doing what she has to do. With the money that we made - and the money that I'm making now and everything that's going on for me - it's only right that I help her. Even though we're not together, I still make sure that she's good."
Fetty Wap won the MTV Video Music Award for Artist to Watch at the 2015 ceremony for this video.
The song describes the rapper's "Trap Queen" helping him cook up crack cocaine. "If everybody was to catch on to the [references in the] song, it wouldn't have been that big," admitted Fetty to Billboard magazine. "At the end of the day, it's my personal love story. Can't nobody tell me how to be in love."
The Fetty Wap LP debuted on the top of the Billboard 200. Fetty was the rapper to reach #1 with a debut album since A$AP Rocky's Long.Live.A$AP in 2012.
This song took Fetty from rags to riches, but he didn't comprehend its financial impact until after he was injured in a motorcycle accident on September 26, 2015, one day after the Up Next album was released.. "I was like, 'How am I going to pay the bills?'," he told Entertainment Weekly. "Then I checked by account and was like, 'Oh yeah. I'm rich.'"
According to Fetty, he was still in the hospital when the album hit #1 the week of October 17. When he returned to the stage on October 22, he performed from a throne with his leg elevated.
The song's success can be traced to Shazam. It got limited airplay when it was first issued in late 2014, but listeners disproportionately Shazamed the song, which tipped off record companies to its appeal. Soon after, Fetty got a deal with 300 Entertainment.
A Danish musician named Lazar Lakic sued Fetty Wap and the song's producer Tony Fadd claiming that the Paterson rapper took his beat without permission. According to TMZ, Lakic claimed that he purchased exclusive rights in 2014 to a beat called, "Hello" from Tony Fadd and was stunned when he heard that same beat sampled in "Trap Queen." Lakic alleged that well after Wap's tune became an international smash hit, Fadd called him to buy back the rights to that beat. The Dane declined and as Lakic hadn't been handed any of the earnings, he sued Wap for profits. Not only does he want to be financially compensated, Lakic also stated he wants to "destroy all copies and stop all sales of 'Trap Queen.'"