Standing on the balcony of his downtown apartment, adorned with tattoos and flashy jewelry, rapper Trap Zilla certainly looks the part of an up-and-coming musician.
Born Eddie Fauth in St. Paul, Trap Zilla claims multiple cities throughout the state. After leaving St. Paul, he spent some time in and around Duluth before finally returning to the Twin Cities, moving to Minneapolis a little over a year ago.
While he only started to take music seriously around the time he turned 18, the now 22-year-old rapper says making music has always been a part of his life.
“I was always around people making music and recording, so I always kind of messed around with it. Even when I was in elementary school, I’d be with people who were already making music,” he said.
For someone who has only been making music seriously for a few years now, the Twin Cities MC already has quite the discography to his name, including six projects and a plethora of accompanying singles.
His first real tape, “The Gas Station,” arrived in 2016. The rawest and most unpolished of all his work, “The Gas Station,” features songs like “Trapping out a Cabin” and “So Much Lean.”
The following year, Trap dropped two projects, “The Plugs Plug” and “Skatin’ on Em.” Both follow a similar formula as his 2016 offering; the latter is an homage to his background as a skater.
Trap Zilla would be the first to admit that his initial three projects were not his best work. However, he said that this time in his career was all about experimenting with his craft, hopping on different types of beats, trying out new flows and working with a wide range of artists and producers.
By the time he dropped his fourth tape, “Authentic,” in 2018, Trap Zilla found his sound. Throughout the entire project, Trap can be heard spitting melodic bars consisting of flex after flex, because when you’re the plug’s plug, there’s no room for being humble. On the song “Poppin’ Bars in Forign [sic] Cars,” Trap raps about popping bottles in the club even though he doesn’t drink.
Trap Zilla’s melodic brags are a signature part of his style, a style that is distinctly his according to collaborator and fellow Twin Cities artist Tae Supreme.
“Looking back at his old stuff and looking at his new stuff now, he definitely knows his flow. He doesn’t try to do too much. He knows how to do him instead of trying to do somebody else,” Supreme said.
Trap’s unique style can be seen as a byproduct of his musical influences, or lack thereof. Rather than citing individual artists he’s inspired by, Trap said he listens to all types of hip-hop. But at the end of the day, always tries to do things his own way.
This unique sound became even more polished on the two tapes he dropped in 2019, “Blue’s Clues” and “Authentic, Vol. 2.”
Both tapes, which he describes as “throwaways,” show just how far Trap has progressed as an artist since his “Gas Station” days. The Trap Zilla that can be heard on songs like “Nothing to Prove” and “5 Thangs” is a far more lyrically and melodically confident artist.
According to Trap, though, the best is yet to come. He says his first big album is in the works, hopefully hitting the public sometime in early 2020. If it’s anything like his two most recent singles, “Touchdown” and “Countin’ in My Sleep,” it won’t be long before Trap Zilla becomes more than just a “Twin Cities rapper.”
