TrapBang 2012-2019
Started in 2012 by Kon Sweetie and longtime friend ATP, TrapBang was founded in the small town of Bayville, New Jersey. In its early stages, TrapBang’s first members were Kon’s brothers Arcade and Beatdoc, producer friends Chip Smalley and Seany OWE, and in 2013 the addition of Dey Bishop. In 2014, MattyPasq and the TrapBang crew began creating music together but still were separate entities. It wasn’t until 2015 that Matty dropped his first ever EP, Mad EP, that featured a verse from Kon Sweetie and was officially released under the TrapBang collective.
MattyPasq x TrapBang collaborations only got bigger and more involved from then. Matty’s 2015 mixtape ‘Asking to Leave, Dying to Stay’ featured verses from both Dey Bishop and Kon Sweetie and included production from Seany OWE and Chip Smalley. By the end of 2015, Matty had produced songs for both Dey and Kon and featured on tracks as well, such as Dey Bishop’s ‘To Flourish (Growing Up)’ and Kon Sweetie’s ‘Trippin (prod. Tony Dark)’. TrapBang won its first ever award for “Best Hip-Hop Artist/Group” at Electric Elephant’s Atlantic City Music Awards. Earlier that same year, Seany OWE reached out to Houston’s own Tony Dark who went on to produce two EPs for both Dey Bishop and Kon Sweetie. The success of both projects lead to a constant connection from NJ to TX.
On July 28, 2016, MattyPasq released his first official album ‘Get Home Safe’ again featuring verses from both Dey and Kon. Spending much of the year playing live events and shows all throughout NJ, TrapBang was nominated for Asbury Park Music Award’s Top New Artist of 2016.
Starting 2017 off on the right foot was Kon Sweetie’s debut full-length album ‘I’ve Lost Control of My Life’ which was kicked off by an epic album release party at Asbury Park’s iconic and ever-frequented music venue “The Saint” with supporting artists Depreciator, Korey Costa, and The Haunting (FKA Shoobies). In October of 2017, Kon, Dey, and Matty collaborated with Houston producer yPhoenxix on ‘Bag of Cats’ which became a staple in opening TrapBang’s live performances. Closing out 2017 strong was Dey Bishop’s ‘Uncommon Love’ which features production from Kon Sweetie and vocals plus instrumentation from MattyPasq on the title track and two other songs.
As for 2018, the crew continued to play shows throughout New Jersey and only released singles and some music videos for the majority of the year. TrapBang was now nominated for two 2018 Asbury Park Music Awards for Best Live Performance and Best R&B/Soul Band (Later, Hip-Hop/Rap Artist/Group). Amongst many singles released throughout the year was TrapBang’s remix of Yawn Mower’s ‘Convenience Store’ and a track called ‘Wilderness’ off of Korey Costa’s Kon Sweetie produced project ‘Skyward Spiral’. Just a few months later, MattyPasq and Kon Sweetie released what would become TrapBang’s most successful project to date. Exclusively produced by Kon Sweetie, ‘High Hopes, Low Expectations’ was released November 28, 2018.
In January of 2019, YouTuber and Content Creator, Patrick Cc, posted a list of his favorite songs from 2018. On this list was the closing track on ‘High Hopes, Low Expectations’ titled ‘Hope You’re Okay (ft. Dey Bishop & Kon Sweetie)’. This was the beginning of a wild journey from just 63 plays on Soundcloud to over 20,000 by the end of the year and its start on the journey to 1,000,000 streams on Spotify.
Despite its success, ‘Hope You’re Okay’ wasn’t enough to keep the band together. Perusing other avenues and focusing in on their particular sounds and genres, Kon, Dey, and Matty began working more as solo artists. For the remainder of 2019, the trio only played a small handful of shows together. Continuing to release more music as solo artists, collaborations were still happening between the three, however the focus was on them as individuals and not the group.
The final show played as TrapBang was played in May of 2019, followed by one last performance of ‘Hope You’re Okay’ at Kon Sweetie’s release show for his project ‘Commercial Break’ November 2019. It seems fitting that arguably “the best thing TrapBang ever made together” would be its last. ‘Commercial Break’, which also features a verse from MattyPasq on the song ‘Trapped’ sings, “Trapped inside the bay, trapped inside the bay. Need to make a move. I need to escape” referring to the love/hate relationship with their hometown. Ironically, shortly after its release and fulfilling the song’s desires, MattyPasq decided to move out of Bayville, leaving TrapBang behind. Despite the split, the love of true brotherhood withstands all time. Time and energy put in to create something beautiful is never a waste. None of this music would have come to be without the influence and spark of Kon Sweetie and for that we are forever grateful. Long Live TrapBang.