walking upstream…
Bryson Tiller
photo: aaron.s1994 · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗Bryson Tiller
Bryson Tiller is a Louisville, Kentucky singer and rapper who coined the term "Trapsoul" for his sound: melancholic, half-sung/half-rapped confessions of love and loyalty set against trap-inflected 808s and moody synths. A self-released 2014 single, "Don't," turned a SoundCloud upload into a Drake co-sign and an RCA deal, and the Trapsoul album that followed became a defining document of 2010s R&B's fusion with rap.
the sound in question
2014
Don'tBryson Tiller
walk the tributaries ↓
Drake2010s · Hip hop / Contemporary R&B / Pop rap
Tiller has called Drake one of the "huge strands" of his musical DNA, saying "OVO is really in my blood for real, I really have studied his catalog." The half-sung/half-rapped confessional style, trap-soaked production, and plainspoken lyrics about exes and loyalty that define Trapsoul all trace back to Drake's template — Drake even reached out about signing Tiller to OVO Sound before he chose RCA instead.
listen: upstream & heresource: Rolling Stone — Bryson Tiller Talks 'Trapsoul' Breakthrough, Drake Co-Sign (Omarion quote) ↗
2011
Marvin's RoomDrake
2014
Don'tBryson Tiller
listen forThe unhurried, talk-singing cadence gliding over hazy 808s and minor-key synths; a hook that slides between rapping and crooning without a hard seam between the two.
The-Dream2000s–10s · Contemporary R&B / Electropop / Pop
Tiller has said The-Dream is what flipped him from singer to songwriter: "I started listening to The-Dream a lot. That's when I really got into writing songs... I never really wanted to be an artist. I just really wanted to write songs." The specific, conversational lyric-writing on Trapsoul owes directly to that discovery.
listen: upstream & heresource: XXL — The Break Presents ↗
2007
Shawty Is A 10The-Dream
2015
ExchangeBryson Tiller
listen forA hook built like a short story — plainspoken, specific details doing the emotional work over a stripped-down, electro-tinged R&B beat, with the words landing harder than the vocal runs.
Omarion2000s · Contemporary R&B / Pop / Dance-pop
Tiller calls Omarion his "mega influence": his uncle put him on Omarion's debut album O, "and that was the first album that made me want to start singing. I started listening to him daily and singing what I heard." That daily mimicry of Omarion's falsetto runs is where Tiller's melodic instincts started, before he ever wrote a bar.
listen: upstream & heresource: Rolling Stone — Bryson Tiller Talks 'Trapsoul' Breakthrough, Drake Co-Sign (Omarion quote) ↗
2004
2015
Right My WrongsBryson Tiller
listen forAiry falsetto runs riding on top of a slow-grinding R&B groove — melody carrying the emotion more than the lyric does.