I neglected to sync my phone to my car’s bluetooth before running an errand last week. My misfortune became a godsend when I heard a terrestrial oldies radio station air Fetty Wap’s “Trap Queen.” I hadn’t thought about the 2014 hit in years.
RMW, aka Ryan Woltkamp, almost certainly hasn’t forgotten “Trap Queen.” The artist who rose to underground fame with Midwestern lifts many of his best ideas from discarded components of hip-hop culture. He and his production partner alternately repurpose R&B dusties and invoke the unhinged no wave punk sensibility of bands like Black Eyes. The resulting sounds on The King of Kansas City are distressed and caustic.
The hazy sound field is in the tradition of the Kansas City legend Rich That Factor. The title of The King of Kansas City is a cheeky reference to Tech N9ne. RMW doesn’t seem to harbor commercial aspirations. Even so, he’s just an accidental “Hey, what’s up, hello!”-style hook from a left-field hit in the tradition of those locally based heroes.