Vaportrap is vaporwave with a trap rhythm section: the same sampled, reverb-heavy synths, but sitting on skittering 808 beats instead of a slow float. Bandcamp Daily's 2016 family tree dates the style from Blank Banshee 0, released in 2012.[1] The Frekvenci archive lists 274 vaportrap releases by 150 artists, and unlike most vaporwave branches its yearly count has been falling since 2018.
What is vaportrap?
Bandcamp Daily files vaportrap as an outgrowth of vaporwave that marries the genre's sampling habits to trap's drum programming and stacked synths. Blank Banshee 0 is its first prominent example, with Vaperror's Mana Pool and サイバー '98's Computer Dreams named alongside.[1] The same article records a debate about whether 808-driven records count as vaporwave at all, and sides with yes: the spacey ambience and digital imagery keep them in the family.[1]
Next to the music it came from, vaportrap is physical. Classic vaporwave drifts; vaportrap has a pulse. The archive's tags put it beside hip-hop terms: 76 releases carry the trap tag, 50 hip hop, 24 lo-fi hip hop and 15 dubstep. The usual vaporwave neighbours are there too, with experimental on 120, ambient on 55 and chillwave on 34.
The sound
- Trap-style drums. Bandcamp's phrase is "skittering 808 sound", with deep sub-bass underneath.[1]
- Vaporwave sampling. The raw material is the same, the 1980s and 1990s source music vaporwave is known for, slowed and reverbed.[3]
- Layered synths and digital imagery. Cover art and titles keep the computer-era look.
- Shorter, more song-like forms. Of the 274 releases, 168 are albums, 60 EPs and 29 singles.
One of the named records shows how loose the borders are. Bandcamp's profile of Dream Catalogue calls Vaperror's Mana Pool the label's most accessible release and describes it as a techno record.[2] The family-tree article files it under vaportrap.[1] Both can be right: it is a beat-driven record that fans of different tags can claim.
Vaportrap in the archive
The first listed releases are from 2012. For a few years the numbers stay small. Then 2016 breaks the pattern.
SHOW THE NUMBERS
| Year | Releases |
|---|---|
| 2012 | 2 |
| 2013 | 5 |
| 2014 | 10 |
| 2015 | 14 |
| 2016 | 50 |
| 2017 | 27 |
| 2018 | 48 |
| 2019 | 35 |
| 2020 | 30 |
| 2021 | 16 |
| 2022 | 12 |
| 2023 | 10 |
| 2024 | 9 |
| 2025 | 3 |
From 14 releases in 2015 the tag jumps to 50 in 2016, falls to 27 in 2017, recovers to 48 in 2018 and 35 in 2019, then declines every year: 30, 16, 12, 10, 9, and only 3 in 2025. That is a boom-and-fade shape, while barber beats and signalwave were still growing in the same years. Part of the drop could be a data effect, since newer releases are tagged more slowly, but a fall from 48 to 9 over six years is too large for that alone. Wikipedia says in its lead that most vaporwave offshoots that emerged after the genre's 2012 exposure have lost popularity, and this tag is a clear example.[3]
Two US artists lead the tag: Kannibal with 19 vaportrap releases (all of that artist's catalogue) and Enraile with 15 of 15, together about an eighth of the tag. Country is known for 65% of the releases. The United States has 87, Norway 22 (mostly two artists, Sound Light System and yiff, with 10 each), France 14 and Italy 11.
SHOW THE NUMBERS
| Label | Releases |
|---|---|
| Virtua94 Records | 8 |
| B O G U S // COLLECTIVE | 8 |
| business casual | 6 |
| Sunset Grid | 6 |
| Vice '98 | 5 |
| Pacific Plaza Records | 5 |
| SIC RECORDS | 5 |
| DMT Records | 4 |
The label list is flat. Virtua94 Records and B O G U S // COLLECTIVE lead with 8 each, then business casual and Sunset Grid with 6. Two small labels are nearly pure vaportrap: Vice '98 has 5 of 10 and SIC RECORDS 5 of 9. For the large houses, whose wider catalogues are covered in our B O G U S // COLLECTIVE: label profile and where to start and business casual: label profile and where to start pages, vaportrap is a side line. And 59 of the 274 releases are self-released, about a fifth.
Vaportrap, trap and future funk
Only 76 of the 274 releases carry a trap tag, which is a reminder that vaportrap is mostly a vaporwave genre with trap drums, not a trap genre with vaporwave samples. Come from hip hop and expect less rapping and more atmosphere; come from vaporwave and expect more weight in the low end. The nearest relative with a beat is future funk, which also adds drums to vaporwave but swaps trap's 808s for disco and funk grooves.
Why did vaportrap fade? Release data cannot say. One reasonable guess is that the sound was absorbed into other tags, such as lo-fi hip hop, which is on 24 vaportrap releases, but that is speculation. What the archive does show is that the artists did not vanish: Mabisyo and PZA, who each have vaportrap releases, appear with much larger catalogues elsewhere. Chile's Mabisyo has 5 vaportrap releases among 47 listed, and 40 of the 47 are barber beats.
Records to start with
Roughly one per year across the tag's life. The first two are the examples Bandcamp names.
- Blank Banshee · 2012 · Hologram Bay · LPThe 2012 album Bandcamp names as the first prominent vaportrap record, on Hologram Bay.
- Vaperror · 2014 · Dream Catalogue · LPA 2014 Dream Catalogue release; the label profile calls it a techno record, the family tree calls it vaportrap.
- Contact Lens · 2012 · self-released · LPA 2012 self-released album, the same year as Blank Banshee 0.
- Enraile · 2013 · self-released · EPA 2013 self-released EP by Enraile, the tag's second most prolific artist.
- SOUND LIGHT SYSTEM · 2013 · EPA 2013 EP by Sound Light System, one of the Norwegian pair.
- おかげ Magician · 2018 · B O G U S // COLLECTIVE · LPA 2018 album on B O G U S // COLLECTIVE.
- Chlorenn · 2023 · Wave Racers Collective · LPA 2023 album on Wave Racers Collective.
- Mabisyo · 2026 · Casa De Retiro · LPA 2026 mix by Mabisyo, one of the newest entries.
Going harder
Mana Pool's label is also where the genre's loudest reaction began. If the 808s are the part you like, the offshoot to try next is hardvapour, which turned the tempo up and the softness off. For the family as a whole, What is vaporwave? A guide to the internet's slowed-down mall music is the map, and Synthwave vs vaporwave: same neon, different music explains why none of it counts as synthwave.
Sources
- Genre As Method: The Vaporwave Family Tree, From Eccojams to Hardvapour · Simon Chandler, Bandcamp Daily, 21 Nov 2016
- Label Profile: Dream Catalogue · J. Edward Keyes, Bandcamp Daily, 20 Jun 2016
- Vaporwave (used as a map to its references) · Wikipedia