Hear2Move & Dissect More of EDM
Troyboi @Silo ; Brooklyn, New York
March 7th 2025
It’s Week 3 out of 3, and I am finally at the finish line for my 2025 Winter Raving Season. I knew for certain that this was going to go out with a bang. Especially, knowing that tonight I was going to be with my other Doofy Doofer (the name of my rave fam), who we will dub “Nemasis”1. It was a game-time decision. Troyboi was sold out for the night, and my girl Nemasis couldn’t get the ticket in time, being stuck on the waitlist. I had people cancel on me hours beforehand, leaving me with a free ticket and a spontaneous decision. She was in, but with a cool addition. She proceeded to tell me how she and some friends were going to an early house set and wanted to see if I was interested. Without hesitation, I said, “Why not?”
Let’s flash back to the first show of my 2025 winter season (you can read more about that here); Nemasis’ friends were the same group of girls we were hanging out with before. I couldn’t wait to see what the night had in store. While the initial club we had planned on going to ended up being a flop (I’m way too old to be paying for a cover anway), we walked around Williamsburg for a bit trying to find anything to get out of this cold. Somehow, we stumbled into a whole disco, complete with the Club Penguin-like club floors. I found out recently that the name of that club is Ciao Ciao Disco, a club that felt hidden in plain sight. The night was still going to start as it should, by having a good time, of course. Hell, I might even have to go back to learn more.
I couldn’t tell you the name of the DJ playing that night, but you could bet my group was right by the DJ booth. It was then that I remembered that tonight would turn into International Women’s Day and felt such happiness in my heart. I’m glad that I was able to spend it on a “girls’ night out”. The disco was discoing as the night went on, and it was then that I started to observe the crowd around me. The sea that was “business casual” fashion was making its way into the nightlife scene once again (I guess we really are in a recession?). Where were the pashminas or funky sunglasses?! More importantly, where was the individuality?! The realization set in that just because I was at a “disco” did not mean that I was at a rave2. I signal to Nemasis and we eventually leave the other girls and make our way to Silo. Eating birria tacos as we wait on line to get in, I kept thinking how I had never seen Silo this packed before. Not to the point of a line outside with a wait time of around 15-20 minutes.
As soon as we get into the venue, we see that Ape Drums has just gotten onstage, not long before. While he may have been a “special guest”, I was the most excited to see him. Miami-based DJ Ape Drums has been a force in the scene, blending his Latin roots with his love for Caribbean beats. I first discovered his work maybe 10~ years ago through SoundCloud, during the prime of Major Lazer’s success with the track: “The way we do this” ft. both the aforementioned and Busy Signal. With him eventually becoming a member of Major Lazer itself, it reinvigorated my love of both his work and Caribbean-influenced EDM. After watching some of his interviews for this piece and finding out his first exposure to the scene was through the Martinez Brothers3 here in New York, it only made me appreciate his work more.
Needless to say, asses were SHAKING during his set and from what I understood in intereviews, that is his entire motive as an artist. Who doesn’t love someone who creates art for that purpose? It is times like these that I feel so lucky to be able to see Latin artists paving the way in the Electronic scene. The set felt no different from music that I would hear at a family party on my Boricua side, as I heard him sample classic Latin House records, Reggaeton, baile funk, and dancehall. For New York City standards, his type of music is PERFECT for this heavily Latin and Caribbean city. I could feel myself involuntarily dancing as the night went on, and understood that it was not just me dancing, but the inner ancestors as well (I see you).
After my annual smoke break near the end of Ape Drums’ set, Nemasis and I head inside and get back to our spot on the “normal” back stage. In a sold-out room, London-based trap artist Troyboi proceeds to get on stage to roaring applause. A pioneer in his own right, he is one of the artists who made Trap music the Hip-Hop success that it is today. I’m sure plenty of us remember coming across YouTube Pages in 2015 like TrapCity and recall a time they discovered his certified hood classic: “Do You?” (or maybe that was just me haha). Similar to Ape Drums, New York City is a perfect playground for him to test new material in the city that birthed Hip-Hop itself.
Fortunately, this was not my first time seeing T-R-O-Y-B-O-I4 . I had the pleasure of seeing him play mainstage at Lost Lands in 2024. Initially, I remember it feeling like a wild card set in the sea of heavy dubstep. But, it actually turned out to be one of my standouts of the weekend overall. Having that context, I was so pleasantly surprised with this current set as he included Bollywood samples alongside his laidback, vibey beats. Thinking back on my piece from last week, I couldn’t help but compare both experiences. These were 2 entirely different crowds, comparatively, but this time around it was not so obviously a “rave”. I can recall talking to a girl in line who told me that she had never been to this venue before. I’m curious if he and trap as a subgenre more broadly are considered “mainstream” for EDM now in 2025?
Troyboi is also what I like to categorize as an “artist that makes music for the girls”. This specific category consists of artists who create music that makes women feel their inner femininity and innate sensuality through dance. This set only solidified my belief as Nemasis and I began to dance on stage. I then spotted that there were primarily women lined up at the rail to dance in front of Troyboi. When working on this article, I came across a nice surprise. For once, I didn’t need to provide video proof of this phenomenon because the artist did it for me. See for yourself…do you feel that energy as well? You can even spot both me and Nemasis in the left-hand corner of the stage in some shots, dancing away. Let me know in the comments what you observed from his videos.
Hip Hop and EDM. Two roads diverged in a wood, filled with endless samples and the root of all, the all-powerful vinyl record. Dancing on stage with Nemasis and feeling the music made me think about the connection of these two genres, their synergy, and the influence it has on one another. As a student of classic hip-hop5, I went home that night, starting to re-evaluate my relationship to the musical genres that genuinely shaped me. Like many other ravers, electronic music is not something that you become fascinated by out of “thin air” as they say. Reflecting on my personal musical influences, it started to feel very obvious how hip-hop was part of the pipeline that led me to Electronic music, with a great example being Busta Rhymes sampling Daft Punk with “Touch It”.
It’s 3 am…around the normal time that I get home from a function. Of course, I’m wired and unable to sleep. Following my normal post-rave routine, I make myself a little cold cut sandwich and take to YouTube to decompress. It was then that I stumbled across something that inspired me to write not only about this but about raves in general. I was once a child of MTV and VH1, exploring new music at 5 am on my TV as I got ready for school. It felt almost full circle to stumble across the Top 100 Hip Hop Songs Series6 that night, a VH1 special series that felt influential to my musical education. Feeling the nostalgia, I had some observations that got me back to the page.
Thinking back to classic hip-hop, the DJ (Disc Jockey) was once a key member of a group alongside MCs (emcees). While the world of EDM grew to focus more on the technical skillset of producing and mixing, hip-hop turned the direction of focusing on the MC, more so the personality of the artist themselves. Nearing the end of the episode at Number 41, came one of my favorite tracks of all time: Planet Rock by Afrika Bambaataa7 and the Soul Sonic Force. I couldn’t even tell you how old I was when I first heard that song, but I later pieced together the connection between the two genres as a dubstep-loving teenager. The electronic influence was even more solidified as we learn that the group used a Kraftwerk sample for the song. It got me thinking, if electronic sound was once influential to hip-hop’s history, why are they continuously trying to distance themselves from it?
Cut to this past weekend, as I was preparing to go to a classic Detroit-style techno show8, I sat down with Maui (read more about him from my article last week). A NYC native himself, I found our pre-game to be the perfect time to have a conversation about hip-hop and EDM. Ironically, we both came to similar conclusions as to how this divide truly started. We both agree that hip-hop was founded on experimental and electronic principles, but as hyper-masculinity in urban communities dominated the ideologies of hip-hop, so did homophobia. There are plenty of rumors and stories I, along with Maui, have heard over the years of hip-hop trailblazers allegedly being on the DL9. As time went on and the chsime10 kept spreading; House/Techno music became more associated with queer culture, and “rapping” skyrocketed as the focus of hip-hop due to its graphic storytelling and heterosexual bravado. There is a lot to unpack with this theory, but I truly believe it deserves an article all its own.
Reflecting back on that night, I felt incredibly inspired. So much so that it kick-started my motivation to start writing more about my experiences at raves and dissecting rave culture overall. As we can see here, there is so much to discuss in the world of EDM, not just about the music itself but the culture surrounding it as well. Finding my niche as a writer felt pretty difficult to nail down before seeing Troyboi. And while it seems somewhat obvious now after these last few articles, I am grateful to have reached this point and have my writing grow slowly. This winter has been too long for my liking, but I am thankful to be part of the NYC rave community and thankful that I have the opportunity to explore such interesting worlds.
Note: She actually curated this name herself. Trust and believe, she is nowhere near my personal “Nemasis” hahah
Something I will explore in future pieces…
An ICONIC Puerto Rican duo that I had the honor of seeing at the annual NYC Puerto Rican Day in 2024.
Cue his famous robotic sample he uses as a track signature.
More specifically, NYC/East Coast hip-hop from the 1970s-1990s
At least the Top 100 up to 2008, when the original series aired
TW: While doing research for this project, I learned that while considered a key influential figure, he has also been accused of SA against children, and being the leader of a cult (aka the Zulu Nation). There is so much I uncovered that I might have to write about this in a future article.
More on this show next week ;)
DL = “down low”: A term used for men who present themselves to be heterosexual, only to be secretly homosexual.
Spanish for “gossip”. Trust me, there’s plenty of it when it comes to the old days of hip-hop, but that is an article for another time and another day.