When P Diddy started going to Ibiza and hanging out with Dutch trance DJ Armin van Buuren a few years ago, some people thought he was crazy. It turns out he definitely is crazy, although he was right about one thing - the trance/hip-hop connection has since taken off in the US.

Over the last year or so, a number of trance-influenced rap songs have surfaced via labels like Alabama's Paper Route Recordz and Slow Motion Soundz. Early standouts included Lookin' Good by Amp G, Bama Gettin' Money by Hood Headlinaz and the amazing Robert Miles-sampling Rollin by Jackie Chan feat. Jhi Ali (below).

The arpeggiated trance-rap of Wes Fif and B.O.B's Haterz became a cult hit and later B.O.B made a video for the song with rapper Rich Boy. Following this, Pittsburgh-based rapper Wiz Khalifa obviously decided things weren't cheesy enough so sampled Alice Deejay's pop trance chart hit Better Off Alone for his single Say Yeah. And then when it looked like things couldn't get any more ridiculous along came Princess, of Atlanta outfit Crime Mob, with her Eurotrance-sampling tween-friendly club track Pretty Rave Girl.

So why on earth are these rappers so keen on these really euphoric, uplifting hip-hop tracks? I'm blaming ecstasy. According to Atlanta rapper Lil Jon, for years ecstasy has been seeping into the Southern hip-hop scene through strip clubs. The club owners would give pills to their dancers to keep them dancing all night and then eventually the guys going to the clubs started taking them too. There's even a dance called the Bean Pop where girls mimic putting pills in their mouth. It seems as if the music became more euphoric to match the mood of the people in the clubs. After all, nobody wants to listen to DJ Screw when their brain is ready to jump out of their mouth so it can breakdance on the floor.

Trance-influenced hip-hop (trance-hop, if you will) has also infiltrated the mainstream. Timbaland's The Way I Are and Usher's Love in This Club both had riffs which wouldn't sound out of place in an Armin van Buuren set.

Everything seems to have gone quiet on the trance-hop front for the last few months though. Is the fad coming to an end? It may be, unless P Diddy gets any ideas about starting a Dutch Danity Kane-esque trance-rap supergroup going. He's certainly crazy enough to think it might work.