When people talk about SoundCloud rap now maybe they’re talking about 6ix9ine. Even if they didn’t directly interact, they were all part of the same scene. “They were friends with each other, they followed each other. “I look at it as more the community,” says Gengo, who also founded Masked Records. Not every artist who uploaded to the platform fit into the public’s idea of the bright-haired, Margiela-clad, drug-fueled SoundCloud rapper. “You could be creative and do what you want, and I don’t think that’s just rap but SoundCloud, period.”įor others involved in the scene like Roger Gengo-who runs the blog Masked Gorilla, which began covering the genre in its infancy-the emphasis was on camaraderie and interconnectedness more than any stylistic similarities. A straightforward definition of SoundCloud rap? I don’t know,” TYO says. “It’s just a gateway to get informed about the music. Those factors naturally lead to a wide variety of styles. For someone like MadeinTYO, the beauty of the streaming site is that it fosters experimentation and allows for easy discovery through its search and social features. These artists trashed tour buses one night, and the next were up late bawling over an ex.Īnd the figures who were part of the movement are hesitant to try to present a unified idea of the SoundCloud … sound. The most commercially successful of the scene-XXXTentacion, Juice WRLD, even Lil Uzi Vert depending on who you ask-could move assuredly through both the worlds of raging hardcore and wounded emo. Every raucous MC who fell under the umbrella (Lil Pump, 6ix9ine, even Rico Nasty) had a moodier foil (Lil Peep, Wifisfuneral, 6 Dogs), and there were plenty of flat-out great lyricists (Denzel Curry, Ski Mask the Slump God, Robb Bank$). But mumble rap is just one head of the SoundCloud Hydra. (Some of the stodgy attempts to diss it were worse than anything the genre actually produced). Detractors use the term interchangeably with the phrase “mumble rap,” a derisive way of criticizing the materialistic lyrical content and the looser cadences that some of these young artists employed. And those who got it-the young and disgruntled who had little interest in mainstream music-felt seen and spoken to in the same way 2000s teens did by Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco, and Paramore.īut despite all the hallmarks that tie these artists together, there isn’t a consensus definition of what “SoundCloud rap” is. Once the genre hit, unmastered two-minute tracks bearing titles like “Fuck Boy Blood Bath,” “BUY GARETTE’S CLOTHING OR I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU,” and “red drop shawty” suddenly became the coolest music online. SoundCloud also felt different musically-unmistakably hip-hop, but more moody and nihilistic, rowdier and more unpolished. There’s a certain Memphis sound, a certain Louisiana sound.” “There’s not a certain sound, but there’s obviously a certain Atlanta sound. “I can’t say it’s certain sound, because I’ve heard so many different rappers do different things on SoundCloud,” says MadeinTYO, a multi-platinum rapper whose 2016 single “Uber Everywhere” was one of the era’s biggest hits. Instead, SoundCloud rap belonged to the internet. And perhaps most interestingly, it didn’t belong to one region-there were hubs in places as varied as South Florida, New Orleans, and Los Angeles. It’s music that became synonymous with the streaming platform it originated from, ushering in an era of face tattoos, dyed hair, and a rock star lifestyle. This description, put forth by XXXTentacion about his own music on the 2018 album ? doubles as a succinct explanation of SoundCloud rap, the movement of maverick artists that roughly begins with some Three 6 Mafia–inspired occult rap from Florida and later broke through the mainstream on the backs of artists like XXX and Juice WRLD. It’s very comforting, but discomforting at the same time.” Check HBO’s listings or HBO Max to watch the documentary. To mark the occasion, we’ve ranked the top 100 rap songs of the 2010s and are looking back at a few of the movements that defined the genre in the decade, including the SoundCloud rap scene that birthed Juice as an artist. Editor’s note: On Thursday, Ringer Films will debut Juice WRLD: Into the Abyss, its sixth and final installment of the first volume of the Music Box series.
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