The Exact Moment SoundCloud Rap Died (12/08/2019 at 3:15 am)

when you think of the term soundcloud rapper who comes to mind juice world xxxtentacion luzy vert playboy cardi trippy red maybe lil yachty you probably think of face tattoos colored hair maybe you think of it negatively like being a soundcloud rapper is a bad thing chances are you think of soundcloud rap as something nostalgic something that once was with a slow and steady rise to popularity peaking in 2016 and 2017 soundcloud rappers had their distorted bass and auto-tuned melodies permeating throughout the years of listeners all over the internet misconceptions about soundcloud rap have existed since the beginning soundcloud purists would argue that the ones who were the most popular in 2016 were actually just taking advantage of the work put in by the rappers before them but in 2022 soundcloud rap's grip on hip-hop culture has had a sad decline making it about as relevant as it was in 2011 soundcloud rappers were not exactly accepted with open arms by hip-hop in the beginning in the early 2010s it was clear that trap music and melodic rap were taking over and the older generation could not accept it this inspired a generation of young artists to create underproduced bass heavy and melodic hip hop and post it on a free to use music distribution website most of these artists focus on making feel good music and we're not trying to create poetic masterpieces they were just having fun and the fans could feel it in the music which is what made it so special it was around 2016 when soundcloud artists started to dominate the mainstream music from the likes of lil uzi lil yachty kodak black and 21 savage pique the interest of mainstream listeners and although these are considered some of the legends of soundcloud they wouldn't exist without those who laid the foundation before them make sure you're drinking water while watching this video i know you're thinking to yourself man that hoodie looks comfortable i just released my first collection of clothing through my brand comfort i wanted to create a brand that prioritizes quality comfortable clothing at a reasonable price simple graphics or no graphics at all because that's my style and also pushing a lot of positivity and good energy without being totally corny all the products are cut and so custom and not just purchased from some wholesaler and i guarantee you this sherpa will be the warmest and softest hoodie you own and if you're watching this video months or weeks in the future check out the website see what our most recent drop is raider clan an internet collective commonly associated with starting the soundcloud rap wave but we can't talk about raider clan without talking about odd future yes collectives and groups have been around in the hip hop since the 80s but odd future was truly ahead of its time in terms of influence led by tyler the creator the collective started with six of his friends in los angeles california they loved three things music clothing and the internet you could throw skateboarding in there too which ended up being the three most important things to soundcloud rap over the years the group kept getting bigger and bigger there are so many members it's almost impossible to keep up with similar to the wu-tang clan and raider clan which we will get to odd future started with an anti-industry attitude signing a record deal and being on popular radio and mtv was not the agenda they were pushing in 2009 tyler would take shots at pop culture kind of like eminem did a decade earlier obviously they would go on to achieve massive mainstream success tv shows grammys billboard they created a different lane that nobody had really capitalized on before but initially they were just a bunch of la kids who use the internet to post their early creations to the world raider clan whether they admit it or not kind of came second to of odd future had a much more colorful bright and fun image raider clan maintained a much more gritty underground and definitely anti-pop culture attitude stylistically aesthetically and musically they were nothing like odd future actually they were kind of the opposite of odd future they were just similar in the way of being an internet collective space ghost perp founded the raider clan in carroll city miami 2008 taking inspiration from the dark and ominous soundscapes of the early 90s group 36 mafia don't be confused by the palm trees and sunny skies it was dark growing up in murder gardens so sgp used the music as therapy blackland radio 66.6 became an iconic project that inspired a new generation of talent sgp started getting love from creatives all over the country sid from odd future would even play his songs at their shows which introduced the la scene to him he caught the likes of the asap mob in new york perp famously flew up to new york and performed a candlelit seance inducting asapm's and asap rocky into raider clan raiderclan was recruiting musical members all over the states becoming a collective that was more of a cultural identity than it was an organized group of musicians asap took a lot of creative influence from sgp they went with a much darker sound using the mythological lettering like the raider clan did using chopped and screwed beats deep pitched down vocals wearing golds in their mouth and embracing southern swag being from new york this was a wildly different approach since most new york rappers were inspired by nas biggie 50 cent mf doom and others the raider clan and asap mob bond lasted what seemed to be five minutes a fallout happened there are a few different stories some say there was a fight some say space ghost punched an asap camera guy either way it was something small that probably could have been worked out very easily but sgp would go on to claim that asap rocky got his whole style and swag from him in raider clan even playboy cardi was taking sides with raider clan that didn't age well space ghost perp was a bit volatile he had a falling out with just about everyone he ever came in contact with he was known for being extremely bipolar in true underground fashion he claims that he was the first to do everything and everyone bit his style yes he was definitely influential and i do agree paying homage to those who came before you is very important but trying to gatekeep and take credit for someone else's entire career just because you did something similar before them is lazy and whack the fallout with asap was terrible for the raider clan the two groups had potential to be the biggest in the industry but sgp's unpredictable nature and beefs ended up shortening the legacy of the group and we know asap's legacy just got bigger and bigger but asap's influence and really everyone else that i'm about to talk about in this whole video didn't just come from raider clan it came from someone else i must mention lil b lilby's like a martian track in 2009 sounds like what soundcloud rap became in 2017 but at the time the internet clowned him no i ain't no [ __ ] the crunk era of the mid-2000s led to the swag era spearheaded by soulja boy and lil b lilby's music was very punk in the way that he followed no rules of flowing rhyming or song structure he prioritized ad-libs and made them louder in the mix then rappers all throughout the 2010s made careers off iconic ad-libs he started the mentality of i'm just having fun making music i'm not trying to be lyrical i'm not trying to impress anyone he rapped about sleeping with your girl being pretty and having tons of swag those were his priorities this became the blueprint mentality for a lot of internet rappers for the next decade but there was another side to little b a lot of people thought he was just a joke but he took himself very seriously and because people hated him so much he developed a cult-like fan base of people who loved him so much he pushed a lot of positive messages be yourself be confident take care of the earth usually when he got into his deeper more meaningful lyrics it was complemented with an ethereal dreamlike beat this was the beginnings of cloud rap [Music] i was breaking down the system nobody could tell me that cloud rap is a spacey hazy and almost nostalgic sound that rap was missing at the time claims casino was also one of the iconic producers that linked up with little b to help create this sound soundcloud rap would end up being this blend of the cloud wrap ethereal sound and the dark gritty 3 6 mafia influence sound and sprinkle in some emo in there too i also feel like i have to mention this at this point around 2010 and 2011 these guys weren't only on soundcloud in fact it wasn't really that popular yet they used basically any streaming service that was out there to get their music heard dapif being one of the most popular and eventually soundcloud and youtube would become their main platforms but the culture and the essence of soundcloud rap and internet rap is what they were composing at the time sixteen-year-old denzel curry was one of the first artists to be welcomed into the raider clan in 2011 after his debut mixtape king remembered underground tape 1991-1995 denzel is one of the true soundcloud ogs that deserves more respect although his music was dark aggressive and at times depressing he was a very positive and welcoming individual he wasn't afraid to show love to the people who were doing dope [ __ ] he started with raider clan stayed cool with the sesh hollow water boys showed love to ghost mane and thrax house and the emo rap scene embraced x ski mask and members only way before any of them were even popular from 2011 to 2018 he embraced all the newcomers in the soundcloud scene while still having a very successful career himself and obviously now he's pretty mainstream in my opinion he is the purest form of a soundcloud rapper raider clan didn't last very long due to the bipolar nature of space ghost perp but at that point they had already inspired a new generation of artists that were about to take over the underground from 2012 to 2015 we saw the emergence of soundcloud artists that don't nearly get as much credit as they deserve you had bones and sesh hollow water boys chris travis xavier wolf metro zoo young simi black cray and goth money jk the reaper jay green rob banks young lean and the sad boys wick of phase and goth boy click little tracy lil peep suicide boys puya wifi's funeral thousand bam fawnie and so many more there are truthfully way too many influential artists to name so no matter what like somebody's gonna be mad in the comments because i didn't name somebody specific but these are the real soundcloud rappers these guys were traveling the country doing shows making music together and building real fan bases all from posting music on this website and without the music industry really knowing about it the only marketing they did was on twitter youtube and tumblr it was almost like this secret club that only people who spent hours on the internet knew about xavier wolfe was actually one of the first artists to get paid from soundcloud since his following was so strong there they reached out to him and personally invited him to be in the first paid partner program the music was still underproduced distorted and not really ready for mainstream listeners these were all kids in their rooms on fl studio and usb microphones not in fancy studios but their intentions were always to be different to be anti-mainstream to create a unique identity blowing up was never their concern just create a sound that people resonate with and hopefully make a living doing it it started as just people who were fans of bones or fans of denzel curry or fans of sesh hollow water boys and now there are fans of the underground fans of soundcloud rappers people looking to discover more artists on this site the early artists laid the blueprint for the next artist to follow no industry push they weren't secretly signed to a major label and cosplaying as a soundcloud rapper they are the real deal before it was a trend before it was mainstream 2015 and 2016 was a turning point for soundcloud most people consider this the golden age the interest in soundcloud was at an all-time high because of the artists that we're about to mention these artists get most of the credit for soundcloud rap because the music released in these two years would go on to be the most popular records to come from the site white iverson by post malone a soundcloud song that would eventually peak at number 14 on the billboard hot 100. no flocking by kodak black lil uzi verts love his rage album denzel curry's ultimate fetty and what by playboy carty uber everywhere by made in tokyo paris by suicide boys you also had the beginning of the underground's most popular media outlet no jumper at this point there wasn't one solidified go-to place to learn about this music scene sure there were tons of blogs but something about the youtube irl interviews makes things so real you get to see the artists and really get a vibe for them bmx and soundcloud were intertwined a lot of popular bmx writers would use bones and team sesh music in their videos in 2015 atom22 had a following of a few hundred thousand from his own bmx videos he used that following to introduce the bmx community to the world of underground rap not knowing how popular it would get interviewing just about anyone who had a following on soundcloud no jumper satisfied the right niche at the perfect time increasing the interest in the underground music scene as a whole very rapidly 2016 you had one night by lil yachty sipping tea in your hood young bratz basically all of x's songs blew up along with ski mask and members only lil peep with star shopping and the hellboy tape 21 savage with red ops and the savage mode tape he also had lil pump and smoke perp getting popular on their first few releases trippy red with love scars and his first creations the amount of music dropped on soundcloud in these two years that is now considered legendary is incredible a lot of these 2015 and 2016 artists i just mentioned were getting mainstream attention within just two years of making music there was such a huge influx of new fans of x ski peep that they never really cared to look back on how these guys got to this level how this soundcloud platform really started and how the artist before them paved the way i'm not trying to say they don't deserve success or the soundcloud legends status but from an elitist standpoint the new guys didn't grind on the platform the same way the artist from 2012 did the platform was established already the community was built plus a lot of the soundcloud ogs at this point embraced new artists and tried to help them grow denzel curry had a house where he let artists like x ronnie j and 10 others live with him we had this thing called the ult house and not just x lived there ronnie j lives there with me 12vlan jk the reaper so they could make music 24 7 and be immersed in this world just because he wanted to show love on the other hand you could also argue that the first generation artist didn't make anything that the mainstream wanted maybe the new generation was just making better more marketable music maybe you think they don't owe the soundcloud ogs anything regardless the music was very good and their intentions were still pure most of the 2015 to 2016 era of soundcloud still held the same values as most of the og's creating a unique sound showing love to other people and prioritizing the fans some of the craziest shows were happening around this time too small venues packed to the gills and the fans know every word to the songs but the rise in popularity of these new generation soundcloud artists led to the iconic 2016 double xl freshman cipher but those that don't know the double xl freshman list is a major hip-hop news outlet giving a small group of about six to ten artists a cosign basically stating that they represent the future of mainstream rap they are supposed to be the cutting edge talent that will be household names within the next year or so and boy was this cipher iconic traditionally the cipher was to rap for the world and to show them your best to prove that you deserve the audience's attention but with a terrible beat and six artists that do not give a single [ __ ] about the platform you had all of them bopping around dancing laughing and just having a good time the hip hop elitists hated this how could they disrespect or disregard such a high honor of being a freshman but the kids loved it they loved the i don't give a [ __ ] attitude and it started a storm the gatekeepers or old heads didn't understand why kids liked the music so much they were still trying to dictate what popular hip-hop should be mumble rap a term that also became synonymous with soundcloud rap it was always a terrible name for this style and unfortunately kind of became a real genre name the internet started this term but it was first said in 2014 by michael hughes of vlad tv emergence of mumble rapping and it's been going on for a couple years then in 2016 it was popularized by wiz khalifa artists so we're just rock stars we call it mumble rap oh so y'all got a name for it yeah me and my homies it was very harmless coming from wiz but the cranky old hip hop fans would use this word to devalue the music coming from all new rappers now listen that's called [ __ ] bars [ __ ] i'm a mumble rapper lil yachty you don't want nothing to maybe these artists didn't care as much about having crazy bars or intricate lyrics but they weren't always mumbling god i always hated that term by 2017 soundcloud rap had already peaked and many of the artists are mainstream kodak 21 x lil yachty uzi playboy cardi and many others are now signed with major labels there was still great soundcloud music being put out in 2017. don't get me wrong but at this point it's hard to consider them soundcloud rappers when they are doing their releases through major labels plus soundcloud is getting absolutely flooded with nonsense every teenager that has a laptop and a usb microphone were trying to recreate low pumps music because they thought if he can say gucci gang in the mic a million times then i can too labels were paying attention to anyone who had one semi-viral song on there and try to capitalize on the movement there were still a few artists that were gems in there though it was in 2017 where the early works of juice world little skies and snot were starting to get recognition who in my opinion were on the tail end of the soundcloud era it was also in 2017 where we saw the rise of lyrical lemonade cole bennett was providing cutting-edge visuals to his favorite soundcloud rapper's music now soundcloud rap was taking over youtube lil pump lil xan ski mask trippy red lil skies music videos were going viral on youtube cole bennett was providing better and more interesting visuals than most music industry professionals and he was doing it for non-mainstream artists i personally believe cole's visuals helped people maintain interest in the soundcloud scene for the next few years while i was dying out at one point a cole bennett video could make you a career [ __ ] it might still even be like that image and fashion became synonymous with soundcloud rappers instagram was growing at an incredible rate and was transforming into a place where people just post pictures of themselves instead of well other stuff instagram became the new popular way for artists to connect directly with their fans and it is still today probably the number one social media for artists but it was also becoming the number one app for your sister and the popular kids at school to post selfies and gain followers so artists having a high engagement and interest allowed them to reach a more mainstream fanbase again without a major label image has always been a part of being an artist but now instagram likes comments and overall engagement was becoming a way for us to judge how popular or relevant an artist was without even hearing their music this led to artists growing fan bases on instagram who had the image down but not the musical talent to back it up hair was getting more colorful face tats were getting more ridiculous and it was almost like whoever looked the craziest got the most attention which was over saturating the market and making it hard for real talent to shine through and making it harder for the mainstream to take it seriously soundcloud rap always kind of had a negative connotation amongst mainstream media and even from youtubers and other video creators they were an easy punching bag [ __ ] i even did it i think the old heads really did a good job pushing their hate agenda because if you look up soundcloud rapper most of the results will be negative or satirical there was a time where simply drawing on your face with a sharpie and yelling simple ad-libs into a camera was a viral video how to be a soundcloud rapper was probably the most recreated video of 2017-2018 people who are negative towards soundcloud rappers were definitely overreacting we got a ton of awesome melodic rap artists out of that era however lil pump lil xan 69 icy narco kid buu skinny from the nine i mean yeah a lot of bad or mediocre artists got popular but to even put them in the same category is disrespectful that's like me saying vanilla ice marky mark and silk the shocker are what represent 90s rap the deaths of multiple popular soundcloud rappers did not help the wave either lil peep was one of the earlier artists to see massive success from the site but his death came just before he got mainstream attention he was one of the first artists that i had ever seen go super viral because of their death his fame 10xed overnight just seven months later xxxtentacion passed away x was much more famous than peep when he passed his death being gunned down in his hometown shocked the world he got even more famous because of it at that point he easily was the poster child for soundcloud rap he represented what soundcloud was but still took it to mainstream heights he was an internet based punk who had a raw in your face attitude with a soft side as well he had the look he had the drive he was super talented and creative and he connected with his fans the right way through the internet and he made sure that they knew that they weren't just a dollar sign he was positive and showed love to almost anyone his single sad hit number one on the billboard hot 100 the week after he died making him the first rapper to do this since the notorious big in 1997. he was the ninth person to go number one posthumously ever and he was the third most stream artist of 2018. the two future superstars dying prematurely started the decline of soundcloud rap in the mainstream deuce world is the most famous artist to come from soundcloud he kind of was the last hope for the scene x was the poster child and when he passed you had literally every kid in the world finding out about who he was and where he came from juice had already been generating some steam though one month before x passed lucid dreams by juice had debuted number two on the billboard hot 100. the night x died juice was in the studio he made a song called legends dedicated to the legacy of lil peep and x he posted it the next day on soundcloud this song debuted at number 65 on the billboard hot 100. i know it was genuine but he essentially gained a ton of new fans by making a song about the artists who just passed away juice and x were friends and now all of the music fans were grieving x's death with juice via his song legends his music was almost like healing power for the fans who loved x fans romanticized the idea of juice being passed down the soundcloud torch from x and he continued to build his own legacy he made a wildly successful career for himself for the next year and a half deuce world took emo rap to the mainstream his hooks were infectious and lyrics were very simple and relatable in 2018 i was more tapped into soundcloud than i ever had been and trust me when i say everyone was trying to copy juice world sound look how popular the search juice world type b got as soon as he hit billboard in 2018 soundcloud rap was still being clowned on by the old heads being a soundcloud rapper was an insult for no good reason gimmicky type artist careers were going south and emo rap wasn't the most refreshing or exciting genre in terms of the gatekeepers the industry made it worse by trying to push these artists through their multi-million dollar empires while disguising them as soundcloud rappers most of soundcloud became a place where young artists were trying to capitalize on an opportunity trying to become famous rather than contributing to the culture it was once a place to cultivate a community collaborate and innovate against the industry standard to go against the grain and build independence by 2018 and morphed into a place where artists were posting their best replicated versions of popular songs and attempts to go viral and obviously there are outliers there are always going to be people creating a wave and doing something innovative on there i spent a large part of my early career sifting through the weeds trying to find dope songs and dope artists and i found a lot of them a lot of great artists that are still my friends to this day but throughout 2019 and beyond it became significantly harder to find a diamond in the rough plus soundcloud as a company failed to capitalize on their wave the biggest reason is because they were fighting to try to become a profitable company since 2011. it was a free platform they introduced a premium service for artists so they could upload much more audio that didn't really help much they had loads of copyright issues when major labels stepped in songs were getting removed for no good reason popular accounts were getting banned and artists were getting copyright strikes on their pages then they introduced a very complicated paywall system soundcloud go with six different tiers that were difficult to understand they had half the amount of major mainstream releases than spotify so you couldn't listen to artists like rihanna katy perry and the beatles a lot of those artists are on soundcloud now but by the time they had figured that out with major labels it was past its peak but the ultimate thing above all else is that soundcloud was always looked at as a stepping stone the beginning of a career something to move on from not where careers prosper and what the masses perceive is reality december 8th 2019 at 3 15 am the world lost a generational artist 21 year old jared higgins aka juice world sadly passed away via overdose while getting off his private plane at oaklawn airport just outside of chicago and with his death i believe that soundcloud rap as a whole passed away with him now three iconic soundcloud artists lost their lives too soon peep was just on the cusp of fame when he passed x was about to hit his peak fame when he passed and juice world was peaking in his fame when he passed there was nobody to pass the torch to this time i mean from 2019 you definitely had artists pop out from soundcloud lil techa ian dior snot lil mosey but soundcloud at this point lost all of its community aspect kids were going on there and trying to get famous trying to get signed people weren't collaborating much there wasn't much of a community anymore it almost got too big tick-tock was emerging in popularity after little nausea showed the world how to get a number one song on the app now artists were heading over there looking for an opportunity from 2020 until today soundcloud is still looked at as a place to start a career speaking just from the rap side only the community aspect is pretty much gone i can't speak for other genres and other communities but not many underground shows with tons of emerging talent not many collectives or groups creating waves just a lot of individuals uploading their creations it's not totally dead though there are still millions of active users and tons of very talented artists on there but the pop culture relevance of soundcloud rap has dwindled to an all-time low you have artists like sofigo ssg kobe yeet cancan summers autumn baby santana young chris dc the dawn midwest and others that are still killing it on soundcloud but we can contribute a lot of their success to their songs going viral on tick tock most soundcloud rappers today are getting popping on tiktok first remember when being a soundcloud rapper was considered a derogatory term and really they were just artists using a free online service to grow a fan base well a lot of artists in 2020 and 2021 use tiktok as a free online service to grow a fan base but when they blow up the gatekeepers of the underground called them tick-tock rappers devaluing their music because it got really popular on the app so we see the cycle is about to repeat creating this curse that artists have to face when they have a viral song on the app ultimately soundcloud rap changed rap music history the only way we'll get anything like that again is if a group of really really talented artists come together and build something genuine not for clout not for money just for the art and for the fans but knowing how the internet works and how many more people are trying to become rappers once people find out about a new way that artists are getting attention it gets flooded and oversaturated so quickly that nobody else can benefit from it

Channel: Patrick Cc:

Views: 1,850,463

Keywords: patrickcc, patrickcctv, patrick cc, patrick Cc:, soundcloud rap, soundcloud rap over, soundcloud rap end, the end of soundcloud era, soundcloud rap era, soundcloud rapper, soundcloud rap death, downfall of soundcloud rap, soundcloud rap 2022, soundcloud documentary, soundcloud rap documentary, king of soundcloud, biggest soundcloud rapper, juice wrld x peep, why did soundcloud rap end, what happened to soundcloud rap, history of soundcloud rap, rise and fall of soundcloud rap

Id: bmHWmsTmSCw

Length: 25min 10sec (1510 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 28 2022