SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website based in Berlin, Germany that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio and music. What is mostly featured or well-known on SoundCloud is the rap music, produced by SoundCloud rappers.  

SoundCloud rappers are often perceived as clout chasing and not serious about their art. That can be the case, but the majority of them are using the platform to express their emotions or creativity.

“The platform is so accessible to everyone,” Laila Cook, a senior at the Pulaski County School in Louisville, said. “The app is free and a lot of people use the app for songs they can’t find on iTunes or Spotify. It’s more welcoming to newer music than other platforms that are more selective.”

The term “SoundCloud rapper” has had a negative connotation for a while due to them being perceived as clout chasers, and I think we should stop using it. Rappers today such as 21 Savage, Cardi B, Blocboy JB, 6ix9ine, and A Boogie wit da Hoodie, all came from SoundCloud. SoundCloud rappers aren’t the minority anymore, they’re artists. It’s that simple. They should be recognized as your regular rapper, and not placed in a special group.

There are a lot of young rappers with popular songs who are associated with SoundCloud rap, and even though other people degrade their music, by calling their songs “mumble rap,” these artists have found clear, young audiences in the age of streaming music. Chinmay Amin, a junior at Hinsdale Central in Chicago, said, “I listen to SoundCloud because it’s free and has a pretty good amount of music. It’s also a great place to find up and coming rappers. It’s just a place where they can expose large numbers of people to their music since they have less competition from mainstream artists.”

Lil Pump is a prime example of how impactful SoundCloud rap has become. His song “Gucci Gang,” was released on SoundCloud, and ten weeks into its release hit #3 on the Hot 100 list in 2017. Soon the song was one of the season’s biggest hits on Spotify, averaging between eight and ten million weekly streams in the U.S. that year. This song is still jamming today as well.

SoundCloud had an average of over 320 million visitors per month in 2018, and more and more of these young rappers are showcasing their music on SoundCloud to promote their music. Zain Jansen, a senior at Lab school in Chicago, and SoundCloud song producer said, “SoundCloud is a good platform for amateur creators to reach a fan base of some kind, regardless of size.”

While SoundCloud rap is not an entirely new concept, the chart success of artists such as Lil Pump, Lil Uzi Vert, and Lil Yachty, and many others, has proven that you don’t always need the big music streaming companies such as Spotify, Tidal, or Apple Music.

Young SoundCloud rappers who have already built out a base and released successful music on their own do not want to deal with all the extra noise of album release parties, excessive publicity, forced collaborations, or producing a full music album. When they partner with a label, they are looking for something different that other artists are not looking for. They are looking for a label who will allow them to release their music when they want to, release singles or a couple of songs, as opposed to albums, and they want to decide how they release their music.

Spotify playlists have largely replaced musical genres with moods. Audrey Corrigan, a junior at (blank) said about finding new music, “I like finding new music when I use it (SoundCloud) often from artists I already listen to. I am a little bit opposed to SoundCloud rappers who have made it big because I think the platform has been praised too much and musical talent is overlooked for entertaining storylines.”

Artists on SoundCloud can categorize their uploads however they want. Fellow Parker junior,Alex Nikolaev, who posts music on SoundCloud, loves it because: “I’ve been creating music all my life and throughout the years I’ve just been experimenting and developing my skills in an effort to have the ability to create any form of media that comes into my mind and transform the idea to an auditory/visual form. SoundCloud is the easiest platform to post music onto.”

At the same time, this new method of musical discovery and the new paths to widespread fame for young artists feels like it’s happening in some sort of parallel universe from how the typical music consumer over around 25 years old, has found new music throughout their lifetime.

Amir Perry, a SoundCloud rapper, commented, “I use SoundCloud to stream my music as well. I think that it’s a good tool for up and coming artists to use to stream their music if you may not have the funds to pay to get your music on other apps that cost money. Music is a form of art. There is no right or wrong way to go about doing it in my opinion. It’s going to be judged, some will like it, and others won’t, and if they don’t like it, it’s just wasn’t meant to touch them.”

Money is not a factor in the reputation of SoundCloud rappers. SoundCloud rappers are turning to distribution deals, and while this used to be the territory of older artists who already completed the multi-album requirements of a major label deal and just want the flexibility of releasing singles, the new generation, who prefer to release music on their own terms and not have record labels oversee everything, they can hand in a finished song to SoundCloud and spread their music to the world. They are not like regular rappers who want big-time deals with big record labels, they prefer deals that don’t deal with all the hype that these labels bring.

So, where will the next big rapper come from?  “Well”, said Ben Kinnear, a junior at Hotchkiss Boarding School in Connecticut, “SoundCloud is where we will find the next best thing. The next best rapper will most definitely be discovered on SoundCloud. The next best thing will be manifested by the culture. And who says it won’t come from SoundCloud?”