A whole new wave: the rise of SoundCloud rap

(Originally written 12/25/2017)

2017 was a year of reckoning for the music community. Chuck Klosterman has always noted that there is a distinct point within each musical generation where rock and roll music is declared dead. Although rock music and rock and roll music are not synonymous (rock is to rectangle as rock and roll is to square) I will be picking up the mantle for my generation and declaring rock music dead in the year 2018. While the is obviously not true as subgenres of rock are alive and well, it is worth noting that 2017 was the first year that rap music surpassed rock in popularity since the advent of the Nielsen ratings. Free streaming was finally surpassed by paid streaming this year, meaning that streaming will only become more lucrative for artists going forward. Streaming has helped the explosion of rap’s popularity in recent years, although artists like Ed Sheeran still dominate the streaming charts, Ed being the first artist to have two songs surpass a BILLION streams on Spotify. Artists like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift might also be able to stake this claim if they were more embracing of streaming platforms. So why is rap winning the war when a rising tide (but not Tidal) seems to be lifting all beats?

2017 was a year of reckoning, yes, but it was also the year of SoundCloud rap. Although the popular free streaming site was rumored to have been operating on fumes earlier this year (Chance and Young Thug “saved” the streaming site by releasing their joint single Big B’s on SoundCloud) it is hard to see a world where SoundCloud doesn’t exist merely based on lack of interest. Like most tech capital ventures, the value of the company is extremely hard to derive, especially when the site or app operates free of charge and raises revenue only through advertising. SoundCloud Go+ is technically part of the site’s operation, a $10 a month streaming platform that boasts the same catalog as competitors Apple Music and Spotify. While Pandora, Spotify, and SoundCloud round out the top three most downloaded music apps in the US, Spotify and Apple Music pull away from the others immensely when considering users who are willing to pay for a monthly subscription.

While SoundCloud may not be competing with larger services in the subscription arena, there is no other service more amenable to DIY users who are looking for an easy way to upload and disseminate their art. SoundCloud encountered a meteoric rise during the EDM boom of the late aughts, offering a place where nascent producers and DJs could share music without fear of copyright crackdowns, especially in the form of mixes and DJ sets. Soon it gained popularity among the podcasting crowd due to the virtually free hosting cost, decent user statistics, and easy to use web player. Most recently, and most aggressively, it has become the breeding ground for a new generation of rappers, deemed “SoundCloud Rappers” (I’m suggesting “SoundClout” going forward). Most popular among these new faces are Lil Uzi Vert, Trippie Redd, Lil Pump, Smokepurpp, XXXTentacion, Ugly God, and Tay-K. While they are the peers of rappers like Lil Yachty, Rich the Kid, and Famous Dex, they are separated from them not in style but in funding and management. SoundCloud has created an environment where a rapper can go from nothing to everything based solely on the direct democratization of their music to the fans. It rings true and organic with those disillusioned by meritocracy, with dreams of a more egalitarian society moving forward. As more rappers like Lil Uzi Vert move from SoundCloud uploads to arena tours, the proof of the model will galvanize.

Perhaps the most popular song of the year, Uzi’s “XO Tour Lif3” was created almost by accident, with no corporate intervention, but proves the power of the platform as a conduit. After Lil Uzi Vert lost a hard drive containing most of his upcoming album while on tour with XO star The Weeknd, he dumped four loose tracks that remained from the album on his SoundCloud in a fit of frustration, one of them being XO Tour Lif3. The song immediately gained traction and shot to the top of the SoundCloud charts in 24 hours. It ended up being streamed over 150 million times this year, at five times the rate of the nearest competitor on SoundCloud. Naturally, the song was taken down a month later, remastered, and paired with a video as soon as the label saw its immense popularity. Across all platforms, XO Tour Lif3 has been streamed 1.3 billion, yes BILLION, times this year. It went 2x platinum and remained on the charts for the vast majority of this year. The beat for XO Tour Lif3, created by former member of 808 Mafia TM88, was almost lost as well. TM88 has stated he remade the beat after an older version failed to garner any takers. While quarantined in the Ft. Lauderdale airport during a tragic shooting, TM88 managed to recut and speed up the original beat using only on a Beats Pill and a laptop. He gave the beat to Uzi after he returned to Atlanta and Uzi did the rest.

While the whole process feels like a chance occurrence of events that should never have meshed together to result in a chart-topping classic, it makes sense. Soundcloud allows for artists to organically release music that may never be greenlighted by a label otherwise, and in an environment stripped of ego and money, true art can thrive. But all good stories have an aluminum lining, and despite its immense popularity XO Tour Lif3 only made the label $4.5 million, of which Uzi got to pocket a measly $900k. While streaming services like SoundCloud are integral in the dissemination of music, they provide almost no financial compensation to the artists themselves. The roughly $5 million grossed by the song was only a result of the label’s repackaging of the original and distribution to subscription streaming services. In an era of corporate strangleholds, SoundCloud offers an alternative to major streaming services, but ultimately when it comes to getting an artist paid for their work, no one is willing to fork over the deserved compensation although many are willing to reap the benefits.