23 Soundcloud Rappers That Changed The Game

Bbymutha is easily the most skilled lyricist of the Soundcloud rap generation: simultaneously offering moments of authentic heartache alongside astounding expressions of braggadociousness and not-so-subtle feminism, this Tennessee-based rapper has become a favorite amongst alt-queers and rap diehards. The dreamy, post-vaporwave production of her beats are wholly original amongst a landscape of copycat artists who chop and screw video game samples or lazily rap over nu-metal guitar riffs. With a uniquely laidback flow, an impeccable sense of rhythm and meter, and absurdly clever wordplay, Bbymutha’s outlandish and anime-influenced aesthetics have allowed her to become an underground icon. She’s by far the most talented person on this list and has the potential to revolutionize the entire rap world.

Although his studio-produced albums have been somewhat disappointing compared to the experimental treats of his earlier work, Yachty was a pioneer of what came to define Soundcloud rap as a musical genre: distorted bass, video-game inspired instrumentation (or sometimes direct sampling), and a total favoring of a “mood,” “vibe,” or “feeling” over lyricism. Yachty’s penchant for 90’s nostalgia — an era he was likely too young to even remember — sparked early virality, even though a lot of his first tracks sounded like an autotuned whale lost in a sea of synthesizers. Just don’t ask him to freestyle.

Although Rico was hardly the first of the Soundcloud rappers to introduce screaming, punk vocalizations, and heavy metal riffs to trap music, she’s certainly the artist that perfected this hybridization. Rejecting the patriarchy through sassy one-liners and shrieking her extreme frustrations with fuckboys while also bragging about the size of her blunts, Miss Nasty is perhaps the ultimate Soundcloud rap success story and is more and more poised for mainstream success by the minute. It would be easy to dismiss her as a one-trick pony — if she didn’t also have an impeccable ear for ear wormy harmonies and melodies in the quieter moments of her tracks.

Before she was produced by Dr. Luke, Doja Cat’s deceptively adorable voice was spitting rhymes on top of Gamecube sounds. Her early tracks, which garnered popularity on SC, were far less pop-y — but she still managed to go viral several times out of sheer absurdity. It was obvious from early on that she had talent despite often going for silly instead of serious. Although a lot of even her pre-record label music doesn’t exactly fit with the genre conventions of Soundcloud rap, songs like the still-hilarious “Mooo!” are modeled after the lo-fi hip hop sound that invaded the movement towards its tail end. 

Lil Uzi Vert is best known for bringing angst-riddled, emo lyricism to more traditional trap music — and he’s astoundingly good at blending the two aesthetics. The sort of fatalistic, goth sensibilities of even his most mainstream works are often unfairly dismissed by insiders of the gloomy subculture, but few young rappers have been emotionally brave enough to sing about the pain of grief, the sorrow of mourning, and the inevitability of suicidal thoughts under certain conditions.

Speak! stunned rap fans with his insanely insightful and caustic political commentary in the form of his viral freestyles that addressed issues like mass deportations and a growing white supremacist strain in American culture. It was sort of surprising to see him flex so hard after he had garnered fame for the viral and intentionally stupid Kreayshawn track “Gucci Gucci,” on which he was a co-producer. He would go on to collaborate with Odd Future members in 2011. His solo albums are emotionally and lyrically complex, a far cry from the denigrated reputation most Soundcloud rap has garnered.

Although he was widely mocked at the time (little did anyone know what would happen later), Lil Peep was way ahead of the game with his early trap, grunge, and emo-influenced tracks that openly discussed deep sadness and addiction with total forlornness — not celebration. His angelic looks obviously disguised a deeply troubled person, but his influence on rap (and rock!) is undeniably felt in almost every Soundcloud artist who came after him — whether they admit it or not.

Although he became much better known for his slickly produced and glamorously gothic collaborations with rap legend Metro Boomin, 21 had risen amongst the ranks as a Soundcloud star before being inducted into the XXL Freshman Class in 2016. His uniquely lazy flow and unwavering apathy became his signature style. His penchant for more minimalist beats marks him as sonically different from the grittier and noisier sounds that came to define Soundcloud rap, but his mainstream success helped to legitimize these indie game-changers.

Influenced in equal parts by Slipknot and M.I.A., Ashnikko’s viral track “Stupid” blew up in an unprecedented way thanks to the popularity of Tik Tok, although ironically she’s become paradigmatic of Soundcloud rap. It would be easy to dismiss the pale, Harajuku-inspired rapper as a foolish fad, but her flow is actually surprisingly fresh. Her musical output lately is closer to EDM or straight-up pop but before the more accessible turn, her yell/rapping was always equal parts annoying and endearing.

Styled like the main antagonist of Final Fantasy VII, Ghostemane took the goth influences of Soundcloud rap to its logical conclusion. Although his throaty delivery and aggressive growls would probably lead most to categorize him as a nu-metal artist, his bizarrely compelling syncopation and the trap percussion of his instrumentation land him on this list. He’s certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, but he gets points for exploring the subtleties of the genre to a perplexing extreme.

Lil Dicky might be visually indistinguishable from the post-hipster denizens of Portland or Brooklyn, but his more innocent appearance belies savage lyricism and freestyling skills. With a TV show on FX, Dicky’s an unlikely breakout star on the scene, although it seems his novelty and anomalous nature is part of his appeal. He’s a pretty skilled comedian, which means that his rhymes are often acidic and bitingly witty, although he often shies away from the egotism and opulence so common in rap: “There just hasn't been a voice for that normal dude when it comes to rap … My niche is that I'm relatable. I don't rap about going to the club and popping bottles,” he told Maxim in his Soundcloud heyday.

It’s easy to criticize Playboi Carty’s barely audible mumble-raps as lazy or uninspired (the New York Times went as far as saying that Carti is "more at ease with the performance of the role than with the actual act of rapping") but pairing emotionally honest expressions of emptiness with playfully repetitive lyrics and noisy electronic instrumentation worked towards creating an interesting sonic universe that came to define Soundcloud rap. On albums like “Die Lit,” the music’s loveably sloppy, almost unfinished sound hides some of the vulnerability expressed by the rapper.

A favorite of Brooklyn’s underground queer scene, Quay Dash’s brazenly risque lyrics are also deeply political: her music deals with both the desire and danger she faces as a transgender woman in the world. She’d been dropping singles on Soundcloud long before her track “Queen of This Shit” popped up on HBO’s Euphoria, skyrocketing her to even more success. She’s got a sharp tongue and an impeccable sense of style — I can’t wait to hear more from her in the future.

Dai Burger had been an alt-rap favorite long before Soundcloud rap became an overhyped topic for budding trend-watchers. In fact, some of her best music predates the great “gay rap” debates of the mid-2010’s — despite her openly pansexual lyrics always inciting libidinous feelings in a wide spectrum of fans. Burger’s impeccable eye for fashion is part of what drew her to the rap world: she cut her teeth as a stylist for Pat Field while simultaneously dropping peppy club bangers on the Internet. She’s since moved on to higher production values that see her drifting away from the Soundcloud rap movement, but she was always not-so-secretly one of its earliest pioneers.

Although Marcy Mane’s lyrics are far from highbrow, his atmospheric, chiptune-inflected beats and almost disrespectfully carefree delivery — frequently offbeat and totally incoherent — amount to a kind of deconstructed ethos that takes the key elements of Soundcloud rap and rearranges them into something starkly fresh and deeply strange. It’s easy to get lost in the otherworldly soundscapes of Mane’s music — and his output is truly staggering.

Pump’s almost unbelievable success with the numbingly droll and purposefully insipid “Gucci Gang” garnered him over a billion (with a B!) views on YouTube, thus cementing him a position in the Soundcloud rap pantheon. Obsessed with lean, xan, and marijuana, Pump’s devil may care attitude became a prerequisite for anyone who hoped to succeed in his wake. It’s unclear if the music popped off as more of a meme than an actual song — but either way, I can’t deny his impact on hip hop.

Juice WRLD was set to take over the world as it’s next big emo-rap superstar before his shocking death in late 2019. His thesis was mostly a continuation of what earlier artists in the genre had done: mixing earnest, mournful ballads about adolescent aggravations with hard-hitting beats — but his ability to freestyle over old school hip-hop instrumentation without difficulty marked him as notably more gifted than others he competed with.

At the exact moment when female rappers are popping off, Molly Brazy asserts herself as an underappreciated gem with her minimalist yet triumphant tracks like “Wood” and “Trust None.” Her best music has a bit of Metro Boomin’s goth edge (lots of understated bells and moody synthesizers), but the lyrics are regular rap game gold. With at least three mixtapes under her belt, Brazy’s just getting started — and her latest music feels more radio-ready than ever.

Defiantly identifying themselves as a boy band rather than a rap collective, Brockhampton (led by the openly gay Kevin Abstract) took the avant-garde strains of Odd Future and Kanye West in a new, younger direction. Their sound, look and feel have all since moved away from the Soundcloud rap style but their early mixtapes were all of course hosted on that site. The group’s attention-deficit production, which often has tracks changing style and tempo mid-song, made them unique — but their real signature has always been their playful lyrics that go from goofy and fun to heartfelt, political, and deeply tragic without warning.

With a respect for late-90’s and early 00’s hip hop, a quick-paced flow, and visuals reflecting an acid-laced world of paranoia and menace, Ski Mask The Slump God was an early collaborator of XXXTentacion on Soundcloud before his own mixtapes hit Billboard charts. Although he started as a mostly lo-fi artist with limited resources for recording, many of his music videos now have over 10 million views. Like his late musical partner, Ski Mask The Slump God is often considered post-genre, citing influences across musical styles: "I listen to every genre: rap, rock, classical, heavy metal...I listen to Adele sometimes too,” he told Office Magazine in 2018.

Yung Baby Tate’s songs are sometimes closer to bubblegum pop a la Ariana Grande than hip hop, but she’s definitely got bars. On her GIRLS album, Tate’s celebration of female collaborators was as clear as the title — and her sex-positive vibes position her as an emerging icon of Gen Z’s erotic optimism. With a prodigious talent for both songwriting and audio engineering (she started making beats at just 13-years-old), all of Tate’s music is entirely self-produced — an increasing rarity in an outsourced world.

Although it was clear that Lil Xan’s appeal was somewhat of a joke at the start — especially with the popularity of cartoonishly depressing songs like “Wake Up” (repeated lyric: “I wake up, I throw up / I feel like I’m dead”) — he went on to create a series of far more earnest tracks that touched on his struggles with emptiness and addiction to the drug he took as a namesake. Xan’s popularity after his breakout track “Betrayed” led him to sell out entire tours within minutes. Although he’s easy to dismiss as yet another “sad rap” superstar with face tattoos, it’s obvious that his soul-baring songs connect with younger audiences who feel a similar sense of hopelessness in the world around them.

Chief Keef predates the Soundcloud rap movement by a few years, but his music laid out a blueprint of what would emerge on the streaming service: “A wave of ‘SoundCloud rap’ stars built on the swag and style of Keef and other Chicago drill artists, but aimed towards a suburban market,” wrote critic David Drake in The Outline in 2018. “The slang of Keef and co. proliferates throughout this sphere, as does a reliance on mumbled and melodic styles and an obsession with the drugs popularized by traumatized artists with a Chiraq background.”

Indeed, Keef’s popularity as a local Chicago youth icon marked him as starkly different from the artists who he went on to inspire — but his mark on the genre is indelible.

Trippie Redd has a uniquely R&B-influenced ear for hooks and melodies that mark him as somewhat of an innovator in a genre that can often sound monotonous. Through chart-topping albums, hit songs and collaborations with Playboi Cardi and Travis Scott, Trippie has become one of the most known Soundcloud rappers. Redd’s been polarizing critics since his first mixtape dropped in 2017 — Pitchfork described his first mixtape as “a beautiful mess” — but his vast range of influences (from K-pop to Marilyn Manson) shines through in the sometimes schizophrenic structuring of his songs.

Although Soundcloud rap is often synonymous with emotionality and sadness, Asian Doll rose amongst its ranks delivering more old school lyrics a la Lil Kim but with a new school flow. After amassing a cult following on Soundcloud, she’s since gotten praise from rap gods like Gucci Mane, who both signed her to his label and popped up in guest verses on her more recent material. Comparisons to a slew of female talent on the rise like Meg and Cardi are inevitable — and by no means insulting! — but she’s got her own uniqueness that shouldn’t be overlooked.