When you think of underground rap, what comes to mind? Unpopular rap music, or rap music that doesn’t sound mainstream?
The difference between the underground rap scene from what it was back then to how it is now is that people had to naturally stumble across rappers on SoundCloud or other platforms where they uploaded their music. People would gravitate towards them because they had a new sound that mainstream rappers didn’t use. Mainstream rappers that used to be “underground” back then include $ucideBoys, Lil Peep, and Xxxtentacion, and their rise to fame was during a time where social media wasn’t the first place people looked at to find new music. These are the “underground” rappers that gained mainstream popularity through SoundCloud around 2014-2017. However, in the past few years, when people discover a new rapper that is just starting out, it’s often through social media. They might find a 15 second clip of their song on TikTok or just a snippet of their song and immediately decide whether it’s “trash,” or whether it’s actually good.
Recently, the underground rap scene has become popularized thanks to the intersection of social media and fashion. Although hip hop has always been hand-in-hand with fashion, we’ve seen underground rappers getting invited to fashion shows more early on in their careers than before.
The new artists that are rising to a more mainstream audience at a much quicker rate than I’ve seen before are ian, 2hollis, Molly Santana, Nettspend, OsamaSon, and LAZER DIM 700, as well as Yeat. These artists have gained popularity on TikTok at a much quicker rate than when artists had to use SoundCloud to gain traction on their songs. The rappers’ songs are uploaded to TikTok as “snippets”, and users are able to find these songs through the algorithm, with specific, tailored recommendations.
From the new wave of underground rappers, a rapper that has recently become mainstream—no longer fitting into the “underground” space—is Yeat. He started his career in 2015 under the name Lil Yeat, but transitioned to Yeat in 2018. He released a couple of singles and a mixtape before discovering his sound with his viral mixtape 4L. Throughout this newfound success, Yeat released snippets through social media in order to receive traction for his singles and eventual album. This tactic of utilizing social media in order to gain media and fan attention has landed him a record deal with Interscope Records, collaborations with mainstream artists like Drake, and being included on the soundtrack for the film Minions: The Rise of Gru. More recently, he’s released his latest album—which peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Billboard Rap Albums chart.
Throughout 2023 and the beginning of 2024, many rappers have been going viral off of TikTok and other social media platforms as well. They utilize these platforms in order to increase the virality of their single and album releases. More recently, the rapper ian has seen a quick incline in his career after he switched from production to rapping. He started rapping in 2022, and at the beginning of this year, he gained traction after using social media to promote his music. Thanks in large part to this, he’s performing at Rolling Loud with Lil Yachty, and also released a single with him called “Hate Me”.
The mainstream rap and underground rap scenes are different from each other, largely due to creativity. Mainstream rappers don’t release new, creative sounds, because it’s all about the numbers and what sells. They often talk about the same things in their songs which are money, sex, violence and drugs. On the other hand, underground rappers have the freedom to release what they want to; as independent artists, they can experiment with their sound. Underground rap became more accessible to new listeners, due to the algorithm of streaming and social media platforms.
