Generation Soundcloud
How the rise of mumble rap and social media shaped a generation
It was a perfect summer day of the year 2016, when 15 dollars an hour was GOOD money. I was in a sea of other teenagers waiting for the doors to open. Some kids were smoking nicotine, some kids were smoking weed, and some kids were even drinking. We were all in line to see the one and only ‘Lil Uzi Vert’ perform. I’m sure Soundcloud has been around longer or even hit its peak before 2016/2017, but it was THE peak for our generation. Having such a huge star come to Des Moines, Iowa, was unheard of, so of course the show was sold out.
Finally, the doors opened, and the masses flooded into one of the only bigger music venues around the metro. There wasn’t any seating, and it felt like I just walked into a high school gymnasium that sold mediocre nachos for 10 bucks. There wasn’t any opener for Lil Uzi that I could remember, but they did have an off-the-street DJ. He was playing all the current hits, not just from Uzi, but from every trap star or Soundcloud star that was relevant that MONTH.
The shoddy, concrete venue started filling with marijuana fumes ever since the doors opened. I wouldn’t be surprised if the event staff were toking, too, since no one stopped ANYONE from smoking or drinking. Since there weren’t any real openers to the show, it felt like some awkward house party where no one knew each other, and everyone was just getting shitfaced. This is before I ever even considered drinking alcohol since my Crohn’s was volatile when I was younger, so it was me and a fountain Pepsi against the world.
A rather decent amount of time passed by, and it was time, almost time to pretend like we can relate to a man who calls himself ‘Lil Uzi Vert,’ or maybe someday might be able, too. I was buzzing around the crowd with a couple of friends, cruising with a second-hand high. The whatever DJ stopped the music, and his microphone let out a little crackle before speaking:
“Lil Uzi won’t make it tonight, but we are going to reschedule the show.”
Wow, I thought to myself. We had to wait for quite a while before coming into the building, wait quite a while IN the building (getting smoked out by all the tokers), and he doesn’t even show up? Knowing trap stars and SoundCloud stars can be odd or self-serving, I theorized he wasn’t going to be in Iowa at all—just a cash grab. To my surprise, Lil Uzi did in fact come back a week or two later and performed a great (but short) show. Both the no-show and the show-show were hits on Instagram. If you weren’t there (both shows), then where were you?
I understand the story I just told was quite lackluster from most stories, but what blows my mind is that anyone I meet from my generation in the local area has probably heard of THE Lil Uzi Vert concert of 2016. I’d say eight or nine times out of ten… Seriously. So why am I yapping about this local, Midwest staple of a shitty concert? Because I think it, and the culture around it, shaped me (and maybe a generation) for the worse. The seed of “Soundcloud Rap” couldn’t have been planted at a more perfect moment. With the younger generation flooding the ever-evolving social media apps, they were bound to run into their idols on the web. Next thing you know, we had kids getting face tattoos and sipping “that purp” or popping perc; it was just the beginning of an epidemic of wannabes.
This article is titled “Generation Soundcloud” because my generation was shaped by the artists who emerged so prominently during our coming-of-age years, but we can’t forget about the second evil, and that’s social media. Sure, these kids OUR AGE were getting famous, convicted, killed, or dying. It’s not that this wasn’t happening without social media, but social media allowed for a magnification of who these stars were. With Meta (Facebook/Instagram) having pervasive marketing tactics then and now, kids take to social media like crack.
I don’t think Soundcloud or Soundcloud rap is inherently negative or dangerous, but the major stars from it had a heavy influence on young minds, and that influence wasn’t always the best. Timmys around the world were throwing away their dream of becoming an astronaut by dropping out of high school and mumble rapping. Usually getting a face tattoo, too. I legitimately believe we lost a lot of good minds to this. It’s such a hard issue to tackle, too, because of the gray area music can have on the youth. One minute we have moms saying “no cussing!” then blasting the songs with cuss words on blast. How are we to determine who’s at fault for the influence music CAN produce? I don’t think we can.
My favorite artist to come out of this era of music was Lil Peep. He died from a drug overdose at 21, which is one of the few noncontroversial things to happen in the Soundcloud era. I found out about Lil Peep’s music at 16 years old when he passed away and grew very attached to it immediately, since his music dealt with depression and girl troubles. Those weren’t uncommon themes in the Soundcloud space, but when I say his music was sad and depressing, it was. No trap rap or party hits on the side of Lil Peep.
It's hard to say if his music helped me… or hurt me. I started painting my nails, dying my hair, and I got my ears pierced. I would’ve been getting tattoos, but I was still only 17 years old. Although when I was 18 years old, I asked a local tattoo shop if they would do my knuckles, like rap stars had done, and they rightfully said come back when you got more ink. All these physical changes were inspired by Soundcloud rap, but how did it change me mentally or emotionally? I beg the question if Lil Peep’s music helped me or hurt me because he was emotionally unavailable… and I unfortunately found that relatable. Whether I was conscious or not to my issues, Lil Peep’s and many artists’ music opened a channel of subconscious influence.
Admittedly, I used to have an unhealthy attachment to social media, especially Instagram & Snapchat. In my mind, it was only right to flaunt all the influence stars like Lil Peep had on me, and I wasn’t the only one. The rise of social media and the explosion of mumble rappers on SoundCloud altered most of the content that was being posted online. Our generation went from sharing wholesome moments and dog filter selfies to “flexing” large amounts of cash or egocentric selfies. It was now a competition about being the “coolest.”
SoundCloud and its music alone wouldn’t have been able to have such a dramatic influence on the younger generation without social media. The rebels, or bad apples from SoundCloud, used their social media platforms as a sort of megaphone to preach about their lifestyle. Music and musicians have always had influence, good or bad, but this was during a technologically pivotal moment for social media. Those bad-boy, rock bands in the 1980s and 1990s didn’t have the means of amplifying their ego or lifestyle through social media. You could argue the news or media outlets did it for them, but there’s something personal about now being able to follow or “friend” your favorite idols from the comfort of your phone.
My last point, or observation, about this topic is the amount of egotism this time period bred. Photos of friends and family turned into selfies, photos of accomplishments turned into material goods, and photos went from having self-respect to quickly not. Everyone is free to do as they please but seeing pictures of you with some ambiguous caption or emoji is awfully tiring. Now that I’ve mostly broken free from the blindfold social media has on me, it is very easy to tell who’s got an ego problem, and who’s doing it for funsies.
Music is neither bad or good, no matter who the artist is; Music is art after all. Younger people are more susceptible to its influence, and we grew up with some false idols that came equipped with social media megaphones. It’s likely we had been influenced during those younger years, consciously or subconsciously. I’m interested to see if people my age feel the same, or if people of different generations had a pivotal moment like such.