Within the world of music theres scenes, these scenes can set trends and leave impacts on the genres their apart of. For me currently I would have to say the Underground Rap scene of the 2020’s.
But before I give my props to the current Underground Rap scene I have to mention. the forefathers that set the stage for the current scene as many of these rappers are inspired or take from one or two of these forefathers.
This would be the 2016 Underground Era also most famously known as the Soundcloud Era of Rap. This era of Rap was the first times we got to see artist start from bottom and rise to household names in only a couple of years of their careers. The challenge for some however was maintaining this swift success. Some we still see around today, some lose their audience, and some never reach there full potential.
To summarize The XXL Freshman Class is a collection of that years trending and up and coming rappers at that time, this collection of artist are curated by a rap magazine titled XXL. These artist are usually featured on the magazine front cover with each “class” accompanied with a tagline that represents the class in a certain aspect, 2016’s freshman class was associated with the tagline “The New Wave”. This would be the most accurate way the describe this era of the Underground.
While the following class, XXL Freshman Class of 2017, accompanied by the tagline “Generation Next” would feature two artist who would also leave a lasting impact on the Underground scene of the 2020’s and onward the rest of this class would “fall off” or cease to create music entirely, whether it be unintentional or intentional.
These forefathers would be:
- XXXTentacion
- Lil Uzi Vert
- Playboi Carti
- Trippie Redd
- Lil Pump
- Juice Wrld
- Lil Yachty.
As stated previously, I was entering freshman year of Middle school when this era of Underground Rap was under way. X would pass in 2018 during a robbery turned deadly, this would further cement him as a legend not just in the scene or genre but in music as a whole. A year after Juice Wrld would pass due to an accidental overdose. The rest of the figures within this era of the Underground would share the same tenacity and style while all being completely different.
Uzi, Carti, and X would have a lasting impact that we would see in the modern day Underground Rap scene with artist like Yeat, SoFaygo, Ken Carson, Osamason, and Che. As someone who’s was able to witness the Soundcloud Era and this current scene of the Underground Rap I enjoy both eras but, my unpopular opinion is I believe that this era has more to prove than the previous era, the previous era set the stage for this era but the current era not only has to deliver to the fans but fans constantly want new music and want the next project being better than the last. How can these artist keep up, and if they can’t there “frauds” or they “fell off”. Not to mention the leaking problem where artist getting their devices hacked and these hackers leaking gigabytes of unreleased, unfinished music all over the internet. Osamason and Uzi most commonly having to scrap whole albums after the album leaking prior to it’s predicted release date.
Nevertheless, the next gen is here and there coming in swinging.
Why I feel more connected to this Underground scene is likely due to the age (of Social Media and literally) as Im witnessing some these artist’s career’s flourish in real time. From seeing them on my TikTok for you page to there numbers going up on their Spotify pages. Many of these artist themselves being from 18-22 years old so seeing artist my age become this stars on the come up just feels more personal than seeing any other big artist perform. I’ve been to many underground shows and have an up and coming show on December 9th. I’ll continue to stick too and support the underground scene as the years progress and see the potential of these young stars unfold.