Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
And how do you listen to it?
Theyre teenagers from the suburbs; he lives in the city, and works within the music industry.
This year they told him they were listening to XXXTentacion, 6ix9ine, and the Migos.
And how do the kids find these artists?
They just go on SoundCloud and search the phrase sad music.
Weve been creeping toward this reality for some time now.
Spotify playlists have largely replaced musical genres with moods.
Artists on SoundCloud can categorize their uploads however they want.
Eventually, in the lucky cases, fame would too.
That night they upload the song on SoundCloud or YouTube.
They turn themselves into a meme to start shit and gain attention on social media.
Maybe the song ends up in the background of a Kylie Jenner Instagram post.
It gets millions of listens literally overnight, and suddenly its the most popular song in the country.
Labels chase after whoever made it, and scoop up all of their musically inclined friends, too.
1 on theBillboardcharts, beloved for deeply honest and dark songs that delve into his struggle with depression.
Soon after, he performed on Saturday Night Livewith Kanye West.
But it turns out that was just the start.
6ix9ine released his sophomore albumDummy Boyfrom federal prison and awaits his trial in September.
They bathe in an ocean of endless streams, the most valuable currency in todays music industry.
Lil Pumps Eskeetitt racked up over 22 million the first week it released this April.
In June, X broke Taylor Swifts single-day streaming record on Spotify, collecting 10.4 million streams for SAD!
compared to Swifts 10.1 for Look What You Made Me Do.
After a delayed release and just three days of tracking numbers,Dummy Boystill landed at No.
2 on theBillboard200 chart the week of its release.
X reportedly signed a $10 million single album deal right before he died.
After voiding an earlier contract, Lil Pump signed a reported $8 million dollar deal with Warner Bros.
Despite the charges and the optics and the potential jail time, the gatekeepers arent closing the gates.
The clout generation is altering the nature of what it means to work in the music business.
So how has the music business responded?
SoundCloud rap moved from the more hidden corners of the internet into mainstream consciousness in June 2017.
Three things happened that month: there was a prominentNew YorkTimesarticleintroducing the scene to a more general audience.
Xs first hit Look at Me!
He became a national source of fascination.
That night he got tackled, Xs producer Rojas DJed behind him for the last time.
X, on the other hand, was in a more unsupervised situation.
After his hit Look at Me!
attempt to make them mature.
You have to embrace them and show them that theres a better way, he says.
But the majors, including Wharton, were only offering traditional six-album deals and X wasnt interested.
(This is the same arrangement forSkins).
Traditional major labels arent built for these types of arrangements.
When they partner with a label, theyre looking for something different.
A whole new crop of not-quite independents and not-quite majors have risen to accommodate them.
These in-betweens are often funded by the majors, but arent required to buck to their oversight.
They do, however, have access to their contacts and facilities if necessary.
They prefer not to be called subsidiaries, even though thats mostly what they seem like.
2 onBillboards list of most powerful people in the music business.
Another is Alamo Records, founded in 2016 by Todd Moscowitz, a 20-plus year music-industry veteran.
Like 10K, its a not-quite independent label with funding from Interscope.
But Alamo takes a slightly different approach.
They work with the grandfather of SoundCloud rap, Smokepurpp, and rappers like Wifisfuneral.
In addition to the not-quite majors, Soundcloud rappers are turning to distribution deals.
These majors use EMPIREs services, which have proven vital in the streaming era.
In an interview withthe New YorkTimes,Shami said he wasnt concerned about Xs public perception.
I know the person, he said, and echoed Wharton from Atlantic.
Atlantic Records signed over an imprint to Adam Grandmaison (a.k.a.
Adam22) the host ofNo Jumper, SoundCloud raps premier podcast.
Hesalso been accusedof sexual assault and physical abuse by two women, both of which he denies.
His involvement on the label side of things, though, is entirely new territory.
Labels havent handed out imprints to podcast hosts or journalists before.
They were given an imprint because of Rojass foundational connection to the scene and Gelbards social-media marketing expertise.
They pitch it to new artists theyre looking to sign.
That was a couple of years ago.
This summer Pump released a song called Drug Addict, whose music video co-starred Charlie Sheen.
I dont know if record labels think its negative unless it interferes with the bottom line, Krispin says.
Fike also signed to management with Tha Lights Global, the same team that works with Lil Pump.
Its a feeding frenzy, Krispin says.
Just within label buildings.
It was a statement echoed by others who would only say it off the record.
Which brings us to 6ix9ine, whosecourt cases continue to play out in real time.
Then, a day after its intended release, the album leaked.
Still, 6ix9ine wanted to cash in on a project that was already out in the world.
Elliot Grainge has yet to comment on the ordeal and turned down multiple interview requests.
And also Dr. Dres history of domestic abuse.
Or Gene Simmonss sexual battery.
Are things actually worse than the past or are we just now focused on it unlike we were then?
Xs team gave a similar response when Spotify briefly took his music off of their playlists.
His representative sent a statement to theNew YorkTimesasking, Will Spotify remove all the artists listed below from playlists?
and named everyone whos been accused in the past from 6ix9ine to David Bowie.
Kimbro thinks the way labels consider rappers in jail is a human-rights issue.
When we spoke over the summer, he was working on a pre-jail marketing plan for 03 Greedo.
Theyre stockpiling records, planning music videos, all as he prepares to sit in jail.
To sit and talk about release dates and lawyers while someones in jail is crazy.
His case is different than X, in that his artists are not dealing with domestic and sexual violence.
How most listeners confront and react to those charges is far different as well.
Most people, as Kimbro notes, dont even think twice about it.
When it comes to hip-hop, people want to believe that all of the talk is genuine and credible.
That the music and the artist is only good if thats the case.
Social media has also opened up a new layer to these questions of authenticity.
SoundCloud artists have thrived on the controversy and conversation theyre expertly able to build on platforms like Instagram.
It was a joke the whole time.
If you dont get it, thats your problem.
Are the guns real or not?
Maybe thats not the case when it comes to a domestic-violence charge, but the provocative behavior in general.
The artists are like,oh thats gonna go viraland the fans are in on it tongue-in-cheek.
Now, Its front of mind for everyone, Moscowitz says.
Were inundated withallof the information.
And on top of that theres the blogs and Twitter and hip-hop pundits talking about it all the time.
Nick Catchdubs remembers DJing a party at Webster Hall last year when XXXTentacions Look at Me!
He just didnt want to bring that energy into the room.
But the DJ after him didnt care and played it at the very beginning of his set.
The crowd went bananas.
People have to make personal decisions, he says.
Its similar to how he wont play R. Kellys Ignition (Remix) when he DJs friends weddings anymore.
The music sounds the same, but it just tastes different.
Im not judging people on how they chose to live their lives.
But it is a personal choice.
You cant be Switzerland.
