- november 18, 2019
“Esketit!” a term first coined by soundcloud rapper Lil Pump, and now an integral part of gen Z culture, meaning “let’s get it” has become the most popular saying within the new genre soundcloud rap. Soundcloud rap, a genre born around 2015 (Caramanica, 2019) has become the dominant genre within rap and, to a certain extent, pop music. As of 2017 the top 50 rappers on platforms like spotify and itunes all have their roots in soundcloud (Digitalmusicnews, 2017), making this a genre that cannot be ignored when writing about youth culture and music in the late 10’s. The genre bears the name of the platform it was born on, however the extent to which soundcloud alone is responsible for its success has not been researched yet. It is however the perfect example of platformisation within the amateur music industry. Just as “booking an Uber” has become synonymous to calling a taxi soundcloud rap, or clout rap for short, has become synonymous to young amateur gen Z rappers. While soundcloud is not the biggest music platform in terms of monthly listeners, it is valued by young adults as a means to discover new music and as a music social media platform it is one of the biggest platforms (Nguyen, 2018).
Full research proposal can be found here