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SoundCloud rap (also referred to as mumble rap or emo rap) is a sub-genre under the much larger, hip-hop genre. SoundCloud rap is a term developed in recent years that depicts rap music that is released online, and not through physical copies like CD's. SoundCloud rap started through the music platform SoundCloud, and has since spread into the mainstream music scene. There has been a large increase in the number of SoundCloud rappers since 2013, and these rappers have had a lot of success on mainstream media. Many SoundCloud rappers have charted high on Billboard's Hot 100 Chart. On SoundCloud, rappers and other musicians around the world can upload their own music for free and have large audiences listen to it, and respond. This whole process of creating and promoting their own music allows for SoundCloud rap to have a very different feeling from mainstream rap and hip-hop as the artists differentiate themselves through their music and fashion. SoundCloud has created many artists like Lil Peep, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Pump, XXXTentacion, Lil Xan, and many others who have all succeeded in entering mainstream media, and they all used SoundCloud to do it. SoundCloud allowed them to make an entry into mainstream media and create a subculture that is SoundCloud rap.

Characteristics of SoundCloud Rap
SoundCloud rap's characteristics include tattoos on the face of rappers and grills on their teeth. SoundCloud rappers all tend to stand out because of their fashion and the way they present themselves. These things allow them to stand out and differentiate themselves from others, which has been useful in making them stand out from the other thousands of amateur SoundCloud rappers. Many artists like Lil Peep, Lil Uzi Vert, and Lil Pump all use their fashion to stand out. They tend to sport bright coloured hair and hairstyles that make them look like they are from an anime. Their fashion and look are more punk than hip hop as they tend to dress in very colourful streetwear that makes them stand out. Hip hop rappers like Drake tend to wear more casual clothes that somebody would wear on the street. The SoundCloud rappers however wear clothes that stand out and what most would consider over the top. The most noteworthy trait of SoundCloud rappers’ fashion is there tattoos, which stand out the most. SoundCloud rappers like Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Peep, and XXXTentacion all sport tattoos on most of there upper body including their face and their arms and hands. SoundCloud rappers differentiate themselves from the hip hop community with some artist like Lil Uzi Vert calling themselves rock stars instead of hip-hop artists. SoundCloud rappers are also commonly referred to as mumble rappers for their presentation of their lyrics, which sounds like they are mumbling, and also their music which mostly consists of trap beats. Many SoundCloud rappers music is inspired by 2000's emo and pop punk that they combine with trap beats to make their current style of music.

History Of The Music Industry
To understand the significance of SoundCloud rap and its impact on the music industry, you have to first understand the music industry, and how it has changed to allow for the emergence of SoundCloud rap.

The Traditional Music Industry
The music industry is often described as companies that develop music and celebrities, that are communicated through various types of media such as radio, television, the internet, etc. The music industry consists of various parts such as music press, who write about music to the public. Record labels, which sign artists and help them create music. Producers, that are hired by record labels to create music. Studios, where artists and producers work on their music. Music retailers, that sell CD’s, DVD’S, poster and other merchandise of artists. Music publishers, that allocate the money received from the commercial use of music. Distributors and wholesalers, that allow the music to be listened to worldwide. Musical and studio instrument retailers. The musicians/performers themselves who are the main force of the industry. Tour and concert production, which requires many people to coordinate and e-business, which allows the music industry to go online and not be restricted to physical goods and copies of music. These are only some of the organizations that are part of the music industry and there will always be more added as the industry continues to develop. These organizations can be divided into three categories, recording, publishing, and live performances.

Recording
The goal of this category of the music industry is to create and produce music from artists and distribute these to a global audience. In the traditional music industry this is done through various steps with the first one being the discovery of talent. Agents from record labels look for artists that they believe to have talent or star value. The next step is to sign them to a label and release their music. The third step is promotion and distribution where record labels will pay to promote their artists on various commercial outlets. The final step in the recording category are gatekeepers, who are the promoters that decide whether they will allow the music to be played on their media outlets.

Publishing
This category is about the money that is earned from the commercial use of music. For a commercial entity to play music on their media outlet they must have a licence and pay a license fee that allows them to use the music. If a director wants to use a song in their movie, they must have a license to use that song, similarly, video games that use music must also have a license for the usage of music. The publisher divides the money earned to the producers, song, writers, the label, the artist and itself. The divide of revenue is determined depending on previous negotiations.

Live Performances
Live performances are a major part of not just the traditional music industry but even the current music industry. There are four major parts to the live performance category, which are, the musicians, the booking agents, the promoters, and the venue operators, who all play an integral role in the success of a live performance. Booking agents work for the musicians and they contact promoters to sell tickets, promote the event, and contact and communicate with the venue operators.

The Evolving Music Industry
The evolution of the music industry can be seen as a result of different genres becoming popular and others decreasing in popularity, and also the invention of various technological devises that changed how music is distributed and how people listen to it. In the 1950’s and 60’s the emergence of rock and roll played a huge part in the evolution of the music industry as there was a boom in the number of rock and roll artists, there was a lot of competition to promote them. Media outlets such as television and radio were the main promotion media of the time. There were not a lot of record labels at this time and the ones at the top were able to promote their artists on the more popular television. To counter this radio started to promote other smaller artists as well which helped in the increase of popularity in this time period. The television and the radio played music which allowed the audience to listen to the music and encourage them to purchase the record at the store. This structure stayed until the era of digital technology started to emerge. Digital technology allowed music to not be restricted by physical boundaries, as music could now be digitized and put on the internet. With more technological advancements we see a change in the music industry where control vs connectivity, service vs product and amateur vs professional are very big factors in the current situation of the music industry. In the traditional music industry everything was about control. The music companies wanted to control all the revenue they made and prevent illegal usage of their intellectual property, while trying to maximize their profit. With the introduction of digital technology such as the internet and sites like Napster, it became difficult to completely prevent the illegal usage of their property. The control that the music companies had over the audience was reduced as the audience started to communicate with each other through the internet. The internet allowed audiences to communicate and took control away from the music companies who could no longer restrict information. The old music industry put a lot of emphasis on product such as the CD, and other physical goods that were sold to the audience individually. This has changed in the current music industry with the introduction of services where people can stream various music without having to buy every single CD through the use of music services like YouTube or Spotify. The traditional music industry created a space for professional musicians who spent lots of money on their music. This has also changed with the new music industry as there is an increase in the number of amateur musicians who are able to create and promote their music on the internet through various outlets like SoundCloud, iTunes, Spotify, YouTube and many other music technology brands.

The Current Music Industry
The current music industry runs on the internet also referred to as the cloud, where artists do most of their promotions. The current music industry is one where there is little control and a lot of connectivity, where services dominate over product, and amateurs can have the same opportunities as professionals. In the current music industry live performances are where most artists earn their money, which is vastly different from the past where artists would earn the most money from record sales and commercial usage of their music. The streaming services and illegal downloads on the internet do not allow artists to earn as much money as they could in the past because it is easy to find their music online. This in change allowed for the live performance sector to bloom as ticket sales increased the artists were able to make more money from live performances.

SoundCloud Rap
The advance in digital technologies allowed for the bypassing of the steps in the traditional music industry where an agent from a record company would have to go to a concert to find you. Artists can build up their fanbase online and be discovered or they could just not sign on a record label and promote through the various online platforms like SoundCloud. Amateur artist can upload their music to SoundCloud and get thousands of reactions to their music. Through SoundCloud fans can listen and share artists music with others through social media, which help increase the artists fanbase and build their brand. SoundCloud rappers are able to bypass the record companies and release their music through SoundCloud. SoundCloud rappers are able to have high levels of connectivity with their fans through social media sites like SoundCloud and Instagram where they interact with their fan base. Many SoundCloud rappers do not sell physical copies of their music and instead release them on online distributors like YouTube and Spotify, where they do not have to much for the distribution of their music. Through these subscription services the artists can make a decent amount of money. If a song gets played 60 times on Spotify the songwriter makes 9.1 cents and the artists who performed the song makes 38 cents. The thing that makes SoundCloud rappers different from ordinary rappers is that they are what the industry considers amateurs, who are not signed or trained by a record label. Through SoundCloud artists can share and distribute their music and perform shows with their music. All of this is done without a record label to organize it for them, and they do not have to give their profits to a record label. If a record label were to make an artist’s music and sell it as a CD for 18 dollars there would a division in the profit that is made. The label would receive $9.74, the retailer would receive $5.40, the recording artist would receive $1.93 and the song writer would receive 91 cents. On iTunes Adele’s Rolling in the Deep song is for $1.29, and of the $1.29, 40 cents are given to iTunes when a purchase is made, and the rest of the money, 90 cents goes to Adele’s record label who then divides the money to Adele and the song writer. The record label then takes the rest of the money which is 60 cents. Adele would receive 20 cents for the sale of her $1.29 song on iTunes. With this we can see how the artists does not make most of the money from the sale of their music. This is all voided when artists like SoundCloud rappers release their music individually. If a SoundCloud rapper like Chance the Rapper were to release music on iTunes, the retailer would take 40 cents and the rest would go straight to Chance the Rapper. SoundCloud rappers make their own music and fanbase and promote using social media. Artists are able to make music without the use of a studio and bunch of musical instruments because of new technology that allows for people to make music with just a computer. Artists can have their own studios at home and not have to spend money for a professional recording studio.

Criticisms of SoundCloud Rap
SoundCloud rappers are often discriminated against as sub-par rappers who do not have the lyrical ability to properly project their words. Many rappers have shown their dislike of SoundCloud rap such as Eminem who released a few songs that belittled SoundCloud rap by calling them mumble rappers who can not rap properly, and he also expressed his displeasure about the recent rise of mumble rap. SoundCloud rappers have often separated and differentiated themselves from other mainstream rappers because of their very different starts. SoundCloud rappers started their careers through SoundCloud. SoundCloud rap is considered much rougher and more unpolished than mainstream rap simply because of the reason that anybody can release music how they please. SoundCloud provides a low barrier of entry into the music industry that’s dominated by bigger music companies. This has allowed for many young artists to be able to use this platform to compete with bigger artists but not have the same restrictions as they do. The artists own all the copyright of their music and do not have to give the rights to a label. This sub-genre of hip-hop has seen a huge rise in popularity in recent years with countless artists such as XXXTentacion, Juice WRLD, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Pump, and many others who have all become big names in the hip hop industry. Their rise in popularity has been for many different reasons than how older rappers used to become popular. It is because of their different, young, wild, and free attitude that raises their popularity with young fans.

XXXTentacion Controversy
XXXTentacion became hugely popular because of his criminal behaviour. XXXTentacion is known for fighting with fans at concerts, such as when he punched a fan who was attending his concert. XXXTentacion was also involved in many other scuffles in his concerts and has served a jail sentence for “aggravated battery of a pregnant woman.” XXXtentacion's career as a rapper was beginning to take off when he passed away. XXXTentacion was killed in his car while at a motorcycle dealership. After his death, XXXTentacion's songs rose up on the billboard charts and stayed there for quite a while. The rough behavior of SoundCloud rappers differentiates them from other mainstream rappers who can not do things as freely as the rappers on SoundCloud. SoundCloud rappers are known for communicating with their fans very often which allows them to openly display themselves however they please.

Notable SoundCloud Rappers
SoundCloud rap has given rise to countless stars with the most popular being Chance the Rapper and Post Malone. Chance the Rapper has won three Grammy awards despite the fact that he has not sold a single physical album. His albums are all released online through streaming sites like Spotify, and SoundCloud where he released some of his earliest hit songs. Post Malone is another famous rapper who has had a huge amount of success in the mainstream media. Post Malone's songs have charted number one on billboards charts and his albums have also charted number one on Billboards album chart. Post Malone first got famous through his song White Iverson which he released on SoundCloud. This song was the catalyst that got him recognized by millions of listeners.