Cloud rap

Cloud rap (also known as trillwave) is a subgenre of hip-hop that emerged from the Southern hip-hop scene in the late 2000s to early 2010s. The style draws influences from trap, ambient and new age

Etymology#

In 2010, music blogger Walker ‘Walkmasterflex’ Chambliss coined the term “cloud rap” in a blogspot post describing the music of Main Attrakionz member Squadda B, whom he labelled “the king of cloud rap”. Chambliss thought he was using a phrase from a 2009 interview by music writer Noz, where rapper Lil B showed him a CGI image of a castle in the clouds and said “that’s the kind of music I want to make.” He later used the term for the Space Age Hustle blog’s compilation album, 3 Years Ahead: The Cloud Rap Tape released in 2010, which helped popularize the genre. The label “cloud” denotes distinct characteristics of the genre such as its “hazy”, ethereal aesthetic (in terms of both aural and visual expression) and its ambiguity as a genre without clearly defined borders.

Characteristics#

Cloud rap is defined by the use of ethereal, psychedelic and soft samples as well as the inclusion of trap style drums, drawing primary influences from lo-fi hip-hop and chillwave. The genre’s production style draws heavily from general mellow and relaxed sounds that are atypical to traditional hip-hop such as ambient and new age music, while esoteric melodic chopped samples have been lifted from J-pop, video game music and anime soundtracks. Cloud rap’s lyrics sometimes revolve around themes of love and betrayal, as well as more typical themes found in popular music such as sex, drugs, and alienation. The style pulls from a diversity of rap sounds and locales: from both the East and West Coasts and the South.

2000s–2010s: Origins#

Cloud rap originated in the Southern United States during the late 2000s. as well as in the early 2000s with Clouddead’s self-titled album which later inspired the Californian group Main Attrakionz. Rapper Danny Brown cited Main Attrakionz as the originators of the style, while defining the genre as “Imogen Heap samples”. During the late 2000s, artists such as Lil B and producer Clams Casino, became key influences on the development of cloud rap, with the duo pioneering the sound as early as 2008. Other early developments included the underground Finnish rap scene and the work of Houston rapper Viper. By 2010, Squadda B of Main Attrakionz, Friendzone and South Florida acts SpaceGhostPurrp and Metro Zu, were tagged cloud rap by online music critics and bloggers, though many artists expressed dislike for the term and distanced themselves from it. Cloud rap garnered mainstream attention in 2011 with rapper ASAP Rocky’s debut single Peso, In 2013, Swedish artist Yung Lean became an eminent cloud rap artist when the video for his single “Ginseng Strip 2002” went viral. Notable producers who worked with Lean such as Yung Gud, Whitearmor and Suicideyear alongside online rap collective Drain Gang, consisting of Bladee, Ecco2k, Thaiboy Digital, and Whitearmor would also be influential in shaping the genre. Around the same time, other online rap collectives contributed to the genre’s development, such as Raider Klan (featuring SpaceGhostPurrp and Denzel Curry), Seshollowaterboyz (Bones, Xavier Wulf, Chris Travis and Eddy Baker), and GothBoiClique (including Yung Bruh and Wicca Phase Springs Eternal). and the early work of Playboi Carti. By the late 2010s, the influence of cloud rap splintered off into various other genres such as emo rap, digicore, and rage.

2020s#

During the early 2020s, a new wave of artists drew influences from the original cloud rap era merging the sound with contemporaneous styles such as plugg music and various microgenres such as jerk, sigilkore and hexD. The work of artists such as Xaviersobased, Fakemink, Yabujin, 2hollis, and Smokedope2016 have been described as “cloud rap”. In 2025, the term “cloud rock” was introduced to describe a style of alternative rock derived from the influence of electronica and internet music genres such as hyperpop and cloud rap. Artists associated with the style include Dean Blunt, Quannnic, and Jane Remover.

Genre family: 2000s in music, 2010s in music, 21st-century music genres, American styles of music, Hip-hop genres, Internet music genres, Internet rap genres, Lo-fi music, Trap music