The early SoundCloud era in hip-hop was truly undefeated. The platform quickly emerged as a goldmine for new talent and memorable projects delivered to fans for free, reminiscent of the good ol' days on DatPiff. As a changing of the guards occurred in the 2010s, plenty of albums and mixtapes from hip-hop’s freshest faces landed in the "no skips" territory. So, today, XXL highlights a good handful of those and details why they were able to stick like cold grits.
The Grammy award-winning effort Coloring Book was nothing short of magnificent, but Chance The Rapper’s second mixtape, Acid Rap, still arguably reigns supreme as his magnum opus. The project was released in 2013, and provided an in-depth look at the unrivaled flair that Chance brought to the rap game. Same thing with Travis Scott, who blessed the world with Days Before Rodeo that same year. With an elite level of sonic execution, both of those projects were launching pads for their superstardom.
As the years progressed, millennials continued to push the limits of sound created at the time. By the 2010s, artists like 21 Savage started making a name for themselves. Thanks to his Savage Mode collabo with Metro Boomin, the entire world piled onto his bandwagon. Things similarly went down that way with Lil Uzi Vert on the coattails of his mixtape, Lil Uzi Vert vs. the World. The firepower of each of those projects led to 21 and Uzi soaring to the skies and they've yet to come back down.
Respected artists like Playboi Carti, Ski Mask The Slump God, Juice Wrld and more also have flawless SoundCloud entries in their discographies that came before they popped off fully. Check them out below and take a nice hit of nostalgia in the process. Here are 13 SoundCloud-era hip-hop projects with no skips.
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