![]() ![]() ![]() The music industry has always had its unlikely cult favorites, but only in the streaming age can an artist enjoy similar success to pop stars and have little to no cultural footprint beyond the community that is tuning in. But it also illustrates a gap between what is promoted and what is popular. This occurrence is, first and foremost, the by-product of a streaming infrastructure that uses a plays-per-song model to approximate record sales-a system that allows artists to bypass the old display stand, even if they risk anonymity. It is easier than ever to be a hit by all of the industry’s standard performance metrics and still go unnoticed by the general public-to have an enormous following that barely registers within the wider pop-culture ecosystem. YoungBoy is one of the most extreme cases of a recent developing phenomenon: invisible music stardom. By most numerical benchmarks, YoungBoy is among the most successful artists working today. Since 2017, he has secured four Recording Industry Association of America-certified platinum albums and mixtapes, along with nine platinum singles, six of which went multiplatinum. He also has a seemingly inexhaustible work ethic-he has released nineteen full-length solo projects in just under seven years. With his professed fervor for retaliation, YoungBoy has earned a rep as a single-minded aggressor, but his more confrontational songs are blunted by a soft side. His music is trap-adjacent, bounce-heavy, and Auto-Tuned, and his nasally singsong voice intensifies into a snarl. YoungBoy is a disciple of Baton Rouge hip-hop stars such as Boosie Badazz and the late Lil Phat, and his sound isn’t a dramatic departure from the rap music of the moment. (The “NBA” stands for “Never Broke Again.”) His hit records include “AI Youngboy 2,” “Top,” and “Sincerely, Kentrell.” But, despite his achievement, shared with one of the most widely recognized pop artists of all time, YoungBoy remains broadly unknown. (Her peers in that category are Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, and Paul Simon.) The other is a twenty-two-year-old performer who goes by NBA YoungBoy. The first is Taylor Swift, who has as many Album of the Year Grammys as any soloist in history. 1 albums in each of the last three years. His favorite hip-hop artists working today are Tyler, The Creator, Boldy James, JPEGMAFIA, and Earl Sweatshirt.Only two artists have released No. Hardcore punk and Go-go music defined much of his coverage during his time at the George Washington University in D.C. As a proud native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, he also stays up-to-date with the archipelago’s local scene and its biggest musical exponents in reggaetón, salsa, indie, and beyond.īefore working at HotNewHipHop, Gabriel produced multiple short documentaries, artist interviews, venue spotlights, and audio podcasts on a variety of genres and musical figures. Specifically, Gabriel enjoys the fringes of rap music: the experimental, boundary-pushing, and raw alternatives to the mainstream sound. What excites him the most is finding pop culture stories of interest, as well as a deeper passion for the art form of hip-hop and its contemporary output. Whether it’s regular coverage or occasional interviews and album reviews, he continues to search for the most relevant news for his audience and find the best new releases in the genre. He started in 2022 as a weekend writer and, since joining the team full-time, has developed a strong knowledge in hip-hop news and releases. Gabriel Bras Nevares is a music and pop culture news writer for HotNewHipHop. ![]()
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