Cloud rap (also called trillwave) is a type of hip-hop music that started in the Southern hip-hop scene between the late 2000s and early 2010s. This style combines sounds from trap, ambient, and new age music to create a soft, dreamy, and calm atmosphere. It uses a lot of reverb and gentle, broken music samples. Artists and producers like Lil B, Clams Casino, Friendzone, Main Attrakionz, Viper, Metro Zu, and SpaceGhostPurrp helped develop this style.
In 2010, a music blogger named Walker "Walkmasterflex" Chambliss, who co-created the blog Space Age Hustle, used the term "cloud rap" to describe the music of Main Attrakionz member Squadda B. The term became more well-known with the release of the compilation album 3 Years Ahead: The Cloud Rap Tape. In 2011, the genre became more popular after ASAP Rocky released his first single, "Peso," followed by "Purple Swag" and his debut mixtape, Live. Love. ASAP. This mixtape included music made by Clams Casino and Friendzone, as well as appearances by Main Attrakionz and SpaceGhostPurrp.
In 2013, Yung Lean released the single "Ginseng Strip 2002," which became popular online and helped spread the style further. His group, Sad Boys, became important in the cloud rap scene. Other artists, such as Bones, Xavier Wulf, Chris Travis, Night Lovell, and Black Kray, also became well-known in this scene. Cloud rap influenced other internet rap styles, including emo rap, digicore, hexD, jerk, rage, and sigilkore.
Etymology
In 2010, music blogger Walker "Walkmasterflex" Chambliss created the term "cloud rap" in a blog post about the music of Main Attrakionz member Squadda B, whom he called "the king of cloud rap." The blog's creators later managed the duo. Chambliss believed he was using a phrase from a 2009 interview with 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 make the genre more popular.
The word "cloud" means the genre has special features like its "hazy" or dreamy and mysterious look and sound (both in how it sounds and looks) and that it is not clearly defined with clear rules or limits.
Characteristics
Cloud rap is a music style that uses soft, dreamy sounds, along with beats similar to those found in trap music. It takes inspiration from lo-fi hip-hop and chillwave. The way music is made in this genre often includes calm and relaxed sounds that are different from traditional hip-hop, such as ambient and new age music. Melodies are sometimes taken from J-pop, video game music, and anime soundtracks.
The lyrics in cloud rap sometimes focus on topics like love and betrayal, as well as common themes in popular music, such as sex, drugs, and loneliness.
This music style includes influences from different areas of the United States, including the East and West Coasts and the South. It often uses repeated sounds from slow-paced, calm, and spacey music, as well as songs by British female singers like Sade and Imogen Heap. Many cloud rap artists release their music without help from record companies and share their work online using services like SoundCloud, YouTube, and Twitter.
Cloud rap music is known for its soft synthesizer sounds, beats with lots of reverb, and distorted or broken samples. The style has a loose, low-quality feel and focuses on melody. It combines elements from many different music genres while staying connected to hip-hop. Many artists in this genre were influenced by witch house and chillwave, and some work with the same producers, such as Clams Casino, 90's Bambino, and SpaceGhostPurrp.
History
Cloud rap began in the Southern United States in the late 2000s. Earlier influences can be found in the 1990s through the Houston and Memphis rap scenes and in the early 2000s with the album Clouddead by the group Clouddead, which inspired the Californian group Main Attrakionz. In the late 2000s, artists like Lil B and producer Clams Casino helped shape the sound of cloud rap, starting as early as 2008. Other early influences included the underground Finnish rap scene and the work of Houston rapper Viper.
By 2010, artists such as Squadda B of Main Attrakionz, Friendzone, and South Florida musicians SpaceGhostPurrp and Metro Zu were labeled as cloud rap by online music critics, though some artists disliked the term and avoided it. Cloud rap gained wider attention in 2011 with rapper ASAP Rocky’s first single, Peso, followed by Purple Swag and the mixtape Live. Love. ASAP, which included production help from Clams Casino and Friendzone.
In 2013, Swedish artist Yung Lean became a major cloud rap artist after the music video for his song "Ginseng Strip 2002" became widely shared online. Producers like Yung Gud, Whitearmor, and Suicideyear, along with the online group Drain Gang (which includes Bladee, Ecco2k, Thaiboy Digital, and Whitearmor), also helped shape the genre. Bladee mentioned being influenced by the work of James Ferraro, who used the name BEBETUNE$.
Around the same time, other online rap groups contributed to cloud rap’s growth, such as Raider Klan (with SpaceGhostPurrp and Denzel Curry), ASAP Mob led by ASAP Rocky, Black Kray’s Goth Money, Seshollowaterboyz (with Bones, Xavier Wulf, Chris Travis, and Eddy Baker), and GothBoiClique (including Yung Bruh and Wicca Phase Springs Eternal). Other important artists included Night Lovell and the early work of Playboi Carti. By the late 2010s, cloud rap’s influence led to the creation of new genres like emo rap, digicore, and rage.
In the early 2020s, new artists blended cloud rap with other styles, such as plugg music and microgenres like jerk, sigilkore, and hexD. Artists like Xaviersobased, Fakemink, Yabujin, 2hollis, and Smokedope2016 were described as "cloud rap" musicians.
In 2025, the term "cloud rock" was introduced to describe a type of alternative rock influenced by electronica and internet music styles like hyperpop and cloud rap. Artists linked to this style include Dean Blunt, Quannnic, and Jane Remover.