The Music of Bladee

With the emergence of the internet, especially platforms like Soundcloud, new artists have had the opportunity to gather large audiences and express themselves to an international audience. As such, many popular rappers today got their start on Soundcloud, being part of a genre fittingly named “Soundcloud rap.” 

One of these artists is Bladee, a Swedish rapper who released his first album “Eversince” in 2016. Getting his start by releasing singles and collaborating with another Swedish artist, Yung Lean, Bladee quickly rose to fame in the Soundcloud rap scene, getting 2 million plays on his debut mixtape “GLUEE.” 

Bladee is a part of the musical collective Drain Gang with two other artists, Ecco2K and Thaiboy Digital. Through this collective, Bladee makes a unique style of music. One reviewer on Pitchfork described his music as hypnotic, and he has described himself as “some sort of auto-tuned dark angel.” His music uses a multitude of different elements to create its unique sound. Of course, auto-tune is used, but he also uses bass-heavy and dreamy-sounding beats inspired by techno music to compliment his vocals.

This wide range of musical styles likely comes from Bladee’s many musical influences. He cites rappers like Chief Keef and Lil B as influences as well as bands like The Beach Boys. 

Bladee’s music also covers a variety of themes, such as songs about his lifestyle as a rapper and songs about happiness. On the other hand, he also explores themes of depression and sadness in his music. 

In addition to his music, he has a matching aesthetic. As well as being a musician, he is a visual artist and creates pieces that are often on album covers for his music. His visual art is very bright and colorful, fitting well with the themes in his music. He takes strong aesthetic influence from the often hectic and cluttered visual style on the early internet, although the intentionality in Bladee’s art makes it a different, interesting style. 

Bladee’s music has been called cloud rap and experimental pop, two genres of music that incorporate the same style of ambience and techno-inspired melodies that he uses. However, besides just being part of “rap” generally, Bladee prefers not to identify with a specific genre of music. Instead, he just identifies his musical style as being his own. This is perhaps a more accurate description of his music, as there really isn’t anything else that sounds like Bladee. 

Bladee’s music, while being relatively niche, has had a major influence on the upcoming hyperpop music scene, a genre of music that’s becoming popular on TikTok. As with most rappers in the Soundcloud rap scene, their musical influence often bleeds out from their own scene and affects artists from many different genres.

Sources:

1: Pitchfork, April 16, 2020, https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/bladee-exeter/