BeatRoute Magazine AB Edition - February 2020

ANGELA RICCIARDI
TOTALLY LIT
Hoodie-clad rapper $NOT goes beyond Soundcloud.
W
hen $not was in high school,
he started exclusively
wearing hoodies and
it just stuck. Later on, he landed on
his stage name, $not, under similar
circumstances. His “why not?” ethos
bleeds over into his music, which
borrows enthusiastically from a
kaleidoscopic range of genres while
remaining grounded in the bass-heavy,
blown-out sound that has dominated the
last few years of underground rap.
Most notable of all is his 2018
breakout hit, “Gosha.” On it, $NOT
layers his raspy vocals over a haze of
nostalgic, wailed vocal samples and
a slow-rolling 808 pulse. It’s simple,
but quietly hypnotic, and the track
has racked up millions of plays and
propelled him to a new place: as one of
the post-Soundcloud scene’s leading
torchbearers.
The hoodie-clad rapper’s corner of
the music industry has seen a swath of
deaths in the last few years, and $NOT
is acutely aware that it’s up to him,
and those who remain, to push their
subgenre forwards. Over the phone
in mid-January, he likens posthumous
albums to somewhat of a mixed bag,
particularly when label involvement
distorts the artist’s original vision.
“I don’t really like when labels drop
albums after an artist dies,” he says.
“I get it — they’re supposed to make
their money back, fans want to hear
something — but it’s still weird because
they’re not around to have their say.”
He’s not overly concerned with his
own legacy, or at least, not just yet.
“Tragedy + is kind of a sad album, but
it’s also kind of lit,” he continues. “Most
of the album is just me singing, and it’s
heartfelt. It’s something that the kids
can listen to and get whatever they want
from, you know. People missed my old,
rawer sound, from 2017, where I’d just
start singing in the middle of songs. I’m
bringing that back this year.” STAR
$NOT’s debut album - Tragedy + will be
released March 6, 2020.
By ISAAC NIKOLAI FOX
FEBRUARY 2020 BEATROUTE 9