More Dollars Than Followers - Live from the Underground Rap Scene

Profiles on $uicideboy$, XXXTENTACION, BONES, HAARPER, Shakewell, Ski Mask The Slump God, Freddie Dredd, Pouya, $NOT & more

Apr 24, 2024

The internet is an interesting place. Depending on where you spend your time and how the algorithms are tuned to your activities, significant events can unfold without ever coming to your attention.

Take Caitlyn Clark, for example. Despite her long-standing success, many only came across her name in 2024. She’s been making waves for years, just ask Travis Scott.

Or MrBeast, who churned out a new video every five days for a decade, accumulating billions of views. Yet, some are only now discovering him following rumors of his staggering $100M deal with Amazon.

Similarly, Olajide Olatunji, better known as KSI, ranked second on Forbes' Top Creators List for 2023. Despite the fame, many remain unaware of him or his energy drink, Prime (co-founded with Logan Paul), which soared in sales from $250M in 2022 to $1.2B in 2023. Perhaps it was only recently that you stumbled upon him, like when Yankees star Aaron Judge endorsed Prime or when WWE incorporated it into their ring mats.

Perhaps you’re not up to speed on Cooper Flagg and Khaman Maluach, Duke’s five-star recruits who are the most hyped college tandem since Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins.

Then there's Scott Anthony Arceneaux Jr. and Aristos Norman Petrou, better known by their rap monikers Scrim and Ruby da Cherry. This duo, known as $uicideboy$, hailing from New Orleans, outsold renowned artists like 21 Savage, Lil Wayne, Lil Uzi Vert, Tyler The Creator, and Doja Cat last year.

If you're not familiar with all those artists, it's worth noting that $uicideboy$ also moved more units than Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Ed Sheeran, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Adele, and Bruno Mars in 2023.

This isn't meant to diminish the achievements of any of those artists. Rather, it's to give you a sense of the $uicideboy$'s widespread appeal.

According to data from Luminate, $uicideboy$ ranked as the twenty-third most consumed act in 2023. However, you might not realize this if you only look at their social media metrics.

According to Midia Research, Spotify boasts the largest market share among digital streaming platforms, capturing nearly thirty-two percent. As of mid-March, $uicideboy$ ranked 830th in monthly listeners and 425th in followers on Spotify, as per Chartmetric data.

Just to clarify: they hold the 23rd spot for overall consumption, but their ranking on Spotify is 830th for monthly unique listeners and 425th for followers. Their standing on other social platforms is even lower.

In a landscape where "going viral" has become ambiguous due to shifting parameters, and where having a substantial following doesn't necessarily equate to financial success, how do the $uicideboy$ manage to thrive?

For starters, the punk-rap duo has a tremendous work ethic.

They’ve been super-serving their fanbase for the past decade with constant releases and shows.

Over the past ten years, they’ve released 364 songs. This doesn’t include features or their individual projects. That’s an average of 36.4 songs per year - a helluva lot of music.

And the music they make is authentic to who they are.

In an interview with Kristin Robinson at Billboard in 2021, Ruby da Cherry shared:

“When we first started, we wanted to do the exact opposite of what everybody in rap was doing. We didn’t have nice cars or gold chains, so we just flexed that we were losers, and mixed in some shock-rap and stuff about our mental health issues. We’re just trying to catch people’s attention.”

With the support and vision of their managers Kyle Leunissen and Dana Biondi, business is boomin’.

According to TouringData, their Grey Day 2023 Tour grossed $43M across 44 tour dates leading to 434k tickets sold.

Just under $1M a night coming through the doors, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not more) generated at each stop from merch.

And with an experience like this, it’s no wonder that they can spin the block in 2024.

Scrim and Ruby aren’t just artists, they are also label owners and entrepreneurs.

And they always make sure to bring some of their G59 label artists and peers on the road with them.

Their 2023 tour run included G59 artist Ramirez as well as underground peers Ghostemane (Black Image), City Morgue (Republic), Freddie Dredd (RCA), and Sematary.

Their upcoming Greyday 2024 Tour includes G59 artist Shakewell, as well as Pouya (All But 6/EMPIRE), Denzel Curry (Concord), HAARPER (EMPIRE), and Ekkstacy (United Masters).

G59 the label had a monster 2023. The collective of artists generated 4.53B streams and moved 3.27M albums w/TEA w/SEA according to data from Luminate.

This includes releases from:

Night Lovell
- 138.3k albums w/TEA w/SEA
- 197.5M streams
Ramirez (often stylized as Rvimrxz)
- 151.3k albums w/TEA w/SEA
- 208.1M streams
Germ
- 75.5k albums w/TEA w/SEA
- 106.7M streams
Chetta
- 18.9k albums w/TEA w/SEA
- 26.8M streams
Shakewell
- 152.4k albums w/TEA w/SEA
- 212.9M streams
$uicideboy$ x Pouya
- 125.9k albums w/TEA w/SEA
- 180.5M streams
$uicideboy$ x Germ
- 153.1k albums w/TEA w/SEA
- 216.5M streams
$uicideboy$
- 2.45M albums
- 3.4B streams

$uicideboy$ have built something special just by being their authentic selves - sharing their struggles which ultimately resonate with the fans.

Other artists have shared their struggles and have had similar success.

XXXTENTACION helped pioneer a new genre of rappers through his success on Soundcloud. Despite his tragic death almost six years ago, his music still thrives and also helps to inspire the next wave of artists.

XXXTENTACION boasts two RIAA-Certified Diamond singles: "F*ck Love" featuring Trippie Redd and "Sad!"

To further exemplify XXXTENTACION’s significance as an artist, consider this: out of the six hundred twenty songs (and growing) in Spotify's "Billions Club," he claims nine spots, surpassing all but five artists.

The distributor for five of those nine XXX songs is EMPIRE.

EMPIRE - founded by Ghazi Shami in 2010, is a common thread for a lot of the artists thriving in this genre.

Not only does EMPIRE distribute multiple XXXTENTACION albums, but they also work with and have helped develop artists such as:

BONES
Xavier Wulf
HAARPER

In addition, they distribute TRASH GANG - the popular YouTube channel that boasts over 5M subscribers and 2B views, turned record label.

EMPIRE has also partnered with South Florida label, All But 6 whose roster includes:

KXLLSWXTCH
Pouya
Fat Nick
Lu
South Strip

Together, they have a tremendous collective of talent repping the underground rap scene.

While some might not be familiar with these artists, their consumption is impressive and it’s a reflection of their core fan bases constantly tapping in with their music.

2023 end-of-year consumption numbers:

BONES (Team Sesh/EMPIRE)
- 293k albums w/TEA w/SEA
- 415.7M streams

HAARPER (EMPIRE)
- 81.4k albums w/TEA w/SEA
- 113.3M streams
Xavier Wulf (EMPIRE)
- 298k albums w/TEA w/SEA
- 427.2M streams
XXXTENTACION (EMPIRE)
- 1.37M albums w/TEA w/SEA
- 2.16B streams
Pouya (All But 6/EMPIRE)
- 159.8k albums w/TEA w/SEA
- 219.1M streams
Fat Nick (All But 6/EMPIRE)
- 16k albums w/TEA w/SEA
- 23M streams
KXLLSWXTCH (All But 6/EMPIRE)
- 132.3k albums w/TEA w/SEA
- 235M streams

The artists above moved a combined 2.4M albums and 3.6B streams in 2023.

Clearly, underground rap artists can move real units.

To further this point, consider comparing them with other, more well-known rappers, many of whom are signed to major labels and have larger social followings.

It's important to note that this comparison is not meant to undermine any of these artists’ success.

Spotify has over nine million artists on its platform, and fewer than 3,000 managed to sell over 50,000 albums (across all platforms) when accounting for track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA) in 2023 so every artist shown in this graphic is in the top 1% of the respective field.

Here are the end-of-year rounded consumption numbers for 2023 (Albums w/TEA w/SEA), according to data from Luminate:

$uicideboy$ (G59) 2.5M Albums | Lil Uzi Vert (Generation Now/Atlantic Records) 2.3M Albums
- $uicideboy$ - 3.1M IG Followers
- Lil Uzi Vert - Deactivated but was 17.6M IG Followers
Freddie Dredd (RCA Records) 329K Albums | Wale (Def Jam Records) 311K Albums
- Freddie Dredd - 630K IG Followers
- Wale - 4.8M IG Followers
Ski Mask The Slump God (Victor Victor Worldwide/Republic Records) 323K Albums | 42 Dugg (4PF/CMG/Interscope Records) 296K Albums
- Ski Mask The Slump God - 5.2M IG Followers
- 42 Dugg - 2.5M IG Followers
Xavier Wulf (EMPIRE) - 298K Albums | The Game (100 Entertainment) - 293K Albums
- Xavier Wulf - 787K IG Followers
- The Game - 13.8M IG Followers
BONES (Team Sesh/EMPIRE) 293K Albums | A$AP Ferg (RCA Records) 238K Albums
- BONES - 956K IG Followers
- A$AP Ferg - 5.3M IG Followers
Lil Darkie (Vydia/Independent) 217K Albums | SleazyWorld Go (Island Records) 207K Albums
- Lil Darkie - 548K IG Followers
- SleazyWorld Go - 653K IG Followers
Ghostemane (Black Image/Independent) 196K Albums | Luh Tyler (Atlantic Records) 187K Albums
- Ghostemane - 2.1M IG Followers
- Luh Tyler - 1.1M IG Followers
Pouya (All But 6/EMPIRE) 160K Albums | 24kGoldn (RECORDS/Columbia Records) 159K Albums
- Pouya - 1.3M IG Followers
- 24kGoldn - 984K IG Followers
Shakewell (G59) 152K Albums | Kay Flock (Capitol Records) 148K Albums
- Shakewell - 259K IG Followers
- Kay Flock - 818K IG Followers
Ramirez (G59) 151K Albums | Lil Mosey (Cinq Music) 149K Albums
- Ramirez - 413K IG Followers
- Lil Mosey - 4.1M IG Followers
KXLLSWXTCH (All But 6/EMPIRE) 132K Albums | Pusha T (GOOD Music/Def Jam Records) 117K Albums
- KXLLSWXTCH - 99.2K IG Followers
- Pusha T - 3.5M IG Followers
HAARPER (EMPIRE) 81K Albums | Machine Gun Kelly (Bad Boy/Interscope Records) 79K Albums
- HAARPER - 102K IG Followers
- Machine Gun Kelly - 8.9M IG Followers
Germ (G59) 75K Albums | YOVNGCHIMI (Encore Records) 71K Albums
- Germ - 371K IG Followers
- YOVNGCHIMI - 1.5M IG Followers
City Morgue (Republic Records) 56K Albums | Fivio Foreign (Columbia Records) 56K Albums
- City Morgue - 354K IG Followers
- Fivio Foreign - 1.9M IG Followers

Several factors influence music consumption, with the most crucial being whether the artist released new music and the amount of music they released.

Critics might point out that I selectively chose these artists, and they would be right. Indeed, many mainstream acts outsell underground rap acts. Nonetheless, the essential point stands: lesser-known artists can attain levels of success that match or surpass those of more famous artists. Often, A&R representatives pursue the same acts simply because others are interested in them. However, entities like G59, All But 6, and EMPIRE exemplify success in this area because they focused on the unique appeal of underground rap, recognizing it as a distinct scene, rather than just chasing mainstream trends.

A key indicator of whether an artist is building a core fanbase is their inclusion in show and festival lineups, as promoters aim to book acts that can draw ticket sales.

For instance, the latest Rolling Loud LA featured several underground artists. This lineup included $uicideboy$, Ski Mask The Slump God, BONES, Pouya, KXLLSWXTCH, Xavier Wulf, Fat Nick, Terror Reid, Eddy Baker, and Savage Ga$p, demonstrating their appeal and growing fanbases.

Here are profiles of several artists (not an exhaustive list) who are prominent in the underground rap scene. The data on their audio streams is sourced from Luminate. To estimate their anticipated gross revenue, we multiply the number of their audio streams by $0.005 per stream.

$NOT

Reppin: Lake Worth Beach, Florida

Label/Distributor: 300 Entertainment

The Bag

More Dollars Than Followers - Live from the Underground Rap Scene

Profiles on $uicideboy$, XXXTENTACION, BONES, HAARPER, Shakewell, Ski Mask The Slump God, Freddie Dredd, Pouya, $NOT & more

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