2018 gave way to a whole new wave of artists. Hip-hop changed dramatically. It became an industry many critics thought would die out after almost a year of “mumble rap”. Fortunately, the term “mumble rap” has fallen out of favor. The newest trending term in hip hop is “emo rap” – another vague macro term to encompass music combining rock inspired vocals with hip hop inspired production. The problem with this “emo rap” label is it represents all solo acts, no matter how rock inspired, such as fats’e and nothing, nowhere, who record over live guitar and drums.
Many critics describe the scene as a collection of Lil Peep fanboys, when the scene is really made up of unique alternative rock singers who finally have a platform and accessibility to production. Instead of searching for a talented guitarist, drummer, pianist, and bassist for a band, singers can now recruit a single producer to accompany their vocals. “Emo rap” is really a rebirth of the alternative rock scene.
Out of the many alternative rock singers who gained traction over the past year, Shattered (@prodbyshattered) is one of our favorites.
The 15 year old singer dropped his first song, Hold Up!, co-produced by Scotty Splash, 9 months ago. Since then, Shattered has dropped 30 tracks and his first official album. While he is quite active on Twitter and Instagram, he is yet to drop any music videos. This same marketing style helped XXXTentaction rise to fame: a heavy following on Tumblr supported by zero music videos helped create an air of mystery while simultaneously establishing a connection with the artist. A look into Shattered’s Twitter account reveals the life of an average 15 year old kid. Shattered discusses bullying, anxiety, his creative process and more frequently on his social media profiles.
As opposed to other artists in the scene flexing jewelry, cars, or their drug addiction, Shattered shows off his normal life.
Shattered’s success can also be contributed to the Spotify Tear Drop playlist. While the playlist had an updating hiatus since September, a recent change last week suggests the playlist will go back to its weekly updates. The playlist, with over 400,000 followers, has been instrumental in the growth of artists such as Shattered, Pink Cig, James Colt, 6obby, and more. Shattered was one of many artists left on the playlist during the updating hiatus, bringing him in more than 90,000 consistent monthly listeners. His numbers haven’t declined since the beginning of fall, and we expect his buzz to continue into 2019.
His Spotify stats show he broke two million plays this year alone. We’re excited to see what numbers he does in 2019.
If you’re active on our blog, you’ll have read our review of his CATALYST project, one of our favorite projects of the year. We gave the project a 10/10 for its originality, beat and feature selection, as well as overall solidity of the project. You can read our review here.
Any active member of the music industry knows the value of networking and connections. Shattered’s production and feature credits as well as his stats show that he’s not only solidified himself as a member of the scene, but has the support of artists such as Convolk and 9Tails, major front runners in the “emo rap” scene. Shattered will be performing his first show, with friend and collaborator Yung Van, in the coming months.
Shattered, 9Tails, and Flowars linked up on CATALYST for one of the project’s most successful songs, Lotus Love.
What do you think of Shattered’s music? For an artist so young, he has so much potential.