Cloud rap is a hip-hop subgenre built on hazy, reverb-soaked production: chopped and pitched samples, shimmering synths and trap-style drums that leave a lot of empty space. It formed online in the late 2000s and got its name around 2010, and one producer, Clams Casino, did more than anyone to define how it sounds. Splice describes it as “ethereal, atmospheric productions and largely region-less online origins”, a scene that grew on MySpace, music blogs and later SoundCloud. It is also called trillwave, and it sits in the internet-born corner of the rap subgenres map.
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Why it is called cloud rap
Blogger Walker “Walkmasterflex” Chambliss used the phrase in 2010, in a post calling Main Attrakionz’s Squadda B “the king of cloud rap.” Per Wikipedia’s cloud rap entry, Chambliss thought he was borrowing it from a 2009 interview in which Lil B showed an interviewer a computer-rendered image of a castle in the clouds and said he wanted to make that kind of music. Chambliss then used the name on 3 Years Ahead: The Cloud Rap Tape (2010), a compilation for his Space Age Hustle blog.
So the name came from a blogger, not from the rappers. Many of the artists disliked it. I think that is worth remembering whenever someone argues over who “counts.” The label was a critic’s shorthand for a texture, and it still works best as one.
Where it came from: Lil B, Clams Casino and the blog era
The lineage starts with a producer and a rapper trading files. Clams Casino, the New Jersey producer Michael Volpe, sent beats to Lil B, the Bay Area rapper, and their collaborations date to around 2008. The defining one is “I’m God.” Volpe built the instrumental around Imogen Heap’s “Just for Now” (2005) and, according to Wikipedia’s page on the song, made it around April 2009. Lil B rapped over it on his mixtape 6 Kiss, released December 22, 2009. The sample was hard to clear because it sat on a major label. Volpe later acquired the rights, Heap got a co-credit, and the song reached streaming officially on April 24, 2020, more than a decade late.
The sound then spread through a small set of 2011 releases:
- Clams Casino, Instrumentals (March 7, 2011). A free download of beats originally made for rappers, mostly Lil B, plus Soulja Boy, Squadda B and Main Attrakionz. Type Records reissued it physically later that year. Pitchfork scored it 8.2, and its track “Motivation” placed 30th on Pitchfork’s 2011 top-100 tracks list.
- Main Attrakionz, 808s & Dark Grapes II (August 2011). The Oakland duo, Squadda B and Mondre M.A.N., made a mixtape with production from Keyboard Kid and Clams Casino, among others, per The FADER’s review.
- A$AP Rocky, Live.Love.A$AP (October 31, 2011). The Harlem rapper’s free mixtape put the sound in front of a much bigger audience. Clams Casino produced “Palace,” “Bass,” “Wassup,” “Leaf” (with Main Attrakionz) and “Demons.” Beautiful Lou produced “Trilla” and “Kissin’ Pink.” SpaceGhostPurrp, the Miami artist behind the Raider Klan crew, produced “Keep It G.” The lead single “Peso” came from ASAP Ty Beats, so it is a Rocky-camp record, not a Clams one.
Credits on this era get mislabeled constantly, and “Peso” is the one people most often attribute wrong.
The sonic recipe
There is no strict tempo. Splice says plainly that cloud rap has no fixed BPM range, just a slower feel and more space between hits than trap. What holds it together instead:
- Chopped, pitched samples soaked in reverb. Sources run from Imogen Heap and Sade to J-pop, video game music and anime soundtracks. Female vocal samples are common.
- Synth pads. Many tracks skip samples and build the haze from detuned synths, borrowing from chillwave.
- Trap-influenced low end. Early drums leaned on TR-808 sounds; later versions borrowed hi-hat rolls and triplets from trap and Chicago drill.
- Long, spacious reverb on the drums too, where trap drums are usually dry.
Danny Brown once defined the genre as “Imogen Heap samples.” The line sticks because the sampling approach is the core of it. It also explains why cloud rap and trap are cousins: same drum vocabulary, opposite attitude toward space.
The producer canon
Clams Casino is the architect. “I’m God” and Instrumentals are the two records to know, and he went on to work with A$AP Rocky and others. Beautiful Lou is the Rocky-era counterpart, credited on “Trilla” and “Kissin’ Pink.” Keyboard Kid produced on Main Attrakionz’s 808s & Dark Grapes II. Splice also credits Whitearmor, Eric Dingus and F1LTHY on the later side. The point I would stress is that cloud rap was producer-led. The beat set the mood and the rapper moved inside it.
Descendants, 2013 to now
The scene did not stay American for long. In 2013 the Swedish rapper Yung Lean’s video for “Ginseng Strip 2002” went viral, which Wikipedia credits with making him a cloud rap figure. His Sad Boys crew and the Drain Gang collective, with Bladee, Ecco2k and Thaiboy Digital, carried the sound through the 2010s.
Chicago’s Lucki released Alternative Trap on July 25, 2013, and Wikipedia lists cloud rap among his genres. Clash described him in 2024 as having a “confessional cloud rap style”. Playboi Carti’s Die Lit (2018) is the top-rated “cloud rap” album on RateYourMusic, per Splice, a good example of how far the tag has stretched.
Wikipedia traces several later styles back to it, including emo rap, digicore and rage. That is why a hazy synth bed under a rage verse still sounds familiar. Mumble rap gets confused with cloud rap, but mumble rap is a vocal delivery and cloud rap a production texture; hyperpop shares some of the same internet-native DNA.
Is cloud rap dead?
No. The name faded, the sound did not. Almost no one calls a new record “cloud rap” in 2026 the way bloggers did in 2011, but the ingredients (reverbed samples, wide synths, sparse 808s) are standard equipment. Wikipedia even notes an early-2020s wave of artists such as Xaviersobased and Fakemink tagged as cloud rap. My view: the term outlived its usefulness as a scene label, but the sound is in a lot of what gets filed under rage today.
Records that show the range
- Lil B, “I’m God” (2009). Clams Casino’s Imogen Heap flip, the founding document.
- Clams Casino, “Motivation” (Instrumentals, 2011). The instrumental on its own.
- A$AP Rocky, “Palace” (Live.Love.A$AP, 2011). Clams Casino production at mixtape scale.
- Main Attrakionz, 808s & Dark Grapes II (2011). The Oakland blueprint, start to finish.
- Yung Lean, “Ginseng Strip 2002” (2013). The sound goes to Sweden.
- Lucki, Alternative Trap (2013). Chicago’s version, with a self-chosen label.
- Playboi Carti, Die Lit (2018). Cloud rap’s texture inside a very different performer.
FAQ
Who invented cloud rap?
No single person did. Clams Casino and Lil B made the founding records from around 2008 and 2009, and Walker Chambliss named it in 2010. Main Attrakionz and A$AP Rocky built the audience.
What does cloud rap sound like?
Slow, spacious and washed in reverb: pitched samples, synth pads and trap-style low end, with the rapper sitting inside the haze.
Is Lil Peep cloud rap?
No. Lil Peep is usually filed under emo rap, which borrowed from cloud rap’s textures but centers on sung hooks and samples from 2000s emo. The difference is the songwriting, not the haze.
Is Lucki cloud rap?
Often, yes. Wikipedia lists cloud rap among his genres and Clash called his style cloud rap, though he named his own sound “alternative trap.”
For a next listen, put on Instrumentals with nothing else going, then go back to the full rap subgenres map and compare it with phonk, the other SoundCloud-era sound with a very different mood.
— Davood Tavakoli, Cyphlore