SoundCloud for Developers

Before being scouted by a record label, these individuals and collectives have benefitted immeasurably from sharing their cut-throat stories with the world. Though the last decade has seen our perceptions of rap change forever. With the ascendence of the ‘snowflake’ generation, the genesis of a quite starkly contrasting name – emo rap – has taken the world by storm.

SadBoys of Soundcloud – an introduction to the world of emo rap

How a shamelessly glum Scandinavian teenage rapper with a thirst for Arizona Iced Tea came to influence the likes of Kanye and Drake.

Last updated: 4th Jul 2019

It has proven countless times before, that the internet can provide a platform to some truly wonderful things from all over the world. Where music is concerned, domineering platforms like Youtube and Spotify are responsible for bringing the sounds of the solar system to the comfort of your bedroom. The rap industry, in its ever-expanding popularity, is arguably the most dependant on these platforms.

Before being scouted by a record label, these individuals and collectives have benefitted immeasurably from sharing their cut-throat stories with the world. Though the last decade has seen our perceptions of rap change forever. With the ascendence of the ‘snowflake’ generation, the genesis of a quite starkly contrasting name – emo rap – has taken the world by storm.

Also known as Sadboy rap, the movement has found it’s way from a Swedish collective, headed by a kind of Scandinavian looking-Eminem, Yung Lean, and stormed its way into the works of Drake, Kanye West and The Weeknd. But, how, you may ask? Well, in order to solve the riddle, we must plunge into the heart of the matter. To see, why now, of all times, men discussing their feelings through tearful eyes is more popular than ever.

If the Urban Dictionary definition of a Sadboy is anything to go by: ‘Typically a young male who wears black clothes with sad faces or Japanese lettering, who enjoy drinking Arizona Iced Tea’, we are already dealing with a sub-culture species never seen before. Unless, perhaps, on a passing hipster.

The essence of sadboys can be found most notably in Kanye West’s 808’s and Heartbreak and even debatably in most indie music of the 80s and 90s (we’re looking at you Smiths fans). Whilst the impressions of sadboy DNA were already circulating before Yung Lean – an artist who takes pride in sorrow – it wasn’t until 2012, in a local park in Stockholm, that those impressions were finally given a name.

Formerly known as Hasch Boys, in 2012 Yung Lean, alongside Yung Gud and Yung Sherman split from the others members to form the group Sadboys. They began by releasing some demos and rough tracks onto Soundcloud and Youtube, then out of nowhere, one of their tracks, Ginseng Strip 2002, exploded on Youtube, exceeding a whopping two million views.

The track, accompanied by a video which gives the impression of a college kid trying to emulate a psychedelic trip, opens with the lines ‘Arizona ice tea boys, Yung Leandoer shawty, emotional boys 2001.’ The Sadboy collective seemed to fit those predetermined definitions like a glove (unlike their sagging trousers) and paved the way to an entirely new genre. Whilst critics were certain that this was merely a fad, the views for the video sky-rocketed to a whopping 24 million views, where it still sits today.

Two years later, the group embarked on their White Marble Tour, playing 24 shows (most sold out) across Europe and a further tour in North America. Their debut album Unknown Memory – a catalogue of ‘teenage angst, material fascinations and existential crisis’ – was striking a cord with fans all across the world. Lean landed a collaboration with ASAP Ferg and a feature on Frank Ocean’s album Blonde.

Yung Lean and the Sadboys (credit: Shallowww Pinterest)

There were several publications, including The New York Times, which were fascinated by how his ‘awkward delivery’ created such a ripple in the hip-hop scene. Whilst reviews respected what Lean had to offer, they also hinted that this new era of emo rap was finite, soon to be cast back into the unrelenting void of the internet.

But, they were wrong. Behind the scenes, the apostles of Lean were pioneering a sadboy rap revolution. The mid 2010s saw the likes of Lil Uzi Vert, the late Lil Peep, JPEGMAFIA and Lil Tracy, amongst others, storm into the limelight, gaining hundreds of millions of Youtube views, sell out shows and festival headline slots between them.

As his apostles became stars in their own right, the prince of sadness released his own clothing line, Sad Boy Entertainment, sporting the trademark Japanese writing and other random scribbles on a black or white background. Sad Boy Entertainment continues to sell thousands of units, and transported Lean from cult internet curiosity into a real life, successful brand. He has since released another three albums, all gaining critical and chart success.

Nowadays, the sensitive side of masculinity is more visible, the sellout shows and sketchy ticket prices of acts like Drake and Kanye are testament to that. See, Lean is an emblem of a generation of men that feel no shame in expressing their feelings, and rightfully so. He proved that you can still want to chase fast cars and women, but hey, it’s okay to cry. and to drink Arizona Iced Tea.

SoundCloud for Developers

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oEmbed

oEmbed is an open standard to easily embed content from oEmbed providers into your site. The SoundCloud oEmbed endpoint will serve the widget embed code for any SoundCloud URL pointing to a user, set, or a playlist. To find out more about the oEmbed standard, have a look at oEmbed.com.

The SoundCloud oEmbed endpoint is located at. It accepts any URL pointing to a user, set or track and supports JSON (CORS) and JSONP as a response format.

https://soundcloud.com/oembed

A basic request / response example:

$ curl "https://soundcloud.com/oembed" \\ -d 'format=json' \\ -d 'url=https://soundcloud.com/forss/flickermood'

Parameters

Name	Default	Description
url	–	A Soundcloud URL for a track, set, user.
format	json	(optional) Either json or js (for JSONP).
callback	–	(optional) A function name for the JSONP callback .
maxwidth	100%	(optional) The maximum width in px.
maxheight	166 or 450	(optional) The maximum height in px. The default is 166px for tracks and 450px for sets. If using the flash widget, the default is 81px for tracks and 305px for sets.
color	–	(optional) The primary color of the widget as a hex triplet. (For example: ff0066).
auto_play	false	(optional) Whether the widget plays on load.
show_comments	true	(optional) Whether the player displays timed comments.

Universal Music Can Delete Any SoundCloud Track Without Oversight

In a bid to tackle alleged infringement, popular music sharing platform SoundCloud is offering unlimited removal powers to certain copyright holders. Responding to a complaint from a UK DJ the company admitted that Universal Music can delete any and all SoundCloud tracks without oversight.

The major record labels still see online piracy as one of the main threats to their industry. To counter this problem they are constantly monitoring the Internet for copies of their work being shared without permission.

This also happens at SoundCloud, which in recent years became one of the most popular services for people to share music.

As a legitimate service, SoundCloud helps copyright holders by accepting takedown requests. However, in some cases SoundCloud goes a step further.

This is what DJ Mr Brainz discovered after his paid account was terminated due to repeated copyright infringements. Mr Brainz used SoundCloud to post copies of his radio show, which he believes drives more sales, but Universal Music disagreed and took down his files.

To find out more about the alleged infringements the DJ asked SoundCloud for additional details, as Do Androids Dance reports. Quite surprisingly, however, SoundCloud couldn’t provide more information as the removals were carried out by Universal music directly.

“Your uploads were removed directly by Universal. This means that SoundCloud had no control over it, and they don’t tell us which part of your upload was infringing. If you look at your tracklist it may help you find the Universal content they wanted blocked,” SoundCloud’s copyright team explained.

“The control of removing content is completely with Universal. This means I can’t tell you why they removed your uploads and not others, and you would really need to ask them that question,” the SoundCloud representative adds.

In other words, SoundCloud grants Universal Music the power to delete any and all content they deem to be infringing. This apparently happens without oversight or any record of what’s being taken down.

This blanket removal power is especially problematic since the affected users don’t know what they have done wrong. Without any details on the allegedly infringed track, it’s pretty much impossible to file a counter notice.

These type of broad takedown powers are not unique to SoundCloud. Previously YouTube has come under fire because the company allowed record labels to remove “disrespectful” videos or other non-infringing files the labels deemed inappropriate.

The recent issues at SoundCloud are not an isolated incident either. Over the past several months many users have complained about an avalanche of takedown notices. After America’s DJ Kaskade had 70 percent of his SoundCloud tracks removed due to alleged copyright infringements, he said he would start his own music sharing site instead.

“I will move forward with constructing my own portal where I can share what I like when I like,” Kaskade said.

Despite the critique SoundCloud sees no wrongdoing. The company points out that users are free to dispute any inaccurate takedowns. Unfortunately that’s easier said than done.

It is clear that SoundCloud is putting its users at a significant disadvantage here.