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The breakout star of today’s hyper-online, borderline avant-garde underground rap scene, 17-year-old Gunner Shepardson—better known as Nettspend—is, depending on who you ask, a visionary, a harbinger of hip hop’s end, moderately interesting, or maybe just the most swagged-out teenager on the planet. Your opinion likely hinges on the year you graduated high school—or where you were on the night of December 18, 2023, when a mob of skaters and balaclava-clad SoundCloud rap devotees descended upon an industrial metal detector outside the Mercury Lounge after waiting four hours for Nettspend, xaviersobased, Yhapojj, and Phreshboyswag to make an appearance. For me, the answer somewhere lies in the reuploaded video for Nothing Like Uuu: a mesmerizing hyperpop-rap hybrid that somehow distills the essence of a month at Market Hotel into just two minutes. It’s a whirlwind of gratuitous fog machine smoke, mumbled Chief-Keef-Jr-isms about wanting to "get geeked all night," swirling synths straight out of a Doss DJ set, and, at the center of it all, Nettspend—the inexplicable teenager with black X’s on their hands, completely at home in the chaos.
Dec 30, 2024
Related Recs
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If future generations wonder why hip-hop became what it became, they should look no further than Xaviersobased, the 21 year old native of the Upper West Side. Xavier dropped two albums in 2024 to much acclaim and fanfare — including a Best New Music at Pitchfork — and became a sui generis rapper of Gen Z. They’ll be talk about Nettspend being the future: Xavier, however, has been able to develop a signature style that is indebted to previous generations and still utterly modern and fresh.
It’s not just the hyperpop, the jerk, the trap, crashing into the cloud rap with Xavier, it’s the vignette songwriting on “Pediatrician”, where he recalls a time where he was watching noggin in the waiting room while looking at his spongebop wallet. “I had bands on me back then, I have bands on me right now”, he says, singing with a boyish nasal. On “You See Me”, he floats, over a Rainbow Road-like beat, saying “I didn’t speed down that strip.” Somehow, it’s both laconic and intense, perfect for the kids of Gen Z, who are growing up with worse resources but more knowledge of self than ever before.
The kid is laconic and understands stardom — I saw him do two songs at a warehouse in Soho and was shocked at how sober and focused he was. In 2025, Xavier will be leading the way.
Dec 30, 2024
May 27, 2025
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I'm not exactly recommending the music – the sound is very specific: punchline Detroit rap about scamming over sped-up '80s samples – so much as the total package persona. When I first stumbled on Babytron in 2019, I was drawn to his ridiculous references (Jimmy Neutron, Dennis Schröder), unpopular music videos shot in electronics departments and beginner's mustache, but also the YouTube comments saying that he looked like Drake Bell or speculating about his race. In the years since, he's gotten some good press and grown out his hair yet almost everything else is the same: tons of music, low-budget videos, rapid-fire Gen-Z Mitch Hedberg bars. He still doesn't have a Wikipedia page. When I saw him live earlier this year, someone asked me how old I was, because they were pretty sure I was the oldest person there. (I’m 34.) He headlined for like 25 minutes and missed about half of his verses because he was hitting a blunt. Stop saying that I'm offbeat if I match the tempo.
Nov 9, 2022
Top Recs from @windy
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And then you smile at your phone all day long
Jan 9, 2024
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I remember a few weeks back there was some discourse about how good the band Failure is, and I want to use this opportunity to echo a growing appreciation I’ve been seeing for the 00s indie rock band Pinback. i really mess with their album Blue Screen Life (2001), super fun, melodic, bouncy guitar music with post hardcore guitars, sugary vocal harmonies and buzzy synthesizers.
While I think you’d obviously be into them if you’re into like Jimmy Eat World or Death Cab, I also would recommend for fans of The Postal Service, Frou Frou, Blonde Redhead, even like Unknown Mortal Orchestra or Stereolab. this some melancholic indie pop/post-emo with electronic elements and creative songwriting yall.
If you a Pinback head, sound off in the comments - what is your favorite pinback riff…
Jan 21, 2024
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Straight up not the movie I thought it was going to be. I was expecting like Planet of the Apes/King Kong style hijinks and this movie reminded me of Dunkirk, Hiroshima Mon Amour, Shoplifters, and Neon Genesis Evangelion while still basically having blockbuster qualities. kind of refreshing and epic
Jan 20, 2024