With a plethora of new music being released each week and more rappers than ever creating content, the internet can make or break an artist. It can be difficult to standout, and on top of creating sonically appealing, intriguing music, artists nowadays have to worry about their online image, fan engagement, and activity. Rappers who do all these things effectively can set themselves apart from other artists, while those who do it wrong clump themselves together with their rather unsuccessful peers.

An artist’s main focus should be appealing to his audience and gaining a following. But sometimes it’s tough for artists to reach a broad following – especially with so much other music saturating theirs. In this post, I’m going to provide a quick guide on how to dig deep and find an artist who appeals to you.

Think of all the music out there you haven’t heard but would love. Your new favorite song could have been released five years ago, and you may not even have a clue…

1. Pin point your interests

If you’re a rock fan, what kind of rock do you like? If you’re a hip-hop fan, do you prefer old school or new school rap? Up tempo club bangers or laid back, chill rap? Something simple and catchy, or lyrically dense?

These questions are all very important when discovering an artist you’d like. For people who prefer more laid back, melodic rap music, I wouldn’t recommend someone like Benny the Butcher – as he tends to focus more on gritty, tough talking drug rap. Rappers like Wiz Khalifa, Curren$y, or Mac Miller focus more on the sonics of their music rather than wordplay or slick rhymes.

2. Start with an artist you already enjoy and go from there

Even if you think you really like an artist, chances are you haven’t heard all their songs. Going to an artist’s Spotify or Apple Music page is usually what helps me find some of their best songs. Although I’m not very familiar with Spotify, Apple Music sorts artist’s pages by albums, EP’s, solo songs, and songs that artist is featured on. These are great ways to browse through and listen to songs you may have missed.

Apple Music also shows playlists that include songs by the artist you searched, and many times I’ve found an artist I had never heard of before on a random playlist, just because I listened to a Wale song I liked on it.

Additionally, at the bottom of an artist’s profile on Apple Music, a short list of 8-10 “similar artists” appears. Although this list isn’t always accurate in determining similar artists, it does often put you onto artists you hadn’t listened to before, and this feature actually helped me find IDK, one of my favorite new school rappers.

3. Look through artist’s mixtapes, SoundCloud, and loose releases

Sometimes, rappers give us their best music on mixtapes over other rapper’s beats, or in the form of a random single on SoundCloud. Since I was regrettably too young to be into rap music when Lil Wayne went on (quite possibly) the greatest mixtape run of all time from 2005-2009, going back and perusing his old mixtape songs is a treat. Mixtape Wayne is much different from album Wayne in the sense he cares less about what he has to say and is often remixing other rapper’s songs – basically making them his own. If I never went back in time to check out “Da Drought 3” (disc one and two) and “No Ceilings,” I’d have never discovered two of my favorite mixtapes of all time.

Long before the late Nipsey Hussle released his debut album in 2018, I found him through a random SoundCloud loosie he released back in 2013. The song isn’t on any streaming services or mixtapes, and if I didn’t stumble on it through SoundCloud, I never would have heard my favorite Nipsey song.

The moral here: old mixtapes and loose records can be a goldmine.

4. Check out underground hip-hop sites, blogs, and podcasts

Some of the best rappers out right now have no label backing them – making it more difficult than it already is to gain exposure. Sites like Underground Hip-Hop Blog and Hip-Hop DX do a good job showcasing new artists who have little following, but rap on par with some of the greats.

The Joe Budden Podcast also offers excellent commentary on new music released each week, and they even have a segment at the end of each episode called “Sleepers” where each host picks a song to play by an artist who’s not very well known.

I’ve discovered artists I really like, such as Tsu Surf, Blu, Skyzoo, Marlon Craft, Westside Gunn, and Conway the Machine through podcasts and blogs.

5. Word of mouth

Talking with friends and hip-hop connoisseurs may perhaps be the most old school method of finding new music – but it still works. At least a few times every week, I send songs I find to my friend and he’ll do the same. We have a very similar music taste, and about 99% of the songs we send to each other end up getting added to our music library.

Without each other sending what we’ve been listening to back and forth, we both would have missed out on some great music.