After experiencing breakout viral success, New Zealand rapper lilbubblegum talks the importance of giving back to day-one fans
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When New Zealand rap artist lilbubblegum first uploaded his self-released track “AF1” to SoundCloud in 2019 — one of the earliest originals he had ever recorded — he had no idea the song would catapult his career to exponential new heights. Amassing millions of streams across platforms, with SoundCloud accounting for 4.5 million alone, the breakout single helped lilbubblegum build a strong foundation. When he was 15, he became an active part of the aesthetic rap scene, where fellow SoundCloud artists would link in Discord servers to help each other and collaborate in group chats and calls. While still in high school, lilbubblegum released his 2021 debut EP, bubbleworld, full of the dreamy ethereal production and reverb-drenched, chilled-out vocals the sub-genre is beloved for.
As someone raised with the internet and who weaves myriad modern pop culture references into his music, lilbubblegum has since branched out sonically, experimenting with different facets of his sound and leaning into harder, more aggressive elements. While his style is in flux, this young gum still wanted to show love to his day-one fans, releasing a SoundCloud-exclusive EP called bubble oasis. Checking in from his home studio in Auckland, lilbubblegum opened up about his latest project — which involved fans directly throughout the rollout process — offering insight into how he uses the platform creatively.
What inspired you to start sharing your music online?
SoundCloud was the first platform I ever uploaded any sort of music to, so I’ve been using that since I was around 15 years old. I uploaded “AF1” and a few other songs there first. I started off using this app called BandLab, where I’d record all my music on my phone using some pretty cheap earphones. The beauty of that was I was able to upload it to SoundCloud without any sort of audio restrictions. I love how it started off as just mucking around and a bit of a hobby, which obviously turned into something I wanted to do long-term and has now become my career.
What was the motivation behind doing a SoundCloud-exclusive release?
It was about giving back to the fans. Because I’ve sort of shifted away from aesthetic rap, there was a lot of music I made like a year or two ago that I didn’t want just sitting in the vault. I wanted to release it through SoundCloud because I’m very thankful for the support I’ve received. The motivation was to give a gift to my fans [with a project that featured] the older kind of sound, but also it being a little bit more improved in a way too. For this release, we’d post two different snippets [of the songs] on Instagram, and then fans would vote what song would drop first. We tried to stick to a schedule but then sometimes we’d drop something sooner rather than later depending on how badly people wanted it. Eventually, every song did come out, but that was a cool way to do it because then it gave the power up to the fans to decide what song drops on SoundCloud. That was really awesome.
What was the feedback like? Did any part of this rollout strategy surprise you?
There were songs I liked more but the song that I didn’t like as much did the best out of all of them. That was the song that people gravitated towards the most. It’s kind of funny now, because I’m getting a lot of DMs about this song on the EP called “Moonlight,” where people are asking if it’s out yet and asking me to drop it, and I’m like, “Man, check SoundCloud!” [Laughs].
What advice do you have for other artists who want to follow a similar strategy or approach and drop a SoundCloud exclusive?
I think the beauty of SoundCloud is you’re not held back by a lot of restrictions, whereas other DSPs, you have to have certain specs for cover art for example. Or in terms of audio, you can literally upload MP3s to SoundCloud as well. Obviously, you want to stick to WAVs, but you can pretty much upload anything. I feel like SoundCloud has a very cult-like community as well. Everyone’s pretty diehard, so that’s been quite a cool thing to experience.
In terms of any advice I’d have for artists, I think it’s just about giving back to the fans, because they’re reason we’re able to do any of this at the end of the day. They stream the music, they go to shows, they do all that. So it’s all about giving back to the fans; that’s the most important thing. There’s also a leeway between doing the type of music you want to do, but also keeping in mind what other people wants as well. You don’t want to just do it all for other people, but you also need to keep in mind what people like and what people enjoy the most.
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How does SoundCloud fit into your day to day creative workflow? Are you using it for music discovery and to get inspiration from?
I honestly use it a lot, especially with making my tracks private – I can upload a setlist or something and it’s seamless to switch to a different track. I’ll play through a setlist if I’m going to be performing or I’ll upload my unreleased music if I want to listen to it at any time. That’s important to me, and I’ve started doing that more frequently. There’s been a few tracks where I’ve sent it to one of my mates for feedback. I feel like as an artist, you have to like every song you make for the most part, but it’s always good having people that can give you constructive criticism or feedback and not having “yes men” as your friends. I’ll send my mate a song, and then he’ll be like, ‘Oh, you could make that second verse better.’ I’ll be real stubborn, ‘Like, nah, I don’t know about that one.’ But then I’ll go back and change it and it ends up being a better song, so that’s really crucial as well.
There’s also a lot of stuff you can’t get on Spotify or Apple Music that you can listen to on SoundCloud or someone will have a SoundCloud-exclusive song. That’s been an interesting way to find new artists or music.
People nowadays archive their music, and then someone will re-upload it on SoundCloud. That’s quite useful when you can go back and listen to something because it’s still on SoundCloud.
Learn how to share private tracks or playlists on SoundCloud
Knowing that you’re based in New Zealand and have people listening in from all over the world, what has it been like getting to know where your audience is from?
Interestingly enough, a lot of my audience is in America. I think that’s because a lot of the music I’ve grown up listening to has always been a lot of U.S. rap or U.S. rock. A lot of people in Europe are listening to [my music] which is super cool. When I’ve gone through the insights on SoundCloud, it’s always interesting to see where people listen to your music from, especially countries you wouldn’t expect. There’s been people from countries like Hungary or Lithuania and other places in Europe, where I had no idea that people listened to the kind of music I make. I feel like Europe generally gravitates to a lot of darker-sounding music as well. It’s definitely surprised me quite a bit. SoundCloud has always been that platform where there’s just so many different niches.
There’s a lot of artists I really enjoy that aren’t necessarily in my scene [here in New Zealand], but we all show support to each other. The biggest part of my fan base is in America, which is why I do my best to travel here and there. In New Zealand, I think we’re definitely trying to build more of a community here for different kinds of music, rather than just doing what’s inside the norm.
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What encouraged you to release different versions of “AF1” (such as the slowed or the sped-up version)?
It’s lowkey just smoking the song, to be honest. Maybe there are some exceptions, but I think when you have a song that does exceptionally well, you might as well just find other ways to reinvent the song. It’s still kind of the same and it still has what made the song good in the first place. That’s been the reasoning behind doing a slowed-down or sped-up version. Out of both, I think the sped-up does better but I enjoy both; I can’t really pick one. It’s a bit weird, there’ll be edits to the song with whiplash or any something from a movie where they’ll edit the audio themselves to fit the song.
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What advice do you have for other artists who are looking to find their creative footing or find their voice?
Listen to all sorts of music. That’s where you’re gonna draw a lot of inspiration from, especially maybe even from the genre you don’t particularly make. If I’m going to make music, I won’t go listen to hip-hop. If I’m going to make a rap song, I’ll go listen to some indie or whatever it is. I think that’s the main thing – you might not draw inspiration sonically, but you might draw inspiration lyrically or from the way they’re telling a story. You might start off by being inspired by someone, but then, as you learn more about yourself, you’ll find yourself and you’ll find your sound.
What are you currently working on and what are you looking forward to in 2024?
I don’t know if I can say too much, but right now, I’ve been making a lot of music that’s geared more toward live performances. So, a lot more hype stuff, because a lot of my earlier music has always been aesthetic rap; it’s very chill, it’s very calm and the vocals are monotone-ish. I’ve wanted to head into a direction that’s a lot more aggressive, like mosh-pit kind of music. That’s something to look forward to next year. I’m looking forward to performing and also seeing how people react to this new kind of music once it’s out.
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