Plugg (music)

Origins of plugg music are traced to the distinct, gospel and soul-influenced production style of Zaytoven[4][1] and other southern rap influences, like OutKast,[4] as well as to loosely related subgenre of hip-hop called Chicago bop, which is a euphoric, fast-paced subgenre of drill music.[2] It first emerged around 2013 as a cohesive production style of the collective called "Beatpluggz", which at the time consisted of BeatPluggTwo, Stupidxool, and A$att and was founded by BeatPluggTwo and Stupidxool.[4] The signature beat style of plugg is credited to the Group’s sound, which was inspired by Zaytoven (although he himself prefers to downplay the link[11]), Project Pat, Juicy J, Gucci Mane, snap rap group D4L and the Paper Mario Nintendo soundtrack.[8][8][9] MexikoDro and his fellow Beatpluggz members got their first exposure to the world via the SoundCloud platform, where plugg gained underground following.[8][10] The defining reasons involved in the initial exposure of plugg are said to be genre's own sonic nature, deemed "near-ambient and intoxicating", which marked strong departure from popular styles of the day, and also the free nature of SoundCloud, which allowed many up-and-coming rappers to freely upload their songs done to the beats made by Beatpluggz.[6]

From around 2014 on, rappers like Playboi Carti,[5] Rich The Kid, Diego Money,[4] Kodak Black, Lil Yachty,[10] Famous Dex, Yung Bans and Reese LaFlare[6] brought mainstream attention to plugg for the first time by working with Beatpluggz and releasing tracks such as "Broke Boi" (by Playboi Carti),[10][5] "Plug!" (by Rich the Kid and Kodak Black),[4] "Hella O's" (by Lil Yachty), "New Wave" (by Rich the Kid and Famous Dex), "Hurrassin Me" (by Kodak Black and Humble Haitian)[1] and "No Cap" (by Yung Bans and Reese LaFlare). Around the same time, rapper Nebu Kiniza recorded his viral hit single "Gassed Up" (later certified platinum) to a similar plugg beat that was used in "Plug!" by Rich the Kid.[6] Among them, Carti was the first one to appreciate the production style of Beatpluggz, and also recorded other plugg records, such as "Money Counter", "Don't Tell Nobody", "Smash Pt.2" and "Chill Freestyle" around that time.[8][10] Despite "Broken Boi" being his breakthrough hit, Playboi Carti never actually paid back to MexikoDro for these plugg beats,[12] as MexikoDro later claimed in interviews. Whether Rich the Kid paid for the beat for his "Plug!", which also was one of the biggest plugg hits of the day,[4] song or not also remains dubious.[6]

During the first wave, plugg beats, mainly done by Beatpluggz, also helped to shape carriers of Unotheactivist, Thouxanbanfauni and Yung Gleesh.[6]

The first mainstream wave of plugg was mainly a fad and quickly faded away as the rappers (Famous Dex, Rich the Kid, Lil Yachty) moved on to work with other producers.[8][6] Playboard Carti had publicized creative break-up with MexikoDro, which was described "ugly" and moved on to work with Pi'erre Bourne, who wasn't making plugg.[6] Despite the aforementioned developments, in the underground during that time, plugg maintained consistent following and evolution, mostly thankfully to the online-centric nature of the subgenre.[10][6][2]

New wave of plugg started in 2019–2020 and stemmed mainly from several sources. First, a new style of plugg emerged, called pluggnb, which combined plugg with contemporary R&B. [8] Among the originators of this new style stood XanGang producers collective, producers CashCache, Dylvinchi,[1] Milanezie[10] and various rappers, such as BBY Goyard, I$AIAH, 909Memphis, rapper-producer Neiburr, and the SlayWorld artistic collective, namely: Autumn!, Summrs!,[5] Kankan.[2]

At the same time, a new wave of primarily plugg-oriented rappers emerged, many of whom grew listening to plugg, namely BoofPaxkMooky,[8][5][2] whose style is described to be reminiscent of the Playboi Carti-MexikoDro era songs,[6] and whose 2021 mixtape produced by StoopidXool called "Four Seasons" was regarded as one of the plugg's purest, according to a critic.[2] Tony Shhnow,[8][5] described as the one bringing the influence of the 1990s R&B and earlier Southern hip-hop into plugg,[6] 10k Dunkin[8][6][5] and others. A new pleiad of plugg producers also emerged closer to 2020, most notable of them being CashCache[5] and Cash Cobain.[8] CashCache was described as a "primary architect" of the plugg sound used by Mooky, Shhnow and 10k Dunkin.[6] He is also regarded as the person bringing more lounge music influences in plugg,[2] making a subgenre which has been dubbed "soft plugg".[1]

Around that time in 2020, StoopidXool and Cash Cobain collaborated on an album with a New York City plugg rapper FLEE, and that release included the viral pluggnb hit "SWISH / USE 2" recorded in collaboration with Brent Faiyaz.[8][6]

While BeefPaxkMooky, Tony Shhnow, 10k Dunkin and FLEE were described as "bringing the most true-to-the-form plug back" into rotation,[6] Lil Tecca, SSGKobe and SoFaygo helped to popularize the pluggnb sound by releasing TikTok hits "Blow Me Up", "Knock Knock" and "thrax", respectively.[6]

At the same time new names kept sprawling in the scene: Summrs! and Autumn! brought in influences from the sound typical for "SadBoys" lead by Yung Lean into plugg, other noted new names in the genre included Ka$hdami, 1600J and RewindRaps, among others.[6]

At the same time, plugg gained attention from Drake. Drake first recorded a song called "Plug" on a plugg beat around 2017, allegedly for his Scorpion album, but the song was later removed from the tracklist and only resurfaced online in 2020.[13] Later, also in 2020, Drake included a plugg track produced by MexikoDro titled "From Florida with Love" into his Dark Lane Demo Tapes mixtape.[8][14] The purported reason for the inclusion of a plugg song into tracklist, was speculated to be the second wave of underground plugg that Drake was aware of.[6]

By the end of 2021, plugg sound flourished[7] and developed further, with multiple artists starting to add more digicore influences into their sound, examples of this being Daesworld's "2003" and Jaydes' "Highschooll".[2] Producer Dani Kiyoko defined a darker style of plugg, dubbed "vamp plugg". Tracks such as "Xanax" by St47ic (producer by Dani Kiyoko) typify the "vamp plugg" sound.[2]

In 2022, "hyperplugg" memetic micro-subgenre started trending on SoundCloud and TikTok, when producer-artist Myspacemark started adding more influences of hyperpop into his plugg sound up to the point of claiming to have invented the "hyperplugg" subgenre. It was unclear whether the subgenre is merely an ironic meme or not, but after amassing tens of thousands views on TikTok, many fans of Myspacemark took his subgenre idea more seriously.[3]

French Parisian rapper Serane[6][4] first learnt about plugg after listening to "Broke Boi" by Playboi Carti, which changed the way he looked at music and he started producing plugg himself and formed a crew of designers and artists, who coined the local aesthetic of mixing plugg sounds with their reverence to Japanese designer clothes.[8] The crew of Serane, dubbed "#OneTruePath", was noted as somewhat resemblant to Yung Lean and his SadBoys crew from Sweden,[6] who were also largely influenced by imported American hip-hop subgenres during their time.[10]

To Serane's surprise, Atlanta plugg producers were supportive of his crew's efforts. After he collaborated with various American plugg producers and rappers, including ATL Smook, BreezyB, 10K Dunkin, Tony Shhnow, Dylvinchi and CashCache, MexikoDro and StoopidXool themselves contacted him and offered to collaborate on music.[8] Serane's song recorded on MexikoDro's beat, called "Pardonne Moi", uses the same beat MexikoDro used for his song called "Lord Forgive Me".[1]

At the same time, Serane met a great deal of criticism at home in France, where, in an aggressive UK drill dominated hip-hop environment, he was oftentimes dismissed as trash, mainly for his offbeat lesser-comprehendible flow.[15]

Besides Serane, other French plugg artists include rappers Southlove, Kasper!, Prince K., Yuri Online (all belonging to #OneTruePath), producers TTDafool, Voidd, Chenfol (also from #OneTruePath) and others[8][10] Of them, Chenfol (also variably spelled Chenpol) is described as the originator of plugg sound in France.[6]

Big Baby Tape was the first trap rapper from Russia to put plugg into spotlight with the release of his debut EP "Hoodrich Tales" in 2018, which he described as having "the essence of plugg music", according to his understanding.[16] Back in 2018 onwards, other plugg producers and artists emerged in Russia and CIS countries, among them NastyBoy Boo, Neyba Chap, Presco Lucci.

In late 2019, habip matsuevich released a song called "uber" on SoundCloud, which started the oper-plugg era. Though, oper-plugg wasn't that serious subgenre of a plugg. It mainly regards as a humorous genre. Even habip matsuevich was not happy about oper-plugg popularization, because, as he said in his interview, it is just a joke. First wave of oper-plugg started in August 2021 due to TikTok influence. Pioneers of first wave were Kumar Records, that popularized subgenre with "juug semerka", produced by MexikoDro. Although, the beat was mainly stolen and looped from this producer's samples, track have gotten a big recognition in underground and mainstream communities. Second wave - SBERBANGZSHAWTY, the fall of the oper-plugg as a subgenre itself. Even so, you can meet a oper-plugg rappers in the Russian underground community. Disputes about oper-plugg being an independent subgenre itself don't make sense, because whole genre is recognized as a sarcastic itself.