SoundCloud rap’s survivors succeeded by diluting the genre’s menace

Evidence

The few SoundCloud survivors leaned toward the genre’s softer side, most notably Post Malone. White, heavyset, and covered in facial tattoos, he diluted the SoundCloud rap into mainstream appeal, landing Bud Light Super Bowl commercials. “Cosmetically,” critic Grant Rindner observed, “the music world doesn’t look much different from when SoundCloud rap came to the fore.” — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 562

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the omnivore monoculture thesis: menace was flattened into mainstream appeal, erasing the subcultural distinctiveness that once signaled identity.