Introducing... Catxscan

With 2026 closing in, the impact of music sharing platforms such as Soundcloud are more and more taken for granted as an integral facet of our ever growing fabric of sonic horizons. Unless one lived through the period of the site and app’s inception or take themselves as some sort of pseudo-Soundcloud-historian (both titles of which I would claim, haha), it’s hard to fully grasp the way “internet rap” has completely shaped the modern era of pop, hip hop, and mainstream cultural trends that interface with our day-to-day lives via the medium of its birth in the first place, the world wide web, as well as, the social platforms that developed alongside it and the streaming services, like Spotify and Apple Music, with the new era of media intake and digestion that they ushered in. Despite its widely perceived devolvement (reference my interview with new-gen cloud rap collective, Elfaction, for more on that specifically), Soundcloud has managed to maintain itself as a pillar in the frontiers of artistic and musical evolution.

Alongside the ebb and flow of the waters of Soundcloud are a pool of artists who have grown and changed in parallel, shaping the platform as much as they themselves have been shaped by it, in a natural world imitating, symbiotic kind of way. One of these figureheads is the ground zero, based boy, internet rapper, Catxscan, an underground phenomenon, quintessential Soundcloud artist, and embodiment of the historical cross-culture narratives embodied by the greater online musical playing field. As much a relic of a bygone era as a looking glass of contemporary trends, I was first exposed to the work of Catxscan due to his association and collaborations with my friend, fellow underground rap phenomenon, and pioneer, Kemet Dank the Dank God (more on that in my previous interview with Kemet). Being a hoarder of artists’ discographies, this past spring of 2025, I had found myself deep diving the decade plus work of Catxscan, roughly 500 of his songs, on my iPod at work, in the car, and at home. It begged the question, what are the implications around modern musical movements, specifically in the realms of hip hop, that can be deduced through an artist as monolithic, time-tested, yet overlooked as Catxscan? Does someone like Catxscan personify a platform such as Soundcloud? Or is Catxscan as an idea, personified by the platform? A chicken versus the egg situation, if you will. Ultimately, reflecting a larger existential crisis, are we defined by the internet? Or is the internet defined by us? At the end of the day, whether it matters or not is up for debate, but the inextricable intertwining of human and digital interfaces is something every person can’t help but be keenly aware of.

I worked my way through the larger part of Catxscan’s available material, semi-consciously creating a sort-of, excessively hard to dwindle down, “Best Of” for him and his work (linked in this article), spanning his early material to the most recent releases (which at the time of writing this would be his albums, Nu Ark Deluxe and Jehova’s Witness). What is fascinating about Catxscan specifically is his ability to over the years be so on-trend, if not ahead of the curve, with many of the sonic developments of the Soundcloud platform, as well as, be professionally and collaboratively integrated with a great deal of the both early and contemporary successful artists to arise from the platform. I found myself enthralled, and having previously worked with and corresponded with him, I reached out to schedule an interview to talk about the history of his work in music, his insights to these Soundcloud-spawned cultural trends and clout laden, limelight moments, as well as the broader implications of a project like Catxscan. He kindly obliged and he and I, unsurprisingly, chatted for much longer than we initially anticipated, marking almost three hours exactly on our call, which I have attempted to hem down here for the sake of ease of use.

One of the first things we discussed was his musical origins, he reflects an interesting phenomenon that permeated the early days of Soundcloud and post-Lil B, internet rap: the mass migration of artists and individuals from hardcore and metal scenes to online hip hop communities and platforms (which I even recall happening in Tulsa, OK within my own local “scene” when I was in high school around the early 2010s. The artist, Gengar, from that period still performs to this day). Artists such as Nedarb, Slug Christ, Crimewave, King Yosef, and even Post Malone act as examples of the modern overlap between “heavier” music, specifically the subgenres of hardcore and metalcore, with hip hop and rap (and who can forget the short lived era of Trash Talk and Odd Future collabs?). Catxscan is similar in that his first experience creating music, performing, and integrating into its related communities came from metal at a young age; fronting the band, Mockery of Ideals, in rural Oregon around 2010. He went on to run his own DIY, all ages centered space shortly afterwards, again, at a surprisingly young age, booking the likes of Chelsea Grin, Dr. Acula, and in his own words, working with every band he ever liked. His period in DIY metal and hardcore solidified in him a love for music, and particularly performance, as well as a serious desire to actualize it as a permanent career. This also catalyzed his initial interest in rapping, when an MGK touring package came across his venue’s desk and he realized the potential of working as a solo artist as opposed to a group of musicians.

I believe on a macro scale, that a similar realization is what brought about the shift  from metal and hardcore scenes to internet based rap music at the time. With exposure to and newfound understanding of a seemingly more feasible means of living as a fulltime artist, along with, the creative liberation that comes with working solo (and of course, the flashiness of the lifestyle), rap and hip hop garnered new interest from those seeking to perform and tour for a living. In this way, Catxscan is rather indicative of a greater cultural and hiveminded transition that occurred around the inception of the Soundcloud platform. During our interview, he informed me that the “Catxscan” alias was originally conjured from a brainstorm with a friend as a means to begin performing as more marketable acts in order to liberate themselves from teen monotony and lack of autonomy, during this specific moment from his life they would be considering DJing, however the name would take more permanently. In this way, a young Catxscan and his friend’s perception of DJing and rapping as being more financially rewarding of a career (even with backgrounds in hardcore and metal), points towards a youthful, universal understanding and acknowledgement amongst later millennials and early Gen Z of a much larger industry wide change that was occurring and had occurred around them. The era of rock stars was dead, long live the rapper; today’s bedroom mixtape could contain tomorrow’s radio hit. Catxscan embodies a generation’s belief in the power of music and art as a means of not just personal expression, but of business and employment; in the 2010 landscape of his artistic origin, the consumption of media and means of distributing and promoting it, would begin to further drastically change.

Around the turn of the first decade, Soundcloud would begin gaining traction in ways greater than merely becoming a streaming powerhouse, it would establish itself as the point of origin for many of the major cultural, artistic, and social movements of the time. Catxscan would get in at the ground floor, and could be considered a member of the “same graduating class” as many of the early wave Soundcloud stars, such as Goth Boi Clique. Many of Catxscan’s notable collaborations would originate in the interface of these Soundcloud-based social scenes, largely attributing his initial introduction to his friend Kemet Dank’s advocacy, who at the time time had been brought in to the communal folds through his own involvement with Basedworld, a fandom of rapper Lil B the Basedgod, that mutually connected many of the early Soundcloud artists of 2012 (such as innovators, Metro Zu and SGOD). Overall, early socialization patterns associated with the streaming site as well as social media, such as Twitter, would be hugely responsible for creating the network of first and second wave internet rap artists, of which Catxscan artistically bloomed within and created his web of collaborators. We spent some time reminiscing over these days of early internet rap when we talked, reflecting on the ways the community seemed to cross pollinate more fluidly and frequently at the time; how, according to Catxscan, everyone was simply interested in working, you could have a song with anyone. There were not quite the gatekeep-y checkpoints built around presence, hype, or following that are more present today in a far more oversaturated playing field. This sort of spirit would likely explain Catxscan’s rich collaborative discography, featuring songs with artists from Lil B himself, to Lil Kawaii, Joeyy, and Sebii, to Black Smurf, Bby Goyard, and Redpriest, and even newer gen artists such as Acid Souljah. Catxscan embodies an essence of, arguably, bygone Soundcloud sociability, an exemplary period where art and music maintained priority over who-you-knows and clout checkpoints.

Sonically, Catxscan is also indicative of the evolution of the overall “Soundcloud Sound”, citing himself as “a product of his surroundings.” It’s not that he seeks out trends to copy or follow, but that according to him, it’s a simple matter of “as music changes, my music will with it.” A natural, symbiotic relationship between him and the landscapes he works within, the chicken and the egg paradigm. If anything, Catxscan’s desire to grow and evolve is the most apparent take away from listening through his discography. Describing his early music as a “white Tyler, The Creator”, at his start, Catxscan was very studio-based in that he had not yet begun integrating DIY recording into his practice, and he would write most of his lyrics, his sound reminiscent of the indie-tinged rap music of the time. This would change however, with a friend encouraging him to begin “punching in” verses to simplify and ease his workflow, attributing a more “based” and professional overall quality to his music. However, this more improvisational approach would develop even further. Eventually, Catxscan would establish his own at-home rig for recording his music (as many internet rap artists would arrive at) and his contemporary workflow would change even more dramatically, claiming that anymore, he wants to hit a beat the minute he hears it “while the mic is hot”, spontaneously creating songs (again, very rooted in the artistry of based hip hop).

Of course, with over a decade of experience under his belt, this means of creativity works brilliantly for Catxscan who can shoot off quality tracks by the fistful any day; his prolificness and consistency in releasing is one of his most notable traits (at the beginning of our interview, he mentions to me his 2025 goal of dropping a tape every month, to put it into perspective). The later rendition of the Catxscan project would also begin delving into production, creating beats for other underground artists to rap on. I couldn’t help but be reminded of the leaked studio session of Lil Uzi Vert recording his hit song, “XO Tour Life”, scatting out melodies then attaching more-or-lesss freestyled lyrics as soon as the overall flow of the vocals were locked in. This practice and formula is indicative of the larger means of artistry that Soundcloud would embody through all of its eras: the empowerment of DIY creativity in hip hop, the knowledge that studios and engineers were no longer a necessity in the path to a hit track, and the desire to fulfill all artistic roles of the process, from recording, to production, to rapping while maintaining as high of a creative output as possible to match the fast paced, heavily-online modern world it existed in. To even further the point, the newfound, flagrantly post-Lil B understanding of the power of improvisation, of music as something beyond the confines of conventional lyricism, that the power lied ultimately more in the overall sound than poetic nuances (not to understate the value of words, but more to emphasize the cultural shift around rap, hip hop, and even pop originating from the work of individuals such as Lil B and the greater internet rap scene). More explicitly addressing the actual sound of Catxscan than his methodologies, the uncanny trendiness of his work begs an acknowledgement. Moving from the indie-tinged sound pioneered by groups such as OFWGKTA in the early part of the second decade of the 2000s, Catxscan’s work began taking on more and more based-qualities, I would argue due to the influence of early Soundcloud communities that were largely initiated by mutual fascination with Lil B. His Guardian Angel album would feel perhaps the most representative of this overall style, and also contain what he considers his ”quintessential song”, the anthem, “Using Hard”, a song both as catchy as it is oddly composed, serious but also demanding a chuckle at some of the intentionally comical wordplay (“my girl started using hard, it was really hard”). I believe the overall sound of Catxscan, even in its contemporary form, personifies the overall power and influence of the based-Soundcloud sound and styles, his current music still arguably being best described in this manner.

However, there is also an undeniable presence of the Soundcloud-rooted, hyperpop flavor of the Covid Pandemic onset of 2020. Some of his best material, and certainly most popular, stems from his collaborations with notable hyperpop and digicore producer, Redpriest. In fact, Catxscan is one of the few and first artists to perform and record in the distinct 2020 hyperpop and digicore style that was generationally disconnected from the, mostly, very young, Gen Z purveyors and pioneers of its origins; a level of interest in innovation that many of his peers did not initially reflect. An overall testament to his sensitivity to nuances and changes in musical vogue, constantly ahead of the curve, and if not, at least in parallel. Equally as interesting, is Catxscan’s frequent draw to heavily experimental hip hop music, which I personally favor as some of his strongest material. Songs like “#livefrommygrave”, “#dabofranch”, “IPHONE 6”, and the “eyeless” series (to name just a handful) highlight a strong, innate desire within him to innovate, and I would go as far to claim that he has ventured in to sounds and styles of post-internet rap, post-Soundcloud music and art that are yet to be fully expanded on or recognized. For me, this diversity of the Soundcloud landscape, maleability, and forward thinking is what draws me to Catxscan the most, and one of the reasons I would argue that he is the quintessential figure and personification of this internet rooted movement and the ripples it leaves in its wake.

There’s a humble, approachableness around Catxscan. In 2025, he seems more content and at peace with his life than ever before. To my surprise, he works as a caregiver to one of his neighbors, providing 14-hour shifts at a time. He didn’t always have a day job, true to the stereotypes around Soundcloud rappers, the decade before this employment acquisition having been completely reliant on trapping and his music royalties for any sort of income. He speaks of wanting to get back to this “broke mentality” in his work, a sort-of desperate creative intensity, without abandoning the comforts of his newfound life, which clearly enriches him beyond mere finances. His routine is comforting and works for him, he claims the reality is that he is privileged enough to get to spend almost all of his time doing exactly what he wants to do and he loves his day job. He maintains a positive outlook on his career in music. While some of his peers and members of the “same graduating Soundcloud class” have been lucky enough to catch breaks, whether in short-lived periods of popularity or ongoing success, he has largely maintained status as an underground artist; similar to Kemet Dank, an artist’s artist. This doesn’t phase him however, he believes that when it is his time, it will be his time, and he is thrilled by the idea of an ever expansive discography awaiting new fans whenever that day comes. He retains an unusual openness to what the future of his career could look like, stating, “I know that I might have another role in this industry, and the goal isn’t being the biggest rapper out you know, especially as you get older, it’s just kind of like something that contributes in a way that makes sense, where that’s me being an A&R, kind of like managing other artists and helping them out, or writing songs for people.” His ever present flexibility and adaptability, that streaks through not only his music but him as a person, is what I believe has led to his longevity in this specific field. He is a Soundcloud rapper living in a, debatably, post-Soundcloud world. Whereas peers of his have largely fallen off when faced with the test of time, Catxscan has persisted, evolved, and pivoted.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t frustrations along the way though. He and I spent a portion of our discussion together commiserating over the complexities and challenges of a largely erratic and cutthroat music industry. The way in which friends change, people are exploited, and the artists and trends come and go. To Catxscan though, it’s nothing personal, it’s simply the way things are, describing it as, “it’s like there’s a hill you got everyone dancing on, right? If one person stands up, another person stands up and starts dancing, and what happens by the end, one person isn’t standing up, then the whole crowd picks him up and makes him dance with them. This shit is the same thing. You’re just having to get people to stand up on your hill. As time goes on, you hope to just keep increasing that. And sometimes people stop dancing and you gotta win them back, but once you do something cool, everyone wants to stand up and dance.” His analogy to the dancing hill is an expression of the constant gatekeeping permeating the art and music industry, but is also a reference to the idea that eyes are always on you regardless of whether it is openly acknowledged. An understanding that other people are just waiting for something to happen, for the dance to grow large enough to justify joining in, and that could be any moment, any time. Despite his brushes with fame and individuals who could be at this point considered celebrities, it hasn’t necessarily equated to profitability or success in his own life for the aforementioned reason. Folks are waiting for the signal that it is cool to like Catxscan. Again, he is largely resilient to the whims of the industry, and the reality is that “everyone knows Catxscan” (which ironically, up and coming artists have considered a mark against him), and he feels most grateful and proud of the collaborations he has been fortunate enough to have with other artists through his career; a callback to Soundcloud socialization of yore. He recounts the more recent surreal sense of working with younger, successful artists who cite him as an influence in their own careers. It’s a full-circle-Soundcloud sort of moment where generations of the platform’s artists meet in the spirit of what it was originally all about, collaboration and creativity.

Similarly, Catxscan’s desire for his work has now returned to and resides in primarily an interest in touring and traveling, something I cited originally as a main catalyst and incentive for the larger cultural shift from hardcore and metal to internet rap in the first place. Many of his dream collaborations are also still rooted in the early culture of Soundcloud, expressing an interest in working with Drippin So Pretty and Lil Tracy in the future. Simultaneously, his understanding of the landscape of the genre is present too and it’s not all about the past, in the same breath mentioning his desire to work with new-Gen Soundcloud birthed artists like OsamaSon and Izaya Tiji if possible. This duality of interest exudes the innate intertwining between the project and creative concept that is Catxscan and the platform of its origin and growth, Soundcloud. An understanding of the beginning while being in tune with its trajectory and future. Aesthetically he seems to even culturally embody it, with a tattoo of a keyblade from Kingdom Hearts on his face. A callback, according to him, to the influence of early trap artists such as Gucci Mane as well as the very Soundcloud-esque phenomenon of the importance and influence of video games and otherwise “nerd culture” that began proliferating in hip hop around the dawn of groups and artists like Metro Zu and Robb Bank$: Catxscan expressing that Kingdom Hearts as a series enacted huge influence on his life, artistically and beyond. With new music with Joeyy on the way, the wheels have not stopped spinning for Catxscan nor has this personification and embodiment of the platform that birthed it all.

Ultimately, I argue Catxscan as the quintessential Soundcloud artist and personification of the symbiotic relationship between artist and app. From his origins in metal and hardcore scenes being indicative of a US wide industry and cultural shift, to his evolution in musical methodologies, styles, and sounds manifesting the overall creative spirit of the platform, its trends, and the act of DIY empowerment found in proliferated home-rigged recording studios hand-in-hand with the development and birth of Soundcloud itself, to his persistence, adaptability, and prolificness. Catxscan as an individual and project is symbolic of the exponentially intertwining connection between the internet and human beings. His music, his history, his aesthetic, his network, all signifying the archetypal tropes and distinctions of Soundcloud as a literal platform and figurative concept. In this way, Catxscan has transcended beyond merely an artist and stands as a living artifact of the Soundcloud renaissance, its cultural influence, and origins, while maintaining himself as still relevant to internet rap despite the widely perceived devolution and hyper-saturation, or at least transformation, of the platform and its users. Catxscan is transcendental, an anomaly while representing the commonalities of a much greater whole and cultural transition that defined our present day world of music.