Liana Abraham

Beaverton High School may not seem like a place for underground artists, but it has many if you know where to look. Similar to the rest of the underground scene in rap, the most common musical style is rage. If you’ve been wondering about the local rappers in our school, this article will highlight some of the ambitious artists who are very active with musical releases.

The first artist I’m going to talk about is abgscholar. This underground rapper is one of the most promising here on campus. His stylistic choices are clever and he is great at writing hooks. If there is one song you should listen to it is “Royal Blood”. The angelic horn intro transitioning into when the drum and bass come in is extremely smooth and easy to listen to. Throughout the song you can tell he’s enjoying himself and having fun. A limitation of his music at the moment is that it is only available on SoundCloud. After interviewing abgscholar, he was explaining how he often finds beats on YouTube and other websites. Another noteworthy song he has made is “BURN”. This song provides an aggressive soundscape with hard hitting 808s and trap drums. After sitting down and talking with fellow underground rapper !gotkynx he mentioned how this was his favorite abgscholar song.

A third rapper which is worth checking out is SAW?. Being a close friend of many rappers in the BHS scene, he’s collaborated with them many times, making some good music doing so. After discussing the mainstream rappers, he’s expressed tremendous respect for artists like Vince Staples, Mac Miller, and Earl Sweatshirt. This was interesting because his soundscape is very different from those artists, but after pondering I found it respectable. He is able to appreciate artists and do his own creative endeavors. His song “ALI day” is one of the ones you should check out. It provides an airy texture with trap drums keeping the energy up. He gives a very subdued delivery across the track, and makes what is a good song all things considered.

Perhaps the most accessible artist, Redstorm, has his music on all platforms, including Apple Music, Spotify, and others. A notable difference is that he doesn’t have music on SoundCloud. This rapper provides a dynamic soundscape, using beats that range from boom bap to rage. Although his last album was mediocre, he has confirmed he’s working on a sophomore album. According to him, this album is going to be much better than the last one. There is little we know about this album, but a feature from SAW? is confirmed. We also got reports from SAW? himself on the album, saying it’s good, but more time needs to be taken to fix mixing and finalize the tracklist. This artist is also one of the ones with the most promise, and the most success. He has racked 56k streams across all platforms, which would likely expand if he joined SoundCloud, which he’s expressed interest in. If there is a song you should listen to it should be “6 Feet Under”.

!gotkynx is one of the underrated rappers at the school. His newest song, called ANOTHER LIFE (feat. abgscholar) is one of his best songs he’s made, so his quality has only been going up recently. The song starts off with a Don Toliver type intro, reminiscent of “After Party” which has 808s and trap drums. The flow he uses is very addicting and super easy to the ear. His performance on the track is very good, doing better than abgscholar and being the highlight of the track. With this said, abgscholar also puts up a good verse. This song is one of the best songs from the BHS scene all things considered. He is also very good at writing hooks and melodies, which is a crucial quality needed in any successful rapper, needing it to make hits.

The last rapper I’m going to mention is Baby Deeze. When I interviewed him, I discovered that he listened to Frank Ocean and Tyler, The Creator. Besides Redstorm, I believe he’s most likely to do something outside of the rage genre, having flows that fit more in that kind of lane. His beat selection is also very good, the song “funds” being a great example of this. The soul sample intro is a great choice, and when the beat comes in, it feels very satisfying to the ear. His flow also fits the beat very well, with good lyrics across it. The track would’ve been much better if it had a better delivery. The delivery of the track feels very whispered, and could use some more confidence. But besides that, it is an amazing track, and one I find myself returning to often.