Novagang are the hypest outsider artists around
thefader.comMy interview with osquinn three years ago came as SoundCloud had become ground zero for groups of intensely creative teenagers whose restlessness — COVID-era uncertainty along with your average adolescent angst — begat new genres of music.
Most of these categories are four-letter words now, and you’re unlikely to find many exciting musicians willingly embracing the labels of “hyperpop” and “digicore” thanks to internecine conflicts and homogeneity stoked by major label deals.
Even when I corresponded with osquinn back in 2020, it was becoming apparent that the bubble was bursting in slow motion. But she was excited for the future, thanks to the collectives of like-minded artists she was a part of — groups like Novagang, who bring a freewheeling outsider’s perspective to the world of experimental rap.
For Novagang and its rotating cast of affiliated artists, underground hip-hop is the starting pistol sending their music to ludicrous and entrancing places.
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