The internet sensation from Los Angeles drops another catchy single track – with conservative listeners still waiting for his album. But who are we kidding – those are not the artist’s target group anyway.
There was a time that every newcomer would drop their first single, follow up with an EP, another single, debut album. A mechanism that was drilled into artists and the industry by major labels and their mass friendly schedule of release plans and marketing.
The times have changed, that’s for sure. Nowadays artists have much more freedom to decide whether they would like to stay independent, release without weeks or months of marketing or announcements.
Since the days of self-distribution on streaming platforms, you can drop your debut album the day you finish mixing it. Or, in the case of Ashton Traitor, you just don’t.
In 2017 the hiphop star with strong emo aesthetics shot to fame overnight.
His first single ‘On My Own’ was a little bit of a hit, and he’s been working constantly ever since. With a multitude of strong singles released, he is getting closer and closer to his first major billboard entrance.
Ashton Traitor turns a lot of chaos, pain and emotions that are a reference to 2000s’ emo music scene into a modern soundscape and his very own genre. It’s hard to compare him to other artists, but he probably comes from a similar place as the late Lil Peep, who’s career kickstarted in the same year as Ashton Traitor’s.
Both breaking the limits of hiphop and redefining music’s hottest selling genre in 2020, Ashton Traitor adds a little more chaos and anti-society to the mix. Not only his appearance appears alienated, his lyrics and self directed videos show him in an isolated space, apart from his surrounding.
That being said, he is the blueprint of a digital teenage icon, the popular mistfit, the hate him or love him character.
