Nettspend Is No Longer Underground

There was a time when finding Nettspend felt like discovering something you weren't supposed to have found yet.

That feeling is getting harder to hold onto.

Nettspend first started releasing music online in 2022, and by 2023 his name was moving through the internet at ridiculous speed. Songs like “shine n peace” and “drankdrankdrank” helped turn him from another SoundCloud kid into one of the most recognizable faces of a new generation of underground rap.

The music was strange.

The vocals were blown out and deliberately messy. The beats felt distorted, bass-heavy and almost unfinished. Nothing sounded particularly interested in following the rules of traditional rap—and that was exactly the point.

Nettspend wasn't trying to make music that sounded polished.

He was making music that sounded online.

From Richmond to Everywhere

Nettspend came out of Richmond, Virginia, but his audience was never really limited by geography.

The internet was the scene.

SoundCloud, Discord, Twitter and increasingly TikTok gave him a way to reach listeners who might never have heard of a teenager making music in Richmond. His collaborations with artists like xaviersobased and OsamaSon helped place him at the center of a rapidly expanding underground, while his own songs gave that scene a recognizable face.

Then the underground started becoming impossible to ignore.

Nettspend's 2024 mixtape BAD ASS FCKING KID* reached the Billboard 200, and suddenly the idea of Nettspend as simply an underground internet rapper became harder to defend.

He was also beginning to exist outside music.

Fashion followed.

In 2025, Nettspend made his runway debut at Miu Miu during Paris Fashion Week. That same year brought more music, more shows and even more attention from people who probably weren't listening to SoundCloud rap a few years earlier.

And now we're here.

early life crisis

In March 2026, Nettspend finally released his debut studio album, early life crisis.

The 21-track project is a much bigger statement than anything he's released before. It features appearances from OsamaSon and YoungBoy Never Broke Again, while producers including CXO, Rok and Ok help create the distorted, restless production that has become part of Nett's identity.

The album debuted at No. 39 on the Billboard 200.

For an artist whose career began with uploading songs to the internet, that's a pretty remarkable jump.

But commercial success isn't really the most interesting part of Nettspend's story.

The interesting part is how quickly the underground became the mainstream.

What Does “Underground” Even Mean Anymore?

Nettspend is a perfect example of how different the music industry feels now.

There isn't necessarily a clean path from local shows to mixtapes to radio anymore.

An artist can make a song in their bedroom, upload it, have a snippet explode online, build a community around themselves and suddenly be playing festivals in front of thousands of people.

Nettspend's career happened almost entirely inside that ecosystem.

That's why his music can sound so alien to people who aren't familiar with this corner of rap. The audience isn't necessarily looking for pristine production or traditional songwriting.

They're looking for personality.

They want something that feels immediate. Something that sounds like it came from their timeline, their group chat, their SoundCloud recommendations.

Nettspend understands that better than most.

And He's Getting Bigger

The biggest sign that things have changed might be the live shows.

His early life crisis tour began in April, taking him across North America before concluding in Los Angeles in May. He has also already sold out his first Australian tour.

That's a long way from uploading music online as a teenager.

There's still plenty to figure out. Nettspend's music remains divisive, and that probably isn't going to change. Some people hear the future in it. Others hear chaos.

Maybe both reactions are part of the appeal.

Because Nettspend was never built to be universally liked.

He was built to be impossible to ignore.

And in 2026, the kid who once felt like an internet secret is starting to look like something much bigger:

a star who came directly from the underground without ever really leaving it behind.