The rage-obsessed underground is going through a transitional period.
BPMs are speeding up, Auto-Tune-laced vocals are becoming more garbled, lyrics are getting blunter, and distortion is reaching unheard levels. Take a look at the new leaders of the underground, Che, Nettspend, and OsamaSon, where word-play has been traded for wildly aggressive production that usually steals the show. And 2Slimey, the Mexican-American rapper from Oklahoma is taking this sound and pushing it beyond its limits.
2Slimey started making waves in early 2024, when he posted a snippet of his track “Shrimp,” which quickly became the go-to soundtrack for brain-rotted TikToks and IG Reels.
Search the song on TikTok and you’re met with blurry Family Guy clips, iShowSpeed reaction videos, and the usual churn of recycled memes. One of the highest-performing posts is a still of Druski on MSNBC discussing the economy with Slimey’s track raging beneath. (Lil Tecca gave a sign of approval, using it in a skating video.)
However, it took until 2025 before Slimey began receiving serious attention. He has continued to lean into the ultra-distorted sonics on songs like “Serena” and “pounds n counters.” Slimey has pushed the level of bass so far that even the term “rage” no longer feels like an adequate label.
Last month, Slimey appeared in @UndergroundSound’s 2026 cypher, which included a range of new names like Raininglol, Matt Proxy, and Sixbill. Reactions were strong, both negative and positive, but ultimately it was Slimey’s verse that got clipped the most; with the rapper shouting over these anxiety-inducing synthesizers that sound like a fucked up ambulance siren. Now, he is getting co-signs from megastars like Lil Uzi Vert, who, when asked who he is excited about in the underground right now, told DAZED, “2Slimey took the end of 2025. I can’t even think about nobody else.”
Should you take 2Slimey seriously? Is he taking rap music seriously? Should this even be considered rap music? We try to answer these questions and more. Here is everything you need to know about 2Slimey.
Where is he from?
2Slimey was born and raised in Oklahoma, growing up in Midwest City, a modest suburb 25 minutes outside of Oklahoma City. In an interview with No Jumper, 2Slimey said that his parents are Mexican immigrants. As a teen he held a variety of odd jobs, working at 7-Eleven, grocery stores, and restaurants while trying to find his way.
When did he start making music?
2Slimey started making music in the mid 2010s, using the name GGS, but it was completely different from his sound now. Back then, he had a more traditional approach to rap.
“In the beginning, it was boom bap. But in reality, boom bap had its time period. No one is really popping off that, realistically,” 2Slimey told Complex. “I mean, there are some artists…but that lane felt limited in my eyes.”
His taste shifted in 2016, as the SoundCloud era rolled in. This is when he became a fan of artists like Smokepurpp, Lil Pump, and XXXTENTACION. He remembers seeing Yeat take off in 2021, pushing the new boundaries created by Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red.
What does he sound like?
2Slimey takes the weird, off-kilter rhythms of the neo-jerk wave, combines them with the bit-crushed drums of hyperpop, and covers it all in deep-fried distortion. The result sounds like Travis Scott's "FE!N" injected with steroids and distorted into oblivion.
Where contemporaries like OsamaSon and Nettspend still have some sense of melody, Slimey abandons all of it. On tracks like "Legion" and "Meat," the beat drops like a truck. The bass dominates the mix and pushes out everything else. That overwhelming wall of sound is exactly what makes it compelling. At times, the closest reference point isn't rap at all—it's noise music. Take Merzbow's album Pulse Demon, drop 808s under any of those tracks, and you're pretty close to what a 2Slimey song sounds like.
Who are his influences?
2Slimey explained to Complex how he arrived at this current sound: “When I saw Die Lit, and then when Whole Lotta Red came out, and especially also Yeat I feel like that shit made me wanna take more of a deep dive…Smokingskul played a part as well a little bit with those crazy 808s.”
Slimey is a fan of Carti’s “Long Time” and “Stop Breathing,” naming them among his favorite songs. The latter is a track he even pays homage to on “Bringem Out,” where he interpolates the line, “Breathin', breathin', all the hoes stop breathin'.” This is how rap music works: 2Slimey is referencing a Carti song that was referencing Gucci Mane’s “Shirt Off.”
Slimey also listed a number of rock and punk bands as inspirations for his sound, including Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Sex Pistols, and Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.
Slimey’s drops debut album High Anxiety
Slimey’s debut album, appropriately titled High Anxiety, was released in November 2025. The project runs a tight 23 minutes and feels like stepping into a portal of pure noise. The mixes are more polished than his previous work, with Slimey’s vocals cutting cleanly through the absolutely crushed bass on both “Roc” and “I Serve Bass.” On “Let’s Go Home,” he even tapped underground super-producer WeGonBeOk for a zany instrumental to spit over.
Intentional or not, Slimey has landed on a sound that listeners either love or loathe. Anthony Fantano favorably reviewed the album, praising it as experimentally daring and unconventional. Though he declined to give it a formal rating, he still lauded the project, saying, “Overall, I did have fun listening to this album and found a surprising amount of highlights, both vocally and instrumentally.” Like the music itself, the reception has been extreme. Under a Kurrco post announcing Fantano’s review, the divide was on full display, with users declaring either that “2slimey is the new Michael Jackson” or “Shit is garbage I blocked 2slimey on Spotify.”
What is a 2Slimey show like?
Complex was in the building at 2Slimey's sold-out show in Dallas, Texas, at the Haltom Ballroom, an 800-cap venue. The room was packed out with fans dressed in all-black waiting for Slimey to take the stage. It felt like a punk show as he encouraged chaos from the crowd, with his posse onstage egging everyone on through stagedives and moshing. They even took a moment to hold up the Mexican flag, as Slimey is proud of his heritage as a Latino in the underground—and in that same moment, yelled "FUCK ICE" alongside the crowd.
For his many fans who live chronically online, much of the show was digested through 30-second clips on TikTok. One video hit the algorithm hard: Slimey sitting on a subwoofer onstage, tearing up as he looked into the crowd while someone yelled "YOU MADE IT." The clip currently has 2 million views.
Who are his co-signs?
One of the biggest co-signs Slimey has received is from rapper and streamer Plaqueboymax, who discovered the rapper after his chat put him on. There’s a reaction video titled “Plaqueboymax Brutally Rates Underground Rappers..” where Max can be seen being completely perplexed by Slimey’s sound, saying, “This is straight noise.” In a different stream PBM said, “I wouldn’t keep reacting if I didn’t see the potential.” PBM’s chat would then vote for him to get Slimey on a stream.
Max eventually invited Slimey to do an In the Booth livestream. They made “Belly,” with Max engineering his vocals as Slimey punched in over one of the most detuned and discombobulated beats he’s ever rapped on. At one point, Slimey replaced Max’s nearly $4,000 Neumann U 87 with his own $120 Audio-Technica microphone. “I never heard someone swap a U87 for Audio Technica. That's different…that's swag.”
North West is another major co-sign.Ye’s daughter has been tapping in with the newest underground talent. She has continued to flick up with faces from the scene like Ken Carson, Destroy Lonely, Molly Santana, and OsamaSon. In January 2026, she posted a video vibing out to “Roc,” as the video visibly vibrated to the track’s bassline.