Scam rap is an underground genre that has had its peaks and lows in popularity over the years. Starting in the Detroit area in the mid 2010s, the music focuses on rapping about different
fraudulent activities being done by the artist.
The idea of who is the “founder” of the culture is a hefty topic because artists such as Future and Migos have had the “Scam” terminology for a long time. But the artist who is most definitely the favorite of the genre is “TeeJayx6”. TeeJayx6 or as his legal name Dallas Antonio Asberry released his first Studio debut album as a split with a fellow Scam rapper “10kkev”. From there TJ released his real hits “The Swipe lesson” and his Dynamic Duo series with other artist “Kasher Quan”.
Moving out of the start of the sub genre, getting more into the uprising of it most definitely was due to Babytron/S****y boyz rise. Before Babytron was known for his funny creative lyrics he was just another scam artist trying to make a name for himself. When Tron started blowing up, he brought the scene with him bringing up artists such as Certified Trapper and Stan Will, with Certified Trapper even being voted on for the 10th spot in the 2024 XXL Freshman Class. Tron, sitting at just under 3 million monthly listeners, has a cult following and has shown no plan to slow down.
“I was really into it for a while,” said Kayne Jerome (11), “then the genre as a whole started to get bad.”
The genre has had its lows. Once it started to get tiktokified that’s when it has been at its lowest. Artist PunchmadeDev was the key to its downfall. Dev’s music started to go viral on tiktok and from there the genre was infested.
“I used to listen to him a lot then sense the incident with TeeJay,” said Jerome. “He’s been pretty lame.”
Another Scam rapper is Punch Made Dev or Dev Take Flight, who started as a NBA 2k streamer who then moved into the scam scene. Dev is looked down on in the community due to his lack of authenticity and credibility. Dev’s early career started with him scamming TeeJayx6 for a feature then getting pressed on live stream about it. To the public’s knowledge, Dev is not really performing the type of Scam acts he raps about. He is believed to be making all of his income from scamming his fans with fake outdated methods and his music itself.
Obviously scamming is not the smartest way to earn money. But being born into lower income areas where most of these rappers are from, there’s not always a lot of options for the future. So next time you hear about a scammer, there is always more to the story than just greed. “It’s a tough subject to speak on but I think if that’s the only thing you’re doing in life you need to find some hobbies,” said Jerome.
