The rise of $NOT
Photo of rapper “$NOT” with his signature hoodie that helps conceal his identity.
From rapping over video game soundtracks to an EP and two fully released projects, rapper $NOT is the image of a rising artist in today’s music industry.
Born in New York, but raised in West Palm Beach Florida, Edy Edouardo, aka $NOT, has made a name for himself as a rapper through hard work, perseverance and great music. Not much is known about the rapper as he tries to keep his life private, maintaining his anonymity with his signature hoodie; nonetheless, what is known about him is his rise to success.
On July 30, 2016, Edouardo dropped his first single on the popular streaming site “SoundCloud“. The track “By Myself” featured a trap style song which doesn’t sound too different from his current music, with the main difference being the overall quality of the song. He continued to drop songs at a consistent pace for a year and released his first project titled “THE Ti$$UE FILES” the next year. While this was only a 5-song EP, it helped $NOT establish his sound as an artist, setting the tone for the music he would be making from that point on.
Shortly after the release of the EP, $NOT would drop breakout track “GOSHA“, the track credited with his rise in the music industry and still his most streamed song to this day. On April of 2019, months after the song’s release, artist Billie Eilish posted a video of her listening to “GOSHA” which gained him 10,000 followers on instagram.
In June of that same year, his track “BILLY BOY” would be used on the pilot episode of TV Show “Euphoria”, helping boost his overall popularity and become more known in the mainstream music industry.
While both Billie Eilish and the show “Euphoria” helped boost his popularity, so did rappers who would feature on tracks with him. On Sep 12 2019, $NOT would also go on to release track “Beretta” with fellow rapper “Wifisfuneral“. The track became one of his most streamed songs and sits near the top of his most popular songs with 9.32 million streams, and helped solidify his name as a rapper to look out for.
The year 2020 has been difficult for most, but this does not seem to be the case with $NOT, who released two studio albums this year. The first album, “-TRAGEDY+“, released on March 6 and featured four already released singles and eight new tracks, two of them being his most popular tracks, “GOSHA” and “Moon & Stars” which featured Maggie Lindemann.
His second project from this year, “Beautiful Havoc“, really showcased the progress in the quality of the music he’s made. This album had features from mainstream artists “iann dior“, “Denzel Curry” and “Flo Milli“. Tracks “Revenge” and “Mean” were made into music videos by famed director Cole Bennett; Bennett has made videos that have reached upwards of 612 million views for notable artists like “Juice WRLD” and “Eminem“. This project by far did the most to show $NOT belongs in this industry and that hard work pays off.
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Caio Soares is a junior at Wiregrass Ranch and it is his first year writing for The Stampede. He likes cars and soccer. He plans to go to University of...
