Rage Rap promoter Echoe brought viral rapper 2Slimey to the Echoplex for his first Los Angeles concert on April 26th, 2026. Janky Smooth was in attendance for this vital moment in hip-hop history, and we have some thoughts on why you should give Gen Z a chance to rage in their own way, free of oldhead criticism.
Gen Z really can’t catch a break in cultural analysis. From their affinity for early 00’s JNKO jeans and tacky jewelery to their gravitation towards nu-metal and emo music through TikTok.
I ALWAYS see millennials complaining about how zoomers don’t have their own culture and just rip off the nostalgia from past generations, but we also have the nerve to shit on every attempt they DO make at creating their own culture. Their AI Italian brainrot memes, the “Chicken Jockey” Minecraft movie phenomenon, their parasocial obsession with pop stars and Twitch streamers – all of these contributions they have made towards the social zeitgeist often get dismissed as creations by dumb rowdy kids who were tragically warped by the internet. This sort of boomer-mentality of yelling at the clouds over the world changing is nothing new, but it’s incredibly disheartening to see peers my age acting this way when we were the same age less than a decade ago.
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A huge aspect of this large gap in cultural understanding between our generations is due to how rapidly the internet cultivates trends, only to drop them at a moment’s notice. In a world that is constantly changing so drastically, many feel that they would rather tune out than try to stay updated with current art and culture – it’s almost too intimidating for many. If you’re looking for a single symbol of this daunting progression of art, nobody would strike fear in the heart of the out-of-touch millennial more than rapper 2Slimey.
2Slimey’s signature sound is often referred to as “rage rap” – a subgenre of trap music made popular by Playboi Carti focused on heavy distortion, horror-movie sounding synths, and aggressive shouting vocals over all of the chaos. Its purest intention is to inspire mosh pits and unruly crowd behavior, purposefully being as high-energy and riotous as possible to inspire this primal energy. The genre has even been compared to hyperpop and power electronics with its focus on shouting violently over scattered hectic electronic instruments and textures, showing just how experimental certain corners of “rage rap” can truly get. Promoter for this event Echoe specializes specifically in booking the “rage rap” genre within Los Angeles, and they are really bringing the punk rock spirit back to live music events. Echoe is made up of young people throwing events specifically designed for young people – I don’t imagine anyone older would be in tune enough with this scene to understand how to do so. In the current world of monopolized companies hosting every live event, it’s more important than ever that we allow the youth to create their own grassroots scenes. Especially when the music is as unique and trailblazing as 2Slimey is.
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2Slimey achieved rage rap’s goal of creating the most unruly crowd experience possible at the Echoplex, possibly even more than he anticipated. As soon as he took the stage, the crowd of moppy headed kids exploded in a berzerk frenzy with a massive mosh pit that took up half of the floor of the already tiny room. Teens were scaling the banisters all the way up, stage-diving left and right, and throwing full cups of beer in the air and dousing everybody. 2Slimey himself was even a bit spooked by this riot he started, calling for backup security to avoid stage pile-ons and pleading with the youth there to stop splashing liquid all over his equipment. While he was calling for the energy to calm down a bit, it was definitely with a wink as he hyped up the crowd even more with chants of “Slimey Season” and commanding the mosh pit to grow. Even if you find 2Slimey’s music to be too chaotic or headache-inducing, it’s absolutely undeniable he has the spirit of a punk rock frontman in how effectively he incites chaos.
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At the Echoplex, I ran into a fellow millennial friend I knew working at the bar and he could not be more confused by the nature of the whole event. He had asked multiple kids there WHY they like 2Slimey throughout the night, and was completely baffled by receiving the same “Idk he’s funny” response from every one of them. While he was not satisfied by that answer, “being funny” is a perfectly reasonable reason to gravitate towards a rapper. Hip-hop has a rich history of rappers who were often seen as goofy and nonsensical, sounding completely alien to the more mainstream listener.
I personally grew up with the transgressive nature of oddball rappers like Lil B ‘The Based God’, Chief Keef, and OFWGKTA – all artists who the older generations were hating on relentlessly, but have since retroactively decided to praise. Even before this 2010’s era, Bay Area hyphy artists like Too $hort and Mac Dre were incredibly silly and seen as freakshows by the general public. The appeal for all of these artists when they first stepped on the scene was that they WERE funny. This creation of an entertaining persona is an element of hip-hop that has been sorely missing in current times, and 2Slimey is honestly the first incarnation of that spirit that we have seen from hip-hop in years – whether we like it or not.
One major reason the youth find 2Slimey to be so funny is his ridiculous use of AI in his music videos, creating absolute monstrosities of visual chaos that overwhelm you at every frame. While I’m personally opposed to generative AI content, especially in the attempts to legitimize its use in artistic spaces – I can’t think of a more appropriate use for the technology than the way 2Slimey uses it. The absurd and inhuman uncanny valley that the technology provides is exactly the point in its usage here, and it would be incredibly difficult to get the same unnerving effect from human creation. Gen Z is bombarded with AI at every turn, while millennials are still futilely attempting to resist it. 2Slimey’s angsty youthful presence is only escalated through his use of AI here, as his use of it enrages the exact older people who find his music obnoxious.
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Now nobody’s saying that you have to like 2Slimey, or that you even need to listen to him if you know in your heart you won’t like it. But hating on this innovative dude and his bizarre movement is the same loser boomer behavior we spent our whole youths rebelling against. 2Slimey is definitely an artist (and a character) I have confidence we will be seeing more from in the future. He has an undeniably charasmatic spirit and a fearless experimentation in a genre that’s already built on being as transgressive as possible. Even if you don’t understand, try to remember how being an angsty rage-filled teen was yourself. We all relate to growing up listening to music that our parents found to be noise-y garbage. Do you really want to become that same bitter old person that hates on everything you don’t understand? Or do you want to support the kids to create their own movements, expressing the unique struggles they’ve had to grow up with in the modern world? There’s a clear answer here if you care about the future of art in the slightest, and I recommend celebrating “Slimey Season” early.
Words by Danny Ryan
Photos by Evan Moses
