A few years ago no one would ever have worn the moniker of “SoundCloud rapper” with pride. The free platform for streaming and uploading music was widely regarded as being the home of broke rappers living in their parents’ basements. But with its nearly nonexistent barrier to entry, unsigned artists flocked to SoundCloud in droves, the streaming service most conducive to music discovery, where, unlike traditional streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple music, they could be the heard without the help of a record label or distributor. This new generation of artists had also soundly rejected the mix tape hosting houses of yore like LiveMixtapes and Spinrilla, that weren’t conducive to their one-song-at-a-time release preferences.
Up and coming artists trying to navigate the changing demands of an unpredictable music industry, these artists took matters into their own hands, releasing their own music on SoundCloud, topping charts, making money and fast achieving levels of success the music industry at large couldn’t hope to compete against.
Lil Pump, with his Gucci-meets-grunge looks, tattoo covered face, larger than life persona, and music featuring drugged up and post-punk inflected deliveries all spun to a distorted, lo-fi beat that sounds like the audio equivalent of an acid trip is part of a collective of SoundCloud rappers so instinctually aware of what plays on the internet that they’ve essentially gamed rap industry. They’ve cracked the code we didn’t even know existed, pulling in hundreds of millions of streams with $0 budget songs they haven’t even really bothered to take to the studio.
And Lil Pump’s networth will testify.
Major labels would kill for that sort of influence. Lil Pump? To hear him tell it, he doesn’t even need an actual microphone.
Lil Pump’s Family & Upbringing
Pump, real name Gazzy Garcia, was born to a Colombian mother and Cuban father who divorced when he was six. His mother, along with his half-brother, still live in the Miami, Florida neighbourhood where Pump spent his childhood. He was born in the summer of 2000, making him 20 (far, far younger than people usually think he is), a fact seemingly routinely forgotten by everyone from the press to members of his own entourage.
He doesn’t talk about his family, and none of them give interviews. In an interview for Buzzfeed magazine, he reveals: “I got them a house. I like to take care of them. Yeah. Hell yeah.”
The Early Years: Lil Pump In The Making
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the “Harverd Dropout” rapper was kicked out of school in 10th grade (the last in a string of expulsions) for inciting a riot with his friend. The specifics are hard to come by. He was, by his own admission, “on a lot of drugs.” It’s the formative life event he revisits again and again in most of his music: The first song on Harverd Dropout is the aptly titled “Drop Out,” and he spends a lot of the album repeating “I hate school,” in between rapping about strippers and codeine. The fact that Pump’s been able to amass so much wealth and so much stuff (including a mansion in Calabasas, California, and another in Miami Beach) in spite of, or perhaps because of, not finishing high school is a source of great pride for the rapper who at one boasts: “I’m a millionaire, but I don’t know how to read (nope),” which let’s face it, is kind of hilarious. And as the networth of Lil Pump proves, he’s not exactly lying.
Pump first started rapping four years ago in 2017, more of a fluke than anything else. He Youtube-d a beat, and under the encouragement and tutelage of his long-time friend, rapper Smokepurpp (“he was like, ‘Nigga, just say whatever’” Pump explained in an interview for Complex), recorded his first track right then and there and ten minutes later, it was on SoundCloud. Back then, the streaming platform was full to the brim with unpolished, unsigned talent. Pump established himself early as part of the South Florida pack — which also included Lil Peep and XXXTentacion, both now dead— and amassed a cool 100,000 streams.
Skyrocketing To The Billboards
All of a sudden there were record labels knocking on his door. Pump ended up signing a multimillion-dollar contract with Warner Bros. Records. He skyrocketed to the top of the charts with the 2017 single “Gucci Gang”, which peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. How Lil Pump managed to propel himself from modest SoundCloud fame to multimillionaire rapper dropping songs that get millions of listens, booking nationwide tours and selling merchandise seems like the stuff of viral think tanks and algorithms.
One thing is certain: Pump may have come from Miami, but he was made on the internet.
Money, Fame, Ice: What’s The Networth Of Lil Pump?
“I’m worth 10 mil, b*tch!” Pump screams in a since deleted video posted to his Instagram, apparently furious at Google’s suggestion that his net-worth is a paltry $150,000: “$150K? That’s what I wipe my a*s with!”
Pump’s decidedly unconventional views about toilet paper aside, he certainly makes a point. The young rapper recently resigned to Warner Brothers, a contract reportedly worth millions and makes it a point to flaunt all the opulent trappings of his lavish lifestyle as part of his high-flying persona, the most notable of which are Pump’s luxury cars. The rapper blew a cool $400,000 on a Rolls Royce Wraith in August of this year, adding to a collection that counts a Lamborghini, an Audi A3 and a Porsche Cayman among its numbers.
Well, when Lil Pump’s networth 2020 is ten million, he can buy as many cars as he likes.
The Lil Pump Zeitgeist
Treat Lil Pump like a clown at your own risk: he isn’t the small time SoundCloud sensation he used to be. Today, he’s artist signed to a multimillion-dollar major label recording contract, who’s beloved by rabid teenagers everywhere. He’s the sort of breakout star recording executives dream about, with Lil Pump’s networth 2020 only going up, up, up.
He’s making a lot of people a whole lot of money.
I’m Ava Paul, an experienced news website author with a special focus on the entertainment section. Over the past five years, I have worked in various positions of media and communication at World Stock Market. My experience has given me extensive knowledge in writing, editing, researching and reporting on stories related to the entertainment industry.
