Plugg is a subgenre of trap music and a microgenre of hip-hop/rap that originated in the mid 2010s (circa 2014). Producer
Mexiko Dro
and his producer collective BeatzPlugg (from which plugg gets its name) are usually regarded as the sound's originators. Artists that played a role in the early development of this subgenre of trap include Playboi Carti (who eventually moved away from the plugg sound), Diego Money, and Nebu Kiniza. Other producers who played a role in the development of plugg besides MexikoDro include StoopidXool PoloBoyShawty & A$att.
Origins of plugg music are traced to the gospel and soul-influenced production style of Zaytoven and other southern rap influences, such as OutKast, as well as to loosely related subgenre of hip-hop called Chicago bop, which is a euphoric, fast-paced subgenre of drill music. Plugg first emerged around 2013 as a cohesive production style of the collective called Beatpluggz incuding Atlanta-based producers MexikoDro and StoopidXool. Plugg was inspired by Zaytoven, Project Pat, Juicy J, Gucci Mane, the snap rap group D4L and the Paper Mario Nintendo soundtrack. MexikoDro and his fellow
Beatpluggz
members gained viewership via the SoundCloud platform, where plugg picked up an underground following. Plugg has been described as "near-ambient and intoxicating", a strong departure from the popular styles of the day.
From around 2014 on, rappers like Playboi Carti, Rich The Kid, Diego Money, Kodak Black, Lil Yachty, Famous Dex, Yung Bans and Reese LaFlare brought mainstream attention to plugg for the first time by working with Beatpluggz and releasing tracks such as "Broke Boi" (by Playboi Carti), "Plug!" (by Rich the Kid and Kodak Black), "Hella O's" (by Lil Yachty), "New Wave" (by Rich the Kid and Famous Dex), "Hurrassin Me" (by Kodak Black and Humble Haitian) and "No Cap" (by Yung Bans and Reese LaFlare). Around the same time, rapper Nebu Kiniza recorded his viral hit single "Gassed Up" (later certified platinum) over the same plugg beat that was used in "Plug!" by Rich the Kid. Among them, Carti was the first one to appreciate the production style of Beatpluggz, and also recorded other plugg records, such as "Money Counter", "Don't Tell Nobody", "Smash Pt.2" and "Chill Freestyle" around that time. Despite "Broken Boi" being his breakthrough hit, Playboi Carti never actually paid back to MexikoDro for these plugg beats, as MexikoDro later claimed in interviews. Whether Rich the Kid paid for the beat for his "Plug!", which also was one of the biggest plugg hits of the day, song or not also remains dubious.
Other notable artists of the early plugg wave included Unotheactivist, Thouxanbanfauni and Yung Gleesh.
The first mainstream wave of plugg was mainly a fad and quickly faded away as the main rappers in this scene (Famous Dex, Rich the Kid, Lil Yachty) moved away from making plugg music. Playboard Carti also had a publicized creative break-up with MexikoDro, which was described as "ugly", and he began to make music with non-plugg producers, namely
Pi'erre Bourne
. Despite the aforementioned developments, in the underground during that time, plugg maintained consistent following and evolution, mostly thankfully to the online-centric nature of the subgenre.
Second wave: pluggnb, Drake
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]
New wave of plugg started in 2019–2020 and stemmed mainly from several sources. First, a new style of plugg emerged, called
pluggnb
, which combined plugg with contemporary R&B. Among the originators of this new style stood XanGang producers collective, producers CashCache, Dylvinchi, Milanezie and various rappers, such as BBY Goyard, I$AIAH, 909Memphis, rapper-producer Neiburr, and the SlayWorld artistic collective, namely: Autumn!, Summrs!, Kankan.
At the same time, a new wave of primarily plugg-oriented rappers emerged, many of whom grew listening to plugg, namely BoofPaxkMooky, whose style is described to be reminiscent of the Playboi Carti-MexikoDro era songs, and whose 2021 mixtape produced by StoopidXool called "Four Seasons" was regarded as one of the plugg's purest, according to a critic. Other plugg artists to emerge in this time included Tony Shhnow, described as the one bringing the influence of the 1990s R&B and earlier Southern hip-hop into plugg, and 10k Dunkin, among others. A new plead of plugg producers also emerged closer to 2020, most notable of them being CashCache and Cash Cobain. CashCache was described as a "primary architect" of the plugg sound used by artists such as Mooky, Shhnow and 10k Dunkin. He is also regarded as the person bringing more lounge music influences in plugg, making a subgenre which has been dubbed "soft plugg".
Around that time in 2020, StoopidXool and Cash Cobain collaborated on an album with New York City plugg rapper FLEE, and with that release included the viral pluggnb hit "SWISH / USE 2" recorded in collaboration with Brent Faiyaz.
While BeefPaxkMooky, Tony Shhnow, 10k Dunkin and FLEE were described as "bringing the most true-to-the-form plug back" into rotation, Lil Tecca, SSGKobe and SoFaygo helped to popularize the pluggnb sound by releasing TikTok hits "Blow Me Up", "Knock Knock" and "thrax", respectively.
At the same time new names kept sprawling in the scene: Summrs! and Autumn! brought in influences from the sound typical for "SadBoys" lead by Yung Lean into plugg, other noted new names in the genre included Ka$hdami, 1600J and RewindRaps, among others.
At the same time, plugg gained attention from Drake. Drake first recorded a song called "Plug" on a plugg beat around 2017, allegedly for his
Scorpion
album, but the song was later removed from the tracklist and only resurfaced online in 2020. Later, also in 2020, Drake included a plugg track produced by MexikoDro titled "From Florida with Love" into his
Dark Lane Demo Tapes
mixtape. The purported reason for the inclusion of a plugg song into tracklist, was speculated to be the second wave of underground plugg that Drake was aware of.
Proliferation of micro-subgenres
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By the end of 2021, plugg sound flourished and developed further, with multiple artists starting to add more digicore influences into their sound, examples of this being Daesworld's "2003" and Jaydes' "Highschooll". Producer Dani Kiyoko defined a darker style of plugg, dubbed
vamp plugg
. Tracks such as "Xanax" by St47ic (producer by Dani Kiyoko) typify the "vamp plugg" sound.
In 2022,
hyperplugg
, a memetic micro-subgenre started trending on SoundCloud and TikTok, when producer-artist Myspacemark started adding more influences of hyperpop into his plugg sound up to the point of claiming to have invented the "hyperplugg" subgenre. It was unclear whether the subgenre is merely an ironic meme or not, but after amassing tens of thousands views on TikTok, many fans of Myspacemark took his subgenre idea more seriously.
