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Artist
Lil Lotus
12+ albums
emo rapcloud raptraprappop punk
about
Bringing together the intensity of post-hardcore with the immediacy of trap, rapper/producer/songwriter Lil Lotus is often looked to as one of the guiding voices in emo rap. His music pushed past categorical boundaries as he went on, incorporating everything from sentimental acoustic songs to big-screen pop production on his 2021 full-length studio debut, Errør Bøy. Lil Lotus was born John "Elias" Villagran in 1994. He grew up in an area just east of downtown Dallas, raised by strict and religious parents. At once sporty and rebellious, he soon developed tastes that were steeped in metal, finding kindred spirits at a local church with whom he started to make music. Metalcore and Christian metal were high on the agenda, the latter of which was accepted by his parents for its sentiment, if not the heaviness. Then, in 2011, when Villagran was just 17 years old, his father passed away -- the man who had given him his first guitar lessons -- leading an already impulsive and defiant teenager to go out on the road and live in his car for two years. When he returned, he eschewed his previous routine of collaborating with metal bands and decided to start writing and recording his own confessional material using minimal equipment. After moving to L.A., Villagran hooked up with like-minded musicians such as the GothBoiClique collective and Canadian-born artist Nedarb , who produced the material that became the Bodybag EP. When the release took off, he began a period of eventful live
