Short answers, pulled from the story.
Music blogger Walker 'Walkmasterflex' Chambliss coined the term "cloud rap" in a 2010 Blogspot post describing the music of Main Attrakionz member Squadda B, whom he called "the king of cloud rap." Chambliss co-founded the blog Space Age Hustle and believed he was drawing on a phrase from a 2009 interview in which rapper Lil B described wanting to make music like a CGI image of a castle in the clouds.
Cloud rap draws influences from trap, ambient, new age music, lo-fi hip-hop, chillwave, and witch house. Producers sampled J-pop, anime soundtracks, video game music, and British female singers such as Sade and Imogen Heap. The Houston and Memphis rap scenes, along with Clouddead's self-titled album, are also cited as early roots.
Cloud rap was originally pioneered by artists and producers including Lil B, Clams Casino, Friendzone, Main Attrakionz, Viper, Metro Zu, and SpaceGhostPurrp. Lil B and Clams Casino were building the sound together as early as 2008.
ASAP Rocky's 2011 debut single "Peso," followed by "Purple Swag" and his mixtape Live. Love. ASAP, brought cloud rap to mainstream attention. The mixtape featured production from Clams Casino and Friendzone and guest appearances from Main Attrakionz and SpaceGhostPurrp, key figures in the original cloud rap scene.
Swedish artist Yung Lean became an eminent cloud rap figure in 2013 when his single "Ginseng Strip 2002" went viral online. His collective Sad Boys gained prominence in the scene, and his collaborating producers Yung Gud, Whitearmor, and Suicideyear became influential in shaping the genre internationally.
Cloud rap influenced emo rap, digicore, hexD, jerk, rage, and sigilkore. By 2025, its reach extended to an alternative rock subgenre called cloud rock, associated with artists including Dean Blunt, Quannnic, and Jane Remover.