Short answers, pulled from the story.
The term cloud rap was coined in 2010 by music blogger Walker Walkmasterflex Chambliss. Chambliss used the phrase to describe the hazy, dreamlike sound of Main Attrakionz member Squadda B before applying the label to a 2010 compilation album titled 3 Years Ahead: The Cloud Rap Tape.
Cloud rap relies on the heavy use of reverb and ethereal, psychedelic samples to create a relaxed, atmospheric production style. Producers like Clams Casino, Lil B, and SpaceGhostPurrp frequently utilized Vermona synthesizers to blend trap style drums with ambient and new age music.
Cloud rap emerged as a distinctly internet-native movement with artists relying on SoundCloud, YouTube, and Twitter to distribute and promote their music independently of record labels. By 2010, figures like Squadda B, Friendzone, and South Florida acts SpaceGhostPurrp and Metro Zu were tagged as cloud rap by online critics.
Rapper ASAP Rocky gained mainstream attention for the genre in 2011 with his debut mixtape Live. Love. ASAP. The project featured partial production credits from Clams Casino and helped popularize the movement through the ASAP Mob collective.
By the late 2010s, the influence of cloud rap had splintered off into various other genres such as emo rap, digicore, and rage. The genre's legacy continued into the 2020s where a new wave of artists drew influences from the original cloud rap era and merged the sound with contemporaneous styles such as plugg music.