Alabama is usually associated with country music. I enjoy country sometimes, but I wanted to find artists in the state who are closer to the online underground scenes I know: diary, electronic music, PluggnB, and newer styles of underground rap.
That search was harder than I expected. The artists I was looking for do not always appear in local coverage or describe themselves through their state. Their music travels through SoundCloud, Instagram, YouTube, and Discord first. You can listen to somebody for years without knowing where they are based.
I found three artists in or around my corner of the underground. They do not share one sound, and I am not trying to force them into a single Alabama genre. What connects them is that they make internet-driven music while living in a state that is rarely associated with these scenes.
cld: diary and electronic music from Auburn
The first artist I found was cld, a producer and artist in the diary and electronic scene. He has told me that he is based in Auburn, Alabama.
Production is a big part of his work. His credits include music with vax, mental, and lynU, but he also releases music under his own name. He has even released through NCS, which I did not expect to find while looking through Alabama's underground.
One of the tracks that shows the internet side of his music is icantslowdown with venthan. It was posted to SoundCloud in 2023 and tagged as digicore. The track also has production credits for terastic and akkir0. That mix of artist releases, production work, and collaborations is why calling cld only a producer would miss part of what he does.
Finding somebody connected to diary, digicore, and NCS in Auburn made the point of this search clearer to me. Alabama artists can be involved in online scenes with listeners and collaborators far outside the state, even when there is little local writing connecting them back to Alabama.
westt: a newer underground rapper in Birmingham
The second artist I found was westt. His music sits closer to the rap side of the underground, in the same general lane as artists such as maxon, slayr, and xaviersobased.
I came across him around the release of sake and tahoe in 2026. Based on his Instagram reels and YouTube videos, he appears to be based in Birmingham, although I have not confirmed that with him directly.
westt is the newest discovery on this list for me. Unlike cld, whose work crosses production and electronic scenes, westt is closer to the current underground rap sound. That difference matters. It shows that Alabama's online underground is not one small group making variations of the same music.
sake and tahoe were the tracks that put him on my radar. This is my favorite release from him:
His videos and reels were also how I picked up the Birmingham connection. That says something about documenting a scene like this: sometimes the location is in the background of the content instead of an artist bio. I would rather be clear about how I reached that conclusion than turn an observation into a confirmed hometown.
cavyion: PluggnB and electronic music from Gulf Shores
After searching for artists in these specific online scenes, the only other Alabama-based name I had was my own. I am cavyion, a Filipino artist and producer from Silang, Cavite, currently based in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
My music moves between PluggnB and electronic music. I produce, record, mix, and master my work independently, including my debut studio album, Au Revoir.
Being from the Philippines and now living on the Alabama coast affects how I think about location in music. Most of my collaborations are not limited by either place. I work online with artists and producers in other countries, while the music itself reaches listeners through the same platforms where I found cld and westt.
I have worked with artists from different parts of the underground. I made Truly Yours with ri4h, produced "I'm done gave y my all" for Yvnlazy's 2025 album Longing, and What Lies Beyond, and made Love Live! Sunshine!! with YungLex. None of those connections came from being part of one local Alabama circle. They came from being active in overlapping online scenes.
That is why I included myself instead of pretending to write this as an outside observer. I am looking for the scene because I am part of it. I want to know who else nearby is making PluggnB, electronic music, diary, digicore, or underground rap and uploading it to the same corners of the internet.
A small part of Alabama's underground
Alabama's underground is bigger than the three people in this article. The problem is discovery. Artists in internet-based genres may build an audience through SoundCloud, YouTube, or Instagram without being covered as Alabama artists. Search for the state and you will usually find country, Southern rap, or established names before you reach the smaller online scenes.
The scene may not have one venue, collective, or city at its center. cld is connected to Auburn, westt appears to be working around Birmingham, and I am in Gulf Shores. The shared space is online.
Writing this made me realize how connected the underground is in general. A producer in Auburn can work with artists far outside Alabama. I can live in Gulf Shores, make a track with ri4h, produce for Yvnlazy, work with YungLex, then find a Birmingham rapper through an Instagram reel. Geography still matters, but it does not set the boundary of the scene.
These are the three Alabama names I found so far. The connections around them already reach much further.