The picture attached to one of Ugly God’s most popular songs on Soundcloud is a tranquil scene of a large, pristine, white mansion with a relaxing tangerine colored stucco roof, surrounded by palm trees, and a deep ocean blue sky. It could be a photograph taken on film, archived and found after the color is already fading, or it could be a painting, a fantasy of a life in L.A. or Miami. The song that it’s attached to is tilted “I Beat my Meat,” and as you can probably guess, it’s not about tenderizing steak. Some key lines from the song include; “Lotion in my pocket, but that’s only for survival,” and, “Ugly God bitch booty thicker than the bible,” and “this is the beginning Ugly God music in his primal.”
“It was surprising how it went kind of big” says Ugly God as he’s preparing for a show in L.A., who named himself after his not conventionally attractive face, “It really took me off guard, I mean it’s kind of crazy because it’s really stupid. Honestly, if you listen to that, you’re stupid, but I fuck with you though.”
Released last year on Ugly God’s Soundcloud page, the song has wrapped up 7.12 million views on Soundcloud alone, (his third most popular song after the 8.8 million views racked up by “RARI”, and the 14.7 millions views racked up by “Water”), mostly by being passed around the crack and crevices of the internet where weird and creative kids lurk, creating and curating the culture that what will be cool and hip for us all in the near future.
“I wasn’t trying to be a rapper or anything, it just happened.” says Ugly God, “I was majoring in computer engineering and web development, and school was honestly always the biggest priority for me, but my music was starting to take off, and tour dates were just conflicting… If I could do this and still be in school, I would, but I’m happy the way things are now. Things are working out perfectly.”
Ugly God’s brand of rap music, which is a little bit of Soulja Boy’s minimalism and hook writing prowess, and Lil B’s humor, over earnestness, and adventuress experimentation, has earned Ugly God features from Lil Yachty and a remix from Rich the Kid, and legions of online followers who recognize his production tag of a sultry voiced woman saying “Thanks, Ugly God,” as easily as they recognize a Metro Boomin tag.
Along with writing and performing his songs, Ugly God also handles the production of his own beats, the style of which changes from song to song from playful takes on trap beats like “I Beat My Meat” and “Bernie Sanders” (a shout out to the senator from Vermont, which honestly should have been his campaign’s theme song), to interesting experimentations with lo-fi, Low End Theory style, instrumental, beat music with modern day trap sounds like “Bitch I Got Your Bitch” and “Booty From a Distance,” the former of which beautifully samples the soft crooning and clean guitar tone of some elegant old torch singer.
“You can’t joke around on production or your whole song will be fucked up. I take that very seriously.” says Ugly God, “It [the music] was a joke when I started, but honestly, it’s become not a joke” he says, “Cycles come, you know what I mean, and everything refreshes, I’d be more than happy to get back in school and do the same thing I was doing, but, I’m taking it a lot more seriously now, but I still do my joking shit with it, because that gives me my sound”
A part of that joking around includes a series of videos of Ugly God making a live lizard clasp onto his nostrils, which have racked up views on Vine, and Ugly God’s constant engagement with fans, teasing them on the release date of his first mixtape The Booty Tape (“I might drop it, it depends on how I feel” he says), and his hilarious calling out and chastisement of his haterson Twitter.
“My marketing is on a million bro” he says, “I’m from Houston, but I live in Mississippi right now, and I think it’s amazing what I’m doing. Me, coming from an unknown ass state. I’d love to work with someone like R. Kelly, or Caitlyn Jenner. Caitlyn, if you reading this, hit me up!”
Ugly God will be Performing at The Observatory in Santa Ana with Yung Jake on Thursday September 15. For ticket info, click here.
