If you’ve ever walked under the bridge near IHS and have seen someone huddled over their phone shouting a freestyle into their voice memos, you’ve probably encountered Ithaca’s very own SoundCloud rapper, who goes by the stage name Töy$töry. Until very recently, Töy$töry has been an unknown name in the music industry, but has experienced a meteoric rise to fame after their now-hit single, “untitled 2: be $o fr.” topped the charts last month. When asked about their recent success however, Töy$töry sounded anything but enthusiastic about it: “I miss the underground scene. You know, the gritty, raw, and emotional place where true art is made. Now, I gotta work on merch drops and record deals? I don’t think so.”
Despite Töy$töry’s resentment towards his discovery, students at IHS are hooked on his music. One student, wearing the newly released Töy$töry sweatshirt, explained their reasoning for supporting the artist: “You know, the first time I listened to his stuff, I wasn’t a big fan. But after a while I got over the terrible audio quality and bad autotune. He kinda reminds me of Ken Carson a bit actually.” Another student, who was listening to Töy$töry’s new single “that $$$tuff” when our representative from The Tattler approached them, commented that “He’s honestly the voice of our generation. I think everyone should listen to him.”
When asked about his inspirations, Töy$töry explained, “I get most of my spark from the anger I feel, and a lot of my songs are about the sort of systems we inhabit and how they inhibit us from finding our true selves.” His deeper meanings are especially clear on his sophomore album, $raight-up geekin’, which was his last unsigned release. Completely recorded on his phone and produced on a pirated version of Logic Pro, Töy$töry sees $raight-up geekin’ as his last good release: “It was the last thing that I put together on my own, in my parents’ basement. And it’ll always be special to me. I think it got like four streams initially, and most of them were from my algebra teacher, I think. Now I’ve got like a million monthly listeners on Spotify, and I’m right below that new Chappell Roan song?! That ain’t me, man!”
Töy$töry then went on to explain that even the best parts of fame had their downsides: “I got crazy money now, for sure, especially after I put out the sleeveless hoodless hoodie in my last merch drop. But that’s a bad thing, you know? In the music industry, it’s uncool to make money. How am I supposed to be a struggling artist in these conditions? Popularity is so out of style these days.”
As of writing, Töy$töry has amassed a total of 3.2 million monthly streamers on Spotify, and has hit the Billboard Top 100 a total of five times. He’s shown a lot more enthusiasm for the craft after his newest single “giveittome: slowed version” flopped and was called “utter garbage” by critics. He plans to drop the highly anticipated “$$lugger tthings feat. Chappell Roan” at the end of May. As a final message to those who think they wanna pursue the music industry, Töy$töry advises “Don’t even upload your stuff. You have a chance of being discovered then. Just record it, burn some CDs of it or something, and sell ‘em for a couple bucks. Or, better yet, only make like one physical copy of the song file and just leave it somewhere for someone to find. Wait, I like that, let me go write that idea down.”
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