Credit: Spotify

The rise of auto-tune has been an ongoing part of hip-hop culture since the mid-2000s when artists such as T-Pain and Lil Wayne began fusing R&B and rap music to create a more melody-driven sonic. However, over the years, its popularity has risen so quickly that some MCs have become reliant on it, so much so that in 2019, Florida rhymer Weiland fooled the world into thinking he had replaced his vocal cords with an auto-tune machine.

The Tampa artist first emerged as a social media star, but like many, he soon began rapping. He initially gained attention by posting outrageous videos on Instagram. Weiland started off as a SoundCloud artist in 2015 but soon garnered more attention for his online antics than for his music.

With tracks such as ‘Xanax Queen’ and ‘All I Need’, the emcee began his career rapping about drugs, guns and many things that were completely alien to him in real life. That said, during this period, his inauthentic material saw him reduced to a gimmick, and Weiland leant into this perception of him.

The Tampa native attempted a lot of social marketing gimmicks to gain traction. In 2018, the ‘See Through’ artist uploaded a video to Instagram claiming that he had undergone cosmetic surgery for breasts. In the clip, the outlandish figure declares, “I’m the first rapper with a pair of f*cking titties. I got a rack on me, and I’ll still f*ck you up!”

While this may have turned heads in the short term, it didn’t lead to an increase in his streams and his music remained as unpopular as it had been before the stunt. Furthermore, he had tarnished his image. However, one of his more peculiar yet convincing stunts was a step-by-step walkthrough of the supposed auto-tune chip that had been inserted into his vocal cords, allowing him to rap in without effects.

In the video, with a band-aid over his throat, Weiland claims, “If I tap on this tooth five times, you see it’s lit up now!” He then begins singing with an auto-tune effect, which instantly affects his vocals and fools many into believing it is unedited footage. Of course, in reality, it is simply an edited video. but it did speak a little to Weiland’s complete devotion to gaining online clout by whatever means necessary.

Since his fall from moderate fame, Weiland has revealed how he managed to get so many eyes on him and in a 2021 interview with Kids Take Over, the musician explained, “I would reach out to Instagram pages with big followings like rap pages, and I would have them post.”

The social media personality admitted that this drove traffic to his YouTube channel. However, it never translated into clicks on his music or a rise in the number of people listening to his songs. It merely got more eyes on viral clips.

Like many artists who arrived during the mid-2010s, from Lil Xan to the Island Boys and more, Weiland’s tenure resulted in him returning years later to insist he had had an epiphany and gone on a faux-spiritual journey since his early days. Unfortunately, for many of these artists, the initial damage cannot be repaired, and their return is met with exhaustion as opposed to excitement.