Songs I won’t forgive the artist for leaving off Spotify.

I vividly remember walking to my middle school bus stop at 8:50 AM (I was lucky, my school started at 9:10), blasting “Caroline” by Aminé in my half-broken headphones. I was vibing and enjoying my ad-less, mildly-spotty listening experience, brought to my phone from none other than the glorious app SoundCloud.

SoundCloud, colloquially, gets a bit of an unnecessarily bad rep; most people know it as the “bad rapper app”— many underground artists (not just rappers) self-produce and upload their music to SoundCloud for free. Some of them are good, some of them are… less than good. Nonetheless, SoundCloud is so much more than just the bad rapper app. It is full of unreleased gems and covers of your favorite artists. In this list, I will unveil my top SoundCloud gems, songs that I will never forgive the artist for not putting on Spotify.

“Está Noche” by Bia & Ariana Grande

The fact that this song is not on Spotify is easily one of the greatest bag fumbles of all time. If this song were released as an official single, there is not a doubt in my mind that it would practically live on the Billboard Hot 100. “Está Noche” features catchy rap verses from Bia, with Grande carrying the chorus, and is complete with a beat that will undoubtedly get stuck in your head.

“Trust Issues” by Drake, Justin Bieber, & The Weeknd

In fairness, “Trust Issues” technically is released on Spotify; the song appears on Drake’s 2019 album, Care Package, where he is the only artist featured. However, the unreleased version—a collaboration between The Weeknd, Drake, and Justin Bieber—is significantly better than the original. Bieber’s verse on the track proves his ability to span the genres of both R&B and pop, while The Weeknd’s verse prevents the awkward transition between Drake’s singing and his rapping that you can find on the version on Care Package. This remix definitely should have beat the original for the official release.

“Miss You So” by Frank Ocean

“Miss You So” is one of the most popular songs from The Lonny Breaux Collection, Frank Ocean’s 2010 unofficial mixtape. This mixtape was never officially released, but the entire 66-song playlist is available for download on various platforms. “Miss You So” is incredibly gut-wrenching; it tells the story of a lover lamenting over his failed relationship and his fears of forgetting the relationship due to the fact that he has no pictures from it. In typical Ocean fashion, the song is perfect to cry silently to while staring at your popcorn ceiling dorm—not that I’ve ever, you know, done such a thing; it’s just a kind suggestion.

“Love Lost” by Mac Miller & The Temper Trap

Similar to “Trust Issues,” “Love Lost” is technically an officially released song, just not on Spotify. In 2011, Miller started a project in which he released a new song for every 100,000 followers, which subsequently led to the release of his sixth mixtape, I Love Life, Thank You. “Love Lost” samples a The Temper Trap song of the same name, and quite frankly, this is one of my favorite songs by Miller (and I mildly consider myself a resident Mac Miller snob).

“Slow” by Lido & Halsey

This is the perfect song for any Badlands / Room 93 Halsey enthusiast and is faintly reminiscent of her blue-hair era. In “Slow,” Halsey sings about a questionable relationship over a sample of Jaden Smith’s 2015 “Fast.” This is easily one of my favorite Halsey songs of all time—maybe because it reminds me of “Tokyo Narita”—and it is so unlike anything else she has made that it would have been a standout single in her discography if she released it on Spotify.

“Sesame Street” by Joey Trap

This song, like many others on this list, has a verse that has gone viral on TikTok. Joey Trap has many popular songs, most notably “Alexis” and his collaboration with GOODMORNINGTOKYO, and like these others, “Sesame Street” does not disappoint. It too deserves a bit of the Spotify limelight.

“Wild Thots” by A Boogie wit da Hoodie

One could consider this Boogie song something akin to a cover; he raps over the beat of “Wild Thoughts” by Rihanna, Bryson Tiller, and DJ Khalid (I suppose one could consider this a sample of a sample, due to the fact that “Wild Thoughts” directly samples “Maria Maria” by Santana). This was probably not released on Spotify due to copyright issues, but it is so catchy and such a refreshing remix of the original song that you can’t help but be mad that this is not on Spotify.

edited by Joseph Mooney.

artwork by Lily Agnacian.