SAN JOSE, CALIF.—A raging debate is going around in the underground rap community, possibly a discussion within many Silver Creek social circles, right now about which rapper is better, Nettspend or Osamason? 

The rap underground is a community made up of rap artists who aren’t as well known as the titans of rap like Kendrick Lamar, Jay-Z, or Drake who have tens of millions of monthly listeners. This includes Nettspend and Osamason, although they are on the more popular side of underground rap, they aren’t comparable to the more popular artists. 

Nettspend and Osamason both fall under an obscure category of trap hip-hop and their music is clearly partially influenced by people like Chief Keef, Lil Uzi Vert, and Justin Beiber, who are other famous rap and hip-hop artists.

My answer to this debate is: Nettspend is better than Osamason. Sure Osamason is more consistent with releasing albums and new songs for his listeners, but the quality of his albums doesn’t compare to Nettspend’s singles. And just a few months ago in 2024, Nettspend released his latest album that caused underground rap to start gaining popularity on media like TikTok and Instagram. It explores teenage rebellion stereotypes, one of the songs featured on the album being “Skipping Class” and really resonates with the youth who make up a majority of his fanbase.

Emphasizing my point is Jaydon Tongson. Tongson is a fan and avid listener of lots of other underground artists. As for his stance in this debate, he says, “Nettspend clears Osamason when it comes to who’s music is better. Nettspend is the face of underground rap and is the only reason Osamason is even relevant.” 

Me and Tongson were both introduced to Osamason because of his collabs with Nettspend. Tongson adds: “Most people that are new to this type of rap usually knew about Nettspend before Osamason and then slowly expanded out to other artists. At least, that’s what happened with me.” 

Trunghieu Ho, a sophomore, says, “I really like both, but I think I only got into this like, genre of music after I heard a Nettspend song on TikTok. After that, I started to branch out and I started listening to a lot of other artists, especially Osamason. It’s kind of hard to decide between the two, but I think I’d have to go with Nettspend cuz’ he got me into rap.” 

The song that he said got him into rap is “shine n peace”, a single released in 2023. Back then the scene of rap looked very different than what it does today and both Nettspend and Osamason were still not quite as known as they are now. His song “shine n peace” was a relatively new take on hip-hop rap at the time, using a rather odd beat, but still felt like it was in line with what rap was like back in 2023 because his lyrics were what’d you typically hear in any rage rap hip-hop song. This was a refresher from the typical rap or hip-hop songs at the time. I don’t think any mainstream rapper could’ve figured out a way to rap on beats you’d hear in Nettspend’s songs.

Comparing these two to determine who’s better was difficult because of how similar their music is and how both of them make quality music. Recently this year Osamason released the “Jump Out” album that received higher ratings than Nettspend’s latest album and is regarded as Osamason’s best work yet. At the end of the day both artists are good in their respective ways and let’s not ignore the work they put in to get to where they are today. Both Nettspend and Osamason started off on Soundcloud, a platform useful for beginning artists, and were always subjected negatively online because of how different their music was from traditional rap or other hip-hop rap songs. Now, they’re the faces of underground rap and inspiration for new upcoming rappers.