Welcome to the April review! We are well into 2025 now and the underground scene is really starting to ramp up. As we leave the winter months, lets take a look back at all the great projects released, get to know a new dope rapper hailing from Puerto Rico, and take a look into how Reddit may be the next best place to share your music!

Thank you and we hope you enjoy!

Let us know which project here is your favorite and if there is anyone we should look out for in May!

I go by Seal, or SealTeamNeal. The name came from a crazy night with BigByrd where things got real and we both could’ve died. After that, he started calling me “Seal Team Neal” because I didn’t flinch, even with a gun to my head. My last name’s O’Neal, so Neal just stuck.

I met Byrd right before COVID when I was working at a gas station near his place. He was a regular, and one day we exchanged info. I had literally just made my first beat the day before, sent it to him, and from there we started making music and hanging out consistently for a couple months. He definitely influenced me a lot—both of us were fully self-taught and just figuring it out as we went.

I grew up in a small farm town without any real music scene, so I built my sound from scratch. I started on piano and drums, and early on I was listening to a lot of rock and metal, which still shows up in my music. Early on I got into artists like Kendrick Lamar, Smino, BROCKHAMPTON, J. Cole and the Dreamville roster, plus $uicideboy$, XXXTENTACION, Lil Peep, Yung Lean, and Bladee. That mix really shaped how I hear melody and emotion.

I haven’t really had a favorite album since blkswn by Smino—that one stuck with me.

Byrd And I have a handful of projects and albums we’re meaning to release, no definitive timeline as of yet. Lots of unreleased music is coming out soon though.

At the end of the day, I’m self-taught and don’t follow formulas. I just make what feels real.

The war between Humans and AI music notches another win for humans. Spotify has announced on April 30th that they will now offer a new artist verification program to address the flood of AI-generated music on their platform. Meant to be a reliable signal of human created art, discourse is already starting over the mess this could devolve into.

In order to receive the verification badge Spotify says “artists must meet certain criteria. [They] look for an identifiable artist presence both on and off platform, like concert dates, merch, and linked social accounts on their artist profile. Profiles that primarily represent AI-generated music or AI-persona artists are not eligible for verification.”

But what does this actual mean?! Could someone who is running these AI accounts “fake” activity by linking real social accounts? Will there be a future where Spotify charges for this verification badge similar to Meta and X? What about artists that have passed away? Artists that don’t use social media?

Another major question I have is how will this affect streaming royalties? Already we have seen major reductions to streaming numbers as Spotify and Apple Music become better at detecting botted streams, removing payouts for “fake” listens. But does this extend to “fake” songs?

The way these streaming platforms pay out artists is by divvying up the amount of money they make during a period by the % of plays an artist’s music receives during that same period. With the large influx of AI art, that is pulling percentages of this cash pool away from real human artists and giving it towards these AI accounts. Will this verification be a stamp of approval for Spotify to payout? If you don’t have the verification badge will you be ineligible to make money on their platform?

As much as this initiative raises more questions and doesn’t feel perfect yet, I am very excited that it is a step in the right direction to protect humanity.

Thank you for checking out our latest edition of Mic Check Monthly! If you have any questions or would like to be featured in the next edition, feel free to reply to this email and I will personally respond as soon as it comes through! Thank you!

— JTA