FearDorian Is Smashing Through the Boundaries of Internet Rap

If things were different, FearDorian would be in college right now. But after graduating high school last May, he went all-in on music instead: making hundreds of beats, releasing a couple of full-length projects, and taking his sound—a bespoke blend of Milwaukee lowend, Midwest emo, vaporwave, and Atlanta staples like trap and snap music—across America and Europe on tour. Still, the decision weighs on him. At the top of his new album, Leaving Home, over a hypnotic instrumental that’s both contemplative and flossy, he raps, “Every day baby steps, dealing with that trauma/Every day a different trip when I should be in college.” Sitting in his first solo apartment earlier this month, he’s pleased with how life is going—especially since, during his adolescence not so long ago, his family was practically homeless and forced to live together in a hotel. “I already be having too much weighing on me in general, and school would only add to that,” he says. “Even though it would probably be fun as fuck, too.”

Dorian might not be criss-crossing the quad anytime soon, but his pad has some of the hallmarks of a dorm room all the same. There are posters of faves like Swedish rapper-producer and Drain Gang founder Bladee, Chicago indie-sleaze artist Groupthink, and Atlanta hardcore band Playytime; a mini-shrine dedicated to the experimental Arizona rap group Injury Reserve (Dorian and Injury Reserve member RiTchie dropped a mixtape, Quiet Warp Xpress, together late last year); and a poster of the animated Japanese pop star Hatsune Miku (Dorian once cosplayed as her). He points his iPhone camera toward his minimal production setup, where the prolific producer cooks up many of his beats. He says he’s made 233 of them in just the last few months, adding that the pace is slow for him.