One of the greatest ad-libs I’ve come across in recent memory calls out Indian incels who insist they're not feminists: "Were you born out of your father’s ass?” asks Soham who goes by 'som.', before breaking into song from his latest mixtape 'Lover On Rent'. The outrageous hook perfectly captures the irreverent, self-aware humour that has come to define his online persona. From streaming directly out of his bedroom to tossing off punchlines that blur sincerity with satire, som. has built a world where comedy and music fold into one another. This instinct for play, paired with a refusal to take himself too seriously, carries into his mixtape, a compact body of work that is equal parts sonic experiment and diaristic storytelling.

Something that stands out immediately is how fluid som. is in his expression. He moves between English and Hindi with ease, as a natural reflection of how his thoughts occur. That same fluidity runs through the emotional palette of the record. He shifts from yearning to mischief, from reassurance to self-mockery, all without ever feeling disjointed. Rather than lock into the established formulas of R&B or hip-hop, he approaches subgenres like raw material, bending them into something looser, more idiosyncratic, and unmistakably his. The result is a sound that refuses to imitate its references; instead, it reshapes them into a voice that feels original.

Across its sub-twenty-minute span, 'Lover on Rent' sketches a mosaic of moods and themes that mirror the attention span, anxieties, and small bursts of euphoria familiar to Gen Z listeners. A track like 'im in love with someone else’s girlfriend' turns a romantic predicament into something comic and direct, while 'itsalrightyouarenotalone' offers a friendly hand of reassurance. In 'LOVER ON RANT', he unpacks a situationship that left him disoriented, messy, and mentally drained, whereas 'SAISHA' lingers on a girl who feels like the one, drawing his full attention. 'BHAAGJA' channels the exhaustion and overstimulation of navigating a fractured world, and 'TARAANA' opens into love and longing, giving the project its most expansive and affecting moment as a centerpiece.

These shifts speak to the volatility and contradictions of a young adult lived experience. The mixtape spans across genres from drum & bass surges to dance-leaning electronics, or synth-pop sweetness to flashes of hyperpop and alternative pop, sometimes even trap, and glitchcore. Hints of Bollywood-inflected melodies also garnish the production. The entire project written performed and composed by the artist alone, It is a sound born of the hyper-digital age we live in yet shaped by the echoes of local musical memory — a vivid portrait of what it means to be a young creative in India, carrying forward inherited histories while insisting on one’s own sonic identity.

Auto-tune is a big part of som.'s world. A joke upon itself that the effect has become, lends itself perfectly to the artist's practice. Like Bo Burnham’s 'Make Happy' special famously parodied Kanye West’s auto-tuned rants, using the effect to transform trivial complaints into something at once comic and strangely moving, som. employs it in a similar spirit — filtering fragments of his life through the exaggerated sheen of the effect, whether lamenting fleeting situationships, his mother’s disapproval of his hairstyle, or looping everyday frustrations into short reels. These gestures are central to how he presents himself: the music and the content collapse into each other. Where many artists frame catering to the algorithm as an annoying obligation, som. has taken it and ran with it, becoming the funny dude on the Internet that also makes dope music. The personal brand he has built on social media is just as expressive and inventive as his songs, mirroring like the feed-based culture it grows out of.

som. believes that the absence of a fully formed music industry in India has created a rare window of creative freedom. Without the dominance of labels, or award shows — structures that often create hierarchies and rivalries — artists today can explore their sound without external pressure. He points out that there is no real competition among artists right now, except for a musical one, and no battles for deals either which opens up an avenue for authenticity. The audience may be small, “but there are people who listen to it,” he notes. The artist insists that in the next few years, the industry will start mirroring the more structured and competitive systems seen in the West. While such changes might bring recognition and money, they could also erode the sense of community and creative equality that defines this current phase. For now, though, som. sees this as a golden era — a brief yet powerful time for unfiltered expression before the machinery of the industry fully arrives. And that's exactly what he embodies in his practice.

With 'Lover on Rent', som. gives us a statement of intent: a demonstration that pop in this moment can be deeply personal, culturally hybrid, and unafraid of imperfection. som has all the makings of a new kind of pop star — one who speaks from within the crowd rather than from above it; as a voice that is recognisable because it is, unmistakably, one of our own.

Follow som. here and listen to the mixtape below:

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