9Lives

9lives crafts tracks around cascading synths, trap rhythms, and sharp sound effects, a foundation that underpins his viral team-ups with Trippie Redd on the 2023 single “Popular” and with Odetari on both 2023’s “I Love You Hoe” and 2024’s “Millionaire,” alongside his own releases #Exclusive (2022) and 33.1Fm (2023).

Max Jardine, born into a South African household in rural Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, took up drums at an early age and quickly moved on to crafting loops in his bedroom. Seeking distance from the prevailing wave of trap producers, Jardine first explored jungle and ambient textures before embracing sigilkore, the hybrid approach that merges cloud rap and hyperpop through hazy layers set at brisk tempos and frequently drawn from video-game sound design.

His breakthrough under the 9lives name arrived with the 2022 beat tape #Exclusive, which gathered his most inventive, psychedelic productions. Sigilkore staples Luci4 and Xanahxlic both flipped the project’s opening cut “Khaos Emerald,” sparking TikTok virality and a surge in streams for his catalog. In 2023 he expanded his reach with the well-received standalone “XTAYALIVE,” handled production on Odetari’s debut 3x3 EP, and contributed the key track “Popular” to Trippie Redd’s St. Michael, Vol.2; Redd later joined the popular remix of Odetari and 9lives’ “I Love You Hoe.” By year’s end he had signed a global publishing agreement with Kobalt, aiming to carry his sound deeper into the mainstream.