4cat and 7 leers ago (found 4cat album; 2016)

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"4cat and 7 leers ago" Album Cover.

Status: Found

Date found: 08 May 2023

Found by: AtRiskMediaArchive

4cat was a Newgrounds user and musician who was active from 2011-2017 before his account was deactivated sometime in 2019. He is most notable for producing songs that openly mocked the Newgrounds Audio Portal moderator "BrokenDeck" for supposedly commenting that he had considered 4cat's music to be "spam" - a term commonly used on the site to describe someone's submitted song as either "trash" or "bad". This supposed "grudge" with BrokenDeck, as well as Newgrounds as a whole, became the inspiration for his songs "All I Do Is Spam (BrokenDiss)", "4cat Is The Best (BrokenDeck Perspective)", "The Conspiracy", "Newgrounds Is Awesome" and "SPAM FOR 4CAT SPAM". [1]

4cat and 7 leers ago

On October 2nd, 2016, 4cat uploaded a "name your own price" EP titled 4cat and 7 leers ago to his personal Bandcamp page. The album featured six different tracks, some of which were collaborations with other artists and friends of his from Newgrounds (e.g. the track "Hoverhand" features fellow Newgrounds musician and long-time musical collaborator of 4cat's, "Chris Is Lame").

Both the album and 4cat's Newgrounds account would be taken down in 2019, effectively rendering most music that wasn't fully archived (including most of the EP itself) lost to the public. To this day, it is still debated whether or not if 4cat was either simply banned from Newgrounds and subsequently decided to erase all traces of his music from Bandcamp or if he simply took down the pages himself in light of new, more professional career opportunities. [2]

On June 9th, 2022, Internet Archive user "ArabombGoesBoom" uploaded a large majority of 4cat's songs (including two of the six tracks featured within the EP) to the site. [3]

Who's That 4cat?: Leads and Theories

"WHErwin" and "Removed Submission"

4cat's song "All I Do Is Spam (BrokenDiss)" had recently garnered some newfound popularity following the release of a fanmade level for the rhythm-based, platforming game Geometry Dash, named "Removed Submission". The level itself was designed by a Youtuber user named "WHErwin", who would go on to record himself playing through the level before its verification and publish it on November 8th, 2018. [4]

Since the mass deactivation of 4cat's various online accounts and overall disappearance from his internet persona, many new fans of his work would come to believe in the personal theory that WHErwin is, in fact, 4cat. Their reasoning for this conclusion is very vague, ultimately resulting in the theory not being seen as than mere speculation.

"Ciscohelpme" and the 4cat Channel

On October 31st, 2018, Youtube user "bomf" uploaded a now-unlisted reupload of "All I Do Is Spam (BrokenDiss)" that featured both a link to 4cat's Soundcloud page (as will be referenced below, in the third lead) in the description and a pinned comment by "Peeballs17" that both reaffirms the validity of the Soundcloud page and states that 4cat had a Youtube channel branded as "Ciscohelpme". [5]

Directly searching for the channel yields no results, so it may be the case that either the account did exist and was simply deleted around that time, the commenter either simply had the name confused or confused the account for 4cat or that the channel's name was changed to the still inactive 4cat Youtube channel (which was created on October 22nd, 2016, a full twenty days after the EP's release).

"Hewitt A. / Alexander Hewitt"

Approximately 7 years ago, 4cat had created a personal Soundcloud (presumably separate from both his Newgrounds and Bandcamp) to upload mostly instrumental music that he had produced in his free time. The first song uploaded to the account was "Vibe" (not yet confirmed if it was used as the backing track in the EP track "Just Vibe (Goonsquad On The Rise) ft. Jay") and the latest song uploaded was a remix of Gavin Turek's "On The Line", dubbed "Hewitt Alexander Remix".[6]

The account has been set to private, meaning that any Soundcloud account not being followed by them is unable to privately message the user. Right underneath the account username, however, is the listed location of the user - Los Angeles, CA.

Whether or not if the name listed and/or the location is valid to be confirmed as 4cat's identity (or if he just wrote that there to ultimately separate his real life, or even his 4cat persona, from this specific account) at all is yet to be verified. Though, putting this information through a simple web search leads to composer, music producer and lyricist Alexander Hewitt. Often being credited as co-producer on Hong Kong rapper "Jackson Wang's" album "Mirrors"[7], doing another simple web search with the terms '4cat' and 'Jackson Wang' yields one of the results being a Twitter account also named '4cat'[8] and has made several tweets/retweets promoting Jackson Wang and his own Twitter account (in fact, the first tweet you'll see upon viewing the account is a pinned retweet from Wang's).

Unfortunately, the Twitter account has been inactive since 2022 and there is still no valid confirmation whether or not this account actually belongs to 4cat or even Alexander Hewitt. Though, the account itself was created all the way back in February 2016, a full 8 months before the EP's release and the creation of the 4cat Youtube channel, so there is some plausibility to this account having belonged to the same 4cat but not by much other than some minor connective tissue.

"Goonsquad" and Associates

Although there isn't much documentation on the subject, sometime between 2015 and 2017 4cat and several of most frequent musical collaborates/friends from Newgrounds would go on to form a small music group called the Goonsquad. Whilst this was a legitimate collaboration between all known members of this group, they rarely ever made much music for the actual group itself and was more of a way of promoting each time two or more of the members collaborated together on a new song rather than a fully-fledged musical act. The group would fizzle into obscurity (as well as the usage of the 'Goonsquad' branding) a little before 4cat's Newgrounds account would be taken down in 2019, leaving the only fully archived traces of the group's existence to be the songs that some members made in collaboration with 4cat that still remain uploaded on each of their respective Newgrounds accounts.[9]

The list of currently known/speculated/associated 'Goonsquad' members are as follows; Chris Is Lame[10], Jay, Father of Death[11], Zachery[12] and Noinim. Whether any of the members of these individuals have a copy of the EP or know someone who does has yet to be verified, though it may be likely.

Finding

On May 8th, 2023, LostMediaWiki user AtRiskMediaArchive found and uploaded the full EP to Youtube.[13]

Track List [14]

# Track Title Status
01 "Sippin (On My Rossi) ft. Father of Death and Noinim" Found
02 "Doin Tha Most" Found
03 "Pretzels Ain't The Same" Found
04 "Just Vibe (Goonsquad On The Rise) ft. Jay" Found
05 "She Thicc" Found
06 "Hoverhand ft. Chris Is Lame" Found

Other 4cat Songs

"All I Do Is Spam (BrokenDiss)"

"4cat Is The Best (BrokenDeck Perspective)"

"SPAM FOR 4CAT SPAM"

Trivia

It should be noted that 4cat is not to be confused with the research and analysis toolkit "4CAT", though the logo, confusingly enough, is strikingly similar to that of 4cat's.

There is also a Vocaloid music channel also named "4cat", which can easily be confused for 4cat.

External Links

References

  1. The archived page of 4cat's "All I Do Is Spam (BrokenDiss)" that shows his original author's comments detailing his supposed frustrations with BrokenDeck's comment. Retrieved 3 May '23
  2. A tweet from Veteran Newgrounds Artist/Animator/Moderator/Staff Member "Luis Castanon" most likely confirming that 4cat found better career opportunities. Retrieved 4 May '23
  3. All songs by 4cat that have been uploaded to the Internet Archive so far. Retrieved 3 May '23
  4. WHErwin's video showcasing his "Removed Submission" Geometry Dash level. Retrieved 4 May '23
  5. The unlisted reupload of "All I Do Is Spam (BrokenDiss)" with the comment referencing 4cat's supposed "Ciscohelpme" channel. Retrieved 4 May '23
  6. Hewlitta's remix of Gaven Turek's "On The Line". Retrieved 4 May '23
  7. Alexander Hewitt's "AllMusic" page that lists his involvement with Jackson Wang's "Mirrors". Retrieved 5 May '23
  8. 4cat Twitter account that has multiple tweets/retweets promoting Jackson Wang's music and own Twitter account. Retrieved 5 May '23
  9. Zachary's last uploaded song was the Conspiracy, made in collaboration with 4cat for the Goonsquad. Retrieved 10 May '23
  10. Chris Is Lame's song "4cat Is Tired Mane", made by sampling recorded dialogue of 4cat. Retrieved 10 May '23
  11. 4cat's satirical remix of Father of Death's "Ridin' Raw". Retrieved 10 May '23
  12. https://newgrounds.com/audio/listen/544460 A tribute song to 4cat's first banning from Newgrounds, which happened sometime in 2013, that was made by Zachery.] Retrieved 10 May '23
  13. The full EP, as reuploaded by AtRiskMediaArchive. Retrieved 10 May '23
  14. WaybackMachine archives of 4cat's bandcamp with the official track listing for the EP. Retrieved 3 May '23