When you turned 18, you were probably flipping burgers at the local take-out, saving up cash for your life-defining gap year in Thailand. Unless you are one of the following artists who well and truly have their shit sorted before they’re even allowed to enter a club.

These young artists are a product of the Soundcloud generation - able to upload their music at the click of a button, liaise with artists and build a fanbase without even leaving the house. There are plenty doing that but these seven artists below are the youngsters who are really succeeding.

Here are a handful of artists who aren’t allowed to throw down a drink in their country of residence but do have a licence to make banging tunes.

E^ST

Australia has no shortage of young artists killing it. Last year’s crop of new talent was almost made entirely of under 18 musicians including JOY., Japanese Wallpaper and Tkay Maidza. 16 year-old E^ST, known to her parents as Melissa, is a shy but cool teen churning out dark, stomping anthems. She caught the attention of triple j with last year’s Old Age and this year has followed it up with the equally affecting The Alley. The track captures the inescapable anxieties faced by a teen while also showing a beyond-her-years feels for melody. E^ST is home-schooled so we don’t need to worry about her spending too much time on extracurricular and not enough time on banging on tunes.

Kehlani

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Kehlani is 50. Her credentials already include a critically acclaimed album You Should Be Here, a track with Justin Bieber, a spot on the cover of influential US mag The Fader and a co-sign with Chance The Rapper. She’s not 50, she’s 20 but it already feels like she’s lived a lifetime. Her R&B-tinged vocals are full of smokey textures usually achieved through age. She’s sexy (They Way), aspirational (Alive) and bitter (How That Taste), showcasing an impressive songwriting range.

Mallrat

Mallrat is a 16-year old Aussie teen who’s described herself as the Hannah Montana of the rap world. And if we’re to take anything from that statement it’s that she’s got the best of both worlds - singing and rapping. In one respect, her debut single Suicide Blonde is a thumping Robyn-esque pop tune, in the other respect it’s a rap tune taking cues from Allday and Remi. For an artist at such a ripe age her lyrics are vivid and interesting. Suicide Blonde is named after the INXS song and is a tale about someone she knew who was in the video but struggled with addiction and depression. In case you haven’t noticed, Australia’s rap scene has a severe lack of female talent but Mallrat could be the girl to change that.

Reece

Reece is an 18 year-old singer from North Virginia who has graduated high school and turned his full-time attention to music. He’s operating in a crowded world of alternative R&B but so far, the four songs that sit on his Soundcloud manage to sit above the rest, immediately demanding attention. The highlight is his latest cut Don’t Go - a track that howls with his falsetto and swells with a wave of washy harmonies. Even though he’s a new artist he’s already looking towards harbouring new talent in the future. “I want to use music as a stepping stone to one day be in the position to discover and nurture talent that may otherwise go unnoticed,” he told Pigeons & Planes. It’s an impressive ambition that shows he’s not only passionate about his own music but excited by the wealth of new music around in general.

Kiiara

A 20 year-old hardware store worker from Illinois doesn’t immediately strike as the most likely candidate for alt-songstress phenomenon but Kiiara’s tracks suggest she is. Kiiara is a bit of a loner by the sounds of it. Her songs are the result of her spending plenty of time contemplating her thoughts and watching on from afar. What she’s released so far breaks down hip-hop and converts it into pop turning lines like “we just want that real shit” that would usually be rapped into glitchy pop melodies. Her first track Gold has already amassed over 1.5 million plays on Souncloud - an impressive but deserved feat. Gold introduces us to her sarcastic, steel-tongued humour that leads us to lines like “I missed you in the basement but your brother was a good substitute for you.”

Daye Jack

18 year-old LA rapper Daye Jack is a product of the internet. His latest EP Soul Glitch was made with European producers over the internet without meeting them in person. He’s part of the Soundcloud generation, pulling down geographic boundaries and getting music done in anyway possible. The result of that is a genre-pushing futuristic hip-hop record that combines the extraterrestrial elements of Outkast with the earthy beats of a Kendrick album. For an an under-age artist Soul Glitch feels incredibly accomplished - it’s exciting to think of where he can grow from here if this is the starting point.

Happa

While most of you at 17 were contemplating whether your art major-work expressed your deep inner-thoughts, British producer Happa has been releasing tracks for 2 years, been involved with Four Tet and started his own record label PT/5. His tunes are dark, distorted and rumbling, sounding like an electronic reinterpretation of the British punk scene of the ‘70s. His latest Ascension features a vocal sample that repeats “pissed off” over an anxious, climaxing instrumental. As stand-alone songs, they’re impressive but the most promising thing is that his whole collection shows an artist with a singular focus and a signature sound. You don’t find that in many 17 year-olds.

-The Interns' Sam Murphy for Cool Accidents