Next, because rap/hip-hop is one of the most popular genres of music in America today, these questions about good rap music lead to another big question: how is cultural value discerned? This paper will explore this question particularly in the context of Black artistic production, thinking about how artistic and cultural value may be determined by white normative standards, as a huge majority of music critics (82.8%) are white and a majority of rap listeners are non-Black people (Zippia 2021). While mumble rap deviates from the Golden Age’s focus on lyricism, it maintains its essential spirit and driving force: it serves as a voice for marginalized Black youth to portray their material conditions through genre-bending music, and in this way, mumble rappers are actually following in the tradition of Golden Age rap.
MUMBLE RAPPERS 2019 WINDOWS
If mumble rappers sound like they are “hardly rapping at all” to rappers of a different era, what elements of style is traditional rap music proud of that mumble rap fails to capture (Phillips 2021, 125)? In the following section, this paper will argue that we can think of mumble rap as embodying the essential spirit of traditionally-celebrated rap music, which served as one of “the primary cultural, sonic, and linguistic windows on the world” for young Black people (Rose 1994, 19). While many celebrated and significant rappers are credited for lyricism, is it necessarily the only deciding factor of what is good and aesthetically and culturally valuable music? Specifically, we will unpack the reasons why mumble rap is disparaged today by turning towards the past: the Golden Age of hip-hop, spanning the late 1980s to early 1990s, when the genre gained a lot of mainstream recognition. Firstly, to address how critics of mumble rap refer to the integrity of rap as a genre, we should unpack what makes a good rapper or good rap music.
This paper will consider mumble rap and the conversation that it opens up to explore a few discursive trends surrounding rap music in America. In 2021, many top spots on the Billboard’s Year End R&B/Hip-Hop Chart were occupied by mumble rappers: Lil Baby is at #3, Lil Dirk is at #6, YoungBoy Never Broke Again is at #18, and Lil Uzi Vert is at #20 (Billboard 2021). Also, even a few years after the heyday of SoundCloud rap from 2015-2019, some of the most popular and successful rappers are mumble rappers. Lil Yachty to “XO Tour Llif3” by Lil Uzi Vert to “Trap Queen” by Fetty Wap-just to name a few-mumble rap songs launched artists’ careers and created pervasive cultural moments in the mid-to late-2010s: songs in this style created innumerable quotable lines that remained in popular culture, such as the Migos’ inescapable phrase “bad and boujee” from the group’s 2016 breakout hit by that name, and Fetty Wap’s call-out “1738” from the beginning of “Trap Queen.” The music was an innovative sound in rap, exemplified by the instantly-recognizable electronic beat in Lil Uzi Vert and Playboi Carti’s popular collaboration “wokeuplikethis*.” While many outside the SoundCloud rap scene have disparaged it as ruining the integrity of rap music, others have embraced the genre as a fresh wave of rap, as it showcases rap music’s spirit of innovating and pushing generic boundaries. With this unique style, mumble rap became an undeniable presence in the late 2010s.
Mumble rappers employ techniques like “Auto-Tune, mumbling, repetition, ad-libs, and triplets” with a focus on “intense aesthetic creativity” when it comes to the production, creating a new distinctive sound and “pushing the bounds of rap” (Phillips 2021, 125). To rappers of another era these new rappers were hardly rapping at all” (Phillips 2021, 125). The term referred to SoundCloud rapper’s unclear vocal deliveries (mumbling), as well as lack of lyrical content, absence of message and inconsistency of flow. The style was given the “pejorative name mumble rap by many in the rap and popular music mainstream. Many of these artists found audiences and created communities on the audio-sharing platform SoundCloud, and thus, SoundCloud rap is another name for mumble rap. Mumble rap is a microgenre of rap music that gained prominence in the late 2010s with artists like Lil Pump, Lil Uzi Vert, Future, Young Thug, Lil Peep, Juice WRLD, and Playboi Carti situated at the forefront of the style. Mumble rap is a polarizing topic within the rap community among emcees and fans alike. “Made a mil’ off that, uh/ Off that mumblin’ shit.” Author: Mansi Garneni Columbia University
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